Almost exactly six years ago this week on the 10th December 2009, we published an article with a brief interview with Lucia Morelli and Nicola Salotti (that interview can be heard further down the page)
In that article we said that the planetary financial crisis was 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 was starting to falter but going against all the odds, two artists in Barga had decided to pool their resources and open a new contemporary art gallery.
Since 2007 Venti d’arte – Lucia Morelli and Nicola Salotti had organised a whole series of art events in this area ranging from Sacred music events in the churches, exhibitions, art auctions, poetry readings, outdoor events, book presentations and courses for people wishing to paint.
In January 2010 they opened their own gallery in Fornaci di Barga with an exhibition featuring the work of Nicola Salotti, Sergio Fini and Keane (article here)
original filming and editing by Maria Elena Caproni
Lucia and Nicola and the new member to the team, Riccarda Bernacchi, worked diligently for the next 2 years gradually building a well defined catalogue of high quality work, exhibitions, information and courses all with the expressed intent to be an integral part of the cultural landscape but unfortunately they could no longer justify the expense of running their superb centre, workshop and studio and (like many other people) downsized their operations and in 2012 closed the studio of Venti d’arte in Fornaci di Barga.
They then moved their base to Barga and set up in the Gallery Comunale in Barga Vecchio and organised once again, a series of successful exhibitions in and around the area including Art at Eno Jazz for the Barga Jazz festival, Arti Differenti, (s)passo tra l’arti and of course, Massimo Catalani and the Casa dei Pesci project with Greenpeace.
This week comes the disappointing news that Venti d’arte – Lucia Morelli, Riccarda Berneschi and Nicola Salotti have just organised and shown their last exhibition here in Barga – The Invisible Cities exhibition by Keane based on the book Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino and the music from Andrea Guzzoletti.
Lucia Morelli, Riccarda Berneschi and Nicola Salotti are now moving on to pastures new and new projects involved in their quest to expand cultural horizons.
Here at barganews with wish to publicly thank them for all their work over the years and wish them all the very best in their new direction.