A universal benchmark for learning

In 1776 the Academia was founded with the enlightened mission of widening its educational specialization beyond the world of art.

A truly unique concept took shape in this building in Brera, where the Accademia lived side by side  with the Gymnasium, the Palatine Schools for legal and philosophical sciences, the Astronomical Observatory, the physics and chemistry laboratories, the Botanical Garden, the Teresian Library, the Accademia of Sciences and the Gallery of Paintings, home to the present Pinacoteca.

Defined places that quickly became a universal reference point for the entire cultural movement of the time creating the most important events and exhibitions of contemporary art in Italy during the nineteenth century.

This “genetic brand” - strongly characterized by an opening towards the world of tomorrow, the rest of the world and the multifaceted world of culture, today is modernized using an approach to learning and knowledge that is not only consolidated by conventional training courses but is also constantly enhanced by research activities and those defined as third mission activities.

Third mission activities are those in which the Accademia interacts directly with society and the local territory. A combination which has become increasingly necessary due to the the complexity of the current socio-economic context.

Therefore together with training and research, third mission activities allow the Accademia di Brera to offer integrated and contemporary growth processes to its students as well as representing an authoritative and strategic point of reference for society.

Some of the more recent projects are outlined below.

How to describe a project that combines music and sport in the suburbs without falling into rhetoric or, worse, self-celebration?
Perhaps with images, collected or captured by eyes other than those of those who conceived the initiative.

From this reflection, the volume that describes the activity that Mediafriends has been carrying out in the Milanese suburbs since 2014 and which today also sees us present in other "challenging" areas: L'Aquila and Palermo.

In recent years the suburbs, no longer understood in the twentieth-century sense of neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city, are more and more a set of spaces without identity, animated by a population that, due to immigration, is the set of ethnic groups, religions, different languages. Cohabitation is difficult, there is often a lack of basic structures that can accompany young people in common growth.

These are the upstream considerations of the A Regola d'Arte project that led us to create inclusion paths for young people living in difficult neighborhoods by teaching rugby and music in places of youth gathering, from school to oratories. Universal languages ​​that can help you climb over the walls of misunderstanding with simplicity, without mincing words.

Hence the desire to share and tell our experience.

The results, perhaps small, compared to the breadth of the topic, are however very significant for the students who attended the courses and for us who conceived them, with the desire to learn from their experiences and improve them year after year.
The lucky and stimulating encounter with the Accademia di Brera and the students of the photography course allowed us to find the narrative development through images we were looking for: The faces, the smiles, the glimpses, transmit the spirit that animated us. and that pushes us to renew our commitment to this project for the future too, which aims to grow over time and present itself as one of the possible models of inclusion and integration in the younger generations.

Message on a bottle

Art and business almost always follow different paths.

The company is equipped with instrumental rationality and aims to achieve a concrete result; standardization is necessary to cope with the containment of risks and optimization of costs; time is very fragmented and measured as an index of efficiency. On the contrary, art has a rationality mediated by feelings and passions, it does not undergo standardization or sequential thoughts, it does not experience time as a stress and above all it always weaves a multitude of stories.

An encounter between these worlds can benefit both.

Art can help businesses develop a greater attitude towards innovation, add content and provide new tools for marketing; the communication that comes from art, in fact, is powerful, surprising: it is capable of stimulating curiosity, provoking questions, questioning what exists by breaking conventional thinking, favoring new points of view, facilitating cultural integration and becoming a antenna tuned to the future, anticipating scenarios and behaviors.

The company in turn can bring artists closer to the strategic vision adopted by the world of business and entrepreneurship, fostering new knowledge and skills of an organizational, managerial and economic nature.

The entrepreneur who approaches the world of art becomes a beneficiary and at the same time an active promoter of the latter: since it produces culture, generates beauty, determines value for the company and for all those involved in the project.

Through the experiences gained in the field of creative communication over the course of twenty years, the artist Antonio Spanedda proposes himself as a cultural mediator, so that these two worlds meet and can travel together a path of mutual benefit. The goal is to combine creativity, cultural content and commercial needs in integrated communication projects, for a more effective brand identity policy, aimed at affirming the brand and recognizing the corporate image.

“Lievi e precisi come determinati voli. Sguardi altri sulla ricerca e la cura dei tumori”

“Lievi e precisi come determinati voli. Sguardi altri sulla ricerca e la cura dei tumori” was born from an agreement, in 2017, between the Accademia di Brera and the National Cancer Institute. A workshop, which involved eight young young artists students of the Academy led by Prof. Stefano Pizzi and Cosmo Laera, the young trainees of the team of prof. Vincenzo Mazzaferro, the PROMETEO volunteers, the patients and the hospital staff of the Institute, proved to be an important exchange of knowledge and experience for a unique experiment which, bringing together artistic research and scientific research, wanted to provide the public with a new approach to the topic of tumors.

An exhibition, organized and curated by the PROMETEO Association in March 2019, at the Event Space of Palazzo Pirelli in Milan and a publication created thanks to the precious contribution of the CARIPLO Foundation, were the crowning glory and testimony of the project's success. The catalog collects all the pictorial and photographic works made in this long and intense period. The proceeds from the sale of the catalog that collects all the works on display and some commentary texts will be entirely donated to the PROMETEO onlus Association for its support activities for patients in the Hepato-gastro-pancreatic and Liver Transplant Surgery Department of the National Institute of the Tumors of Milan..

The opening event took place in the presence of the numerous guests, the students of the Specialization Course in painting and photography of the Accademia di Brera and the young doctors of the Cancer Institute who collaborated in the joint workshop between the two institutions to the realization of the works. During the event, a meeting was held moderated by Sherrie Bhoori, Executive Member of the PROMETEO Association to illustrate the project and its aims.

Introducing the exhibition as organizers and curators, Giuse Dellavesa, President of the PROMETEO Association, Stefano Pizzi, Chair of Painting at the Accademia di Brera, Cosmo Laera, Photography Course, Accademia di Brera and Vincenzo Mazzaferro, University of Milan Studies and Surgery Foundation IRCCS National Cancer Institute.

After the greetings of Attilio Fontana, President of the Lombardy Region, the precious contributions of Luigi Cajazzo, Director General of Welfare of the Lombardy Region, Marco Luigi Votta, President of the IRCCS Foundation National Cancer Institute, Livia Pomodoro, President of the Accademia di Brera and Giovanni Apolone, Scientific Director of IRCCS National Cancer Institute.

In 1986, on the occasion of the Year of Peace promoted by the United Nations, a group of experts and scientists gave life to a manifesto, the Seville Charter, containing the results of the most recent research on solidarity and non-violent behavior of human beings.
After thirty-one years we are honored to collaborate with the Umberto Veronesi Foundation to disseminate the Science for Peace Charter, which takes up and deepens the contents of the Seville Charter.
We have thought of a new graphic layout to illustrate the ten focal points and to facilitate a more immediate reception by young people, now targeted by the countless images of contemporary media. The product of this difficult undertaking manages to combine several expressive languages ​​coordinated by a color and a layout that are certainly unusual.
This is what for us, in Brera, research means: an activity of analysis, study, dialectical comparison and artistic experimentation aimed at the development and linguistic evolution of our specificity. In the hope that this paper will meet public approval and, above all, prove to be useful, we hope that the peace intentions promoted by the Charter will be accepted by all.

Stefano Pizzi, Assistants to the Chair and Students

CESARI wines bring contemporary art closer to Valpolicella

The Gerardo Cesari winery forms a synergistic collaboration with the Accademia di Brera to promote the creativity of the new generations, starting with the third art: painting.

The cultural initiatives already promoted by Cesari continue. With the second edition of the Jéma International Photographic Art Award: "L'attesa", which this year reserves a Special Mention for the best shot proposed by the students of the photography course of the Milanese Academy.

Present at the press conference for the presentation of the Project, which is divided into proposals addressed to the students of the Milanese institute and to renowned artists: Michele Farruggio, General manager of Cesari, Alessandro Di Nuzzo, Creative director of the Aliberti publishing house, Giovanni Iovane, Director of the Accademia di Brera, Stefano Pizzi, Professor of Painting and Head of External Relations of the Accademia and Angelo Falmi Professor of Painting Techniques, moderated by the journalist Luca Telese.

MILAN - The charm of the cultivation of the Valpolicella vine is combined with the most modern trends in the artistic and cultural fields inherent in the inspiration and sensitivity of the younger generations. With the "Brera-Cesari" research project, collaboration with the Accademia di Brera is consolidated, already well tested with the "All-round" initiative, always with the involvement of the students of the Milanese Academy. Once again the Gerardo Cesari company consecrates its will to blend the noble soul and wisdom of wine with art, in its most imaginative and creative form and in the most technical and measured one.

The initiative starts from the contemporary ways of giving expression to the youthful ferment, guided by the teaching of the Brera professors and welcomed by a space, that of the Cesari cellars, full of ideas and sensitive to the most current and emerging artistic forms. Cesari, attentive to color, beauty, the imaginative and profound value of art and culture, thus also contributes to embellishing the ancient and fascinating land of Valpolicella.

Michele Farruggio, General Manager of Cesari: "I express my personal satisfaction and that of the Gerardo Cesari winery for the launch of the 'Brera-Cesari' research project, in the name of the artistic union between wine and art, which is part of the close collaboration with the Accademia di Brera, which has already registered the success of the 'A tutto tondo' initiative, always with the involvement of the students of the Academy ”.

Alessandro Di Nuzzo, Creative director of the Aliberti publishing house: "Initiatives like this, capable of bringing young artists closer to a productive world rich in tradition and knowledge, such as that of wine, are an example of the potential linked to transversal and valuable collaborations added, that as a publishing house we promote and support with passion ".

Giovanni Iovane, Director of the Accademia di Brera: "Projects such as the one we are presenting to you today take on particular significance for the ability to project the skills and history of our Academy outside the daily, with different realities from the known context, from which they draw valuable insights ".

Stefano Pizzi, Professor of painting and Head of external relations at the Academy: "In addition to the intrinsic value of the collaboration between our students and a prestigious winery such as Gerardo Cesari, I consider it interesting that children experiment with new ways of expressing their artistic vein, moving in an evocative territory, rich in environmental and human values ​​".

Angelo Falmi Teacher of Painting Techniques: "The workshop involving students, teachers and contemporary artists represents an ideal bridge between an Academy with a rich past and a winery that is an expression of prestigious Italian wine in the world, both interested in a new, contemporary interpretation , of reality, of daily work mediated by the artistic lens ".

On the occasion of the presentation of the suggestive collaboration between the Accademia di Brera and the Gerardo Cesari winery, the contents of the

Jéma International Prize for Photographic Art: "L'attesa"

After "La ricerca della purezza", the Jéma International Photographic Art Prize, conceived by the historic Cantina Gerardo Cesari and by the Aliberti Publishing Company, invites professional photographers and beginners to search for the theme of "L'attesa" with their own lens and send the own unpublished shot to jema@cesariverona.it by 20 March 2020. The second edition, organized in collaboration with the Accademia di Brera Academy, starts from the etymological definition of the term, linked to the Latin derivation "ad-tend", or “stretch out, aspire, aim” towards something, to stimulate the creative eye to capture, not the passivity linked to the passage of time, but instants in which a movement, a tension lead the expectation to become a precious resource to be fully exploited. The same happens for wine, which marks the times of preparation and consumption, approaching with delight the right moment in which we can taste it.

The presentation of the 2020 edition photo award is also an opportunity to admire the shots that characterized the first edition, "Jéma, la ricerca della purezza", collected in a catalog edited by the Aliberti publishing house. As for the 2019 Prize, this year too, a high-caliber jury, composed of experts from the world of photography and art and the organizers, chaired by photographer Franco Fontana will evaluate the candidate works.

The General Manager of Cesari, Michele Farruggio, comments on the new edition of the Photo Award: "L'attesa is often associated with passivity, in our case it turns into activity, searching for the best moment, for the perfect shot. Closely recalling the commitment of our agronomists and oenologists to find the best result at each harvest to deliver in each bottle of wine ".

Milan, 6th of February 2020

Thursday 13rd of October 2016 at the Idroscalo in Milan the inauguration of the new outdoor section of the Parco dell'Arte of the Idroscalo in Milan was held, dedicated to the promotion of works of art and artistic research generated by the young artists of the School of Sculpture of the Accademia di Brera of Fine Arts.

The creation of this new section, called the Museum of Young Artists and part of a more complex project to expand and enhance the Parco dell'Arte, is the result of the collaboration between the Metropolitan City of Milan and the Accademia di Brera of Fine Arts and has developed thanks to the contribution of the Cariplo Foundation and the Friends of the Accademia di Brera.

The Museum of Young Artists will be characterized not only by the protection and enhancement of the accepted works, but also by an innovative permanent workshop activity focused on contemporary artistic experimentation in the context of the relationship between Art and the Environment which will over time be monitored and coordinated by Accademia di Brera of Fine Arts.

The works presented were created as part of the study course of the School of Sculpture of the Accademia di Brera within the Sculpture Courses of Professors Vincenza Giacobbe, Roberto Priod, Roberto Rocchi, of the Course of Marble Techniques of Prof. Massimo Pellegrinetti and the Course of Ceramic Techniques of Prof. Cristina Camino from:
Federico Bergamaschi, Caterina Alves Curti, Marco Fiorenza, Michelangelo Floridi, Andrea Forenza, Adriano Lombardo, Valeria Manfredda, Paolo Manfredi, Sara Marioli, Giulia Merli, Isabella Mottini, Daniela Novello, Chiara Piantoni, Zhang Qian, Luisa Turuani, Irene Tzoumas.