The Venice Academy of Fine Arts celebrates its 275th anniversary. The Gipsoteca refurbished.

TheVenice Academy of Fine Arts will officially open the 2024/2025 academic year with a solemn ceremony, celebrating 275 years since the institution’s founding. The inaugural ceremony open to the public will be held on Friday, March 7, at 10 a.m. in the Academy’s Aula Magna; director Riccardo Caldura will review the history of the institution and outline its future prospects. Several experts and lecturers will delve into different topics: Elena Catra, Lecturer in Art History, will explore the role of the study of antiquity in art education; Piera Zanon, Director of the Archives and Historical Fund of the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice, will present the value of the Gipsoteca, the archives and the documentary heritage of the Academy. Liliana Fracasso, Lecturer in Multimedia Design, will discuss the new opportunities offered by multimedia design and doctoral research. Artist Ugo Nespolo, introduced by Antonella Chiodo, will offer a reflection on the dialogue between tradition and innovation; finally, Angelo Bresolin, representative of the Student Council, will bring the point of view of the new generations.

On the occasion of the 275th anniversary celebration, the new arrangement of the Greco-Roman copies of the Gipsoteca, on the second floor of the Incurabili Headquarters, will also be presented. Once used as a teaching aid in the academies, the collection of Greco-Roman copies is now re-purposed by enhancing the Academy’s historical heritage and offering a reinterpretation of ancient statuary in light of transformations in art teaching and new perspectives in academic research.

The Gipsoteca represents only a part of the Academy’s vast Historical Archive, which includes ancient books, rare art graphics, study drawings and administrative documents dating back centuries. The enhancement project is not limited to preservation, but uses the latest technology to digitize the archival holdings, expanding their accessibility and fostering research and scientific collaboration.

“On the occasion of this opening, the Academy also celebrates 275 years of its prestigious history, the oldest of all Venetian cultural institutions in operation. An important milestone sealed by the intense work of recent years, not only on the educational and training level, but also as part of the third mission development projects, through which our institution has found a stable position at the center of urban dynamics, becoming an indispensable and authoritative interlocutor at all planning tables of Venice’s present and future,” said Michele Casarin, President of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia.

“The Accademia’s ability to continue to be among the most significant presence in the national arena of contemporary production in the visual arts, thus knowing how to make the past, as distant as it is relatively recent (think of the great personalities of the twentieth century who taught in Venice), a lever for projecting itself into theactuality, is combined with a more general aptitude for creativity that finds many areas of application in fields not strictly related to the sphere of ’traditional’ visual arts,” said Riccardo Caldura, Director of the Venice Academy of Fine Arts.

Photo by Marta Mancuso.

The Venice Academy of Fine Arts celebrates its 275th anniversary. The Gipsoteca refurbished.

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