The planetary financial crisis is still making itself felt not just in financial institutions but also in a trickle-down effect bringing tumbling advertising revenue, sponsorship deals becoming harder to find and even the buoyant art market starting to falter but going against all the odds, two artists in Barga have decided to pool their resources and open a new contemporary art gallery.
Lucia Morelli and Nicola Salotti are this week putting the finishing touches to the gallery which is expected to open for business in the first week of the new year.
Nicola is not a new name for barganews readers as we have been featuring his work numerous times over the past five years but Lucia Morelli is probably for many people a new one. Actually putting her name into the search engine on the front page of barganews does bring up a couple of articles but under her business name – that of Venti d’arte.
Back in December of last year we featured one of the projects organised by Venti d’arte – calling it an musical triumph at the Pieve di Loppia just outside Barga. As part of the events to celebrate 950 years of the church being in existence, the group Venti d’arte (site here) with Massimo Salotti as artistic director had organised an ambitious project promoted by the Parrocchia di Loppia involving a choir of 12 singers, four soloists, two pianoforte and a harmonium – the Petite Messe Solennelle by Gioacchino Rossini.
Over the last two years, Venti d’arte have organised a whole series of art events in this area ranging from Sacred music events in the churches, exhibitions, poetry readings, book presentations and courses for people wishing to paint. and that is where Nicola comes back into the picture as he has been one of the organisers and teachers on these painting courses.
Now they have struck out in a new direction and shortly will be opening their own gallery in Fornaci di Barga.
The gallery will be called “iNStallazione di venti’arte” and is intended to be not just a simple gallery space but also an area where local artists can meet, discuss and exchange ideas and concepts (and why not ? – gossip) There will be a space inside the gallery set aside for an independent publishing company, an area for the art courses which will now be increased to include ceramics and drawing.
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For the opening of the gallery during the first week in January there will be a mixed show featuring the work of three local artists .. all very different in medium used, working practices and temperament.
Nicola Salotti it will be exhibiting some of his latest work heavily influenced by his recent experiments in the digital world.
Sergio Fini – another name featured often on barganews for his theatre and poetry will this time be presenting some of his new paintings.
and Keane will finally be exhibiting some of those Nun paintings which so far very few people have actually seen.
Click on the link below for a brief interview (in Italiano) with Lucia Morelli and Nicola Salotti – the team behind the iNStallazione di venti d’arte recorded this afternoon in their new studio space under construction