Here’s our round-up for May 18-25, 2023.
There are plenty of activities to enjoy this week as we all endure a few more springtime showers. Take a look at musical performances, cultural lectures, and even a fun run for those willing to brave a little rain.
Share your events with The Florentine: events@theflorentine.net
K-OVER in collaboration with Fattoria Santo Stefano hosts an exclusive exhibition of silver champagne covers. Participants will have the opportunity to see a Master Silversmith handcraft a champagne cover using ancient techniques. Along with the presentation, there will be a wine tasting hour. To RSVP, contact 3515148223 or send an email to sale@k-over.com.
Join the Children’s Lending Library on via Rucellai throughout May for Storytime. Enjoy a reading of Spring Story on May 18. These nature-inspired reads are a great way to welcome in the spring weather and get the little ones interested in fun, nature-filled books.
19 May 2023 - 21 May 2023
This is the 10th edition of Firenze dei Bambini, a festival dedicated to stories and novels for children. The festival will offer three days of free events where children can discover the magical world of literature through activities, workshops, readings, and performances throughout the city.
Get your party on this weekend at The Social Hub with a live performance by Costì. Performing his first album Masochismo Puro Piacere, this talented Italian musician promises a fun night with great music.
The popular radio station Radio Deejay is back with its annual race. The 10km race welcomes anyone aged 16 years and older to run and the 5km race welcomes people of all ages and abilities. Registration costs 20 euro for the 10km run, 18 euro for the 5km run for participants 13 years of age and older, and 10 euro for children up until 12 years old.
Join The British Institute of Florence for a lecture on Botteghe and namely artisans and artists who work with wood, marble, iron, panting, and sculpture. Alan Pascuzzi takes participants through the smells, sounds, and sights of these workshops and how their lack of change over time allows us to get a closer idea of what life was like during the Renaissance. This lecture seeks to reveal the sensory aspect and inner workings of an artist’s workshop. The registration fee for this event is 10 euro.
Register here
Cinema La Compagnia screens Stonebreakers, a documentary that recounts the recent battles relating to the demolition of confederate and colonial statues in the United States.
Buy your ticketsJoining the Orchestra della Toscana is Verona-born director Andrea Battistoni. Becoming the youngest director ever hired by La Scala in 2012 when he was only 25 years old, he now leads the Tokyo Philharmonic. His return to Florence will entail a tribute to Luciano Berio on the 20th anniversary of his death. Full price tickets cost 17 euro.
George Yeo, a visiting scholar at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore and former member of the Cabinet of Singapore visits Florence to share his insights on the relationship between China and Europe. Among several topics to be discussed, he will cover anti-China sentiments, the relationship between the US and China, and the impact of the Ukrainian war.
Register here
A group of talented young singers from the Mascarade Opera Foundation join The British Institute for a musical performance. The Mascarade Opera Foundation holds performance training programs designed to help promising emerging artists, singers, and répétiteurs from all over the world develop their careers. This vocal performance will feature songs by Schubert, Strauss, and Brahms.
Book your spot
This architecture exhibition curated by Laura Andreini features the works of internationally renowned architects.
Join Irene Bar every Thursday throughout the month of May for cocktail nights with live music. Head barman Federico Galli reinterprets the art of Florence through his specialty drinks that are inspired by renowned artists who have left their marks on the city. Some of the artists these creative cocktails are inspired by include Olafur Eliasson, Antonio Signorini, Igor Mitoraj, and Tony Cragg. The cost is 18 euro and includes a cocktail and cicchetti.
Artist Hayley Eichenbaum presents her exhibition The Mother Road which is the fifth stage of the SuperNatural cycle curated by Irene Alison and Paolo Cagnacci. The SuperNatural cycle explores the transition from natural to artificial, ancestral and supernatural dimensions through the works of some of the most interesting photographers internationally. Eichenbaum’s work is a journey through the American dream with psychedelic elements using neon signs, gas station motifs, palm trees, and colorful sunsets.
Luciano Sabadin hosts his first solo show in Florence curated by Francesca Sacchi Tommasi and Ilaria Maria d’Urbano. The show features 30 or so acrylic paintings depicting strong black and white contrasts. Sabadin initially began his creative journey through music and songwriting before switching over to painting after the pandemic.
Young Florntine painter Gianluca Braccini opens his solo show in dedication to the 30th anniversary of the Via dei Georgofili massacre curated by Arianna Canalicchio. Viewers will be able to learn more about the crime and the stories of the innocent victims through Braccini’s interpretive paintings of journalistic images from the event.
American artist Enrique Martínez Celaya takes up two homes in Florence with his second exhibition opening at Secci Gallery. This time showing works of a different medium but equally grand size, Celaya presents an exhibition of paintings with flowers as the main subject.
Cuba-Born artist Enrique Martínez Celaya opens his sculpture exhibition Watching and Waiting at the Museo Marino Marini. Celaya originally comes from a scientific background and has experimented with several other art mediums such as photography, videography, and writing. He resides in Los Angeles and this is his first show in Italy. He will feature his sculptural works from 2005-2023.
Manifattura Tabacchi expands their horizons with new spaces dedicated to restaurants, cafes, stores, offices, artisanal workshops, and even a roof top garden. What was once an old tobacco factory is already one of the most innovative spaces in the city, working as an event space, art residency, and university campus for several years now. This new expansion morphs the multifunctional space into a true creative factory and a hub for creative culture.
Kicking off the artistic side of things, Manifattura Tabacchi hosts the works of Katja Novitskova, an internationally renowned Estonian artist. This exhibition is in part with the Reaching for the Stars exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi and is on display until June 18. Among other artistic efforts is the new B11 workshop, which has been transformed to house initiatives such as the Toast Project Space for contemporary artists.
National Geographic returns to Pisa’s foremost exhibition space for a major photographic show that revolves around the exploration of Planet Earth. Starting with a set of images that National Geographic’s photographers captured to document the beauty of our ecosystems, the show zooms in on what we know (and don’t know) about the planet where we live, as well as the human impact on the environment over the millennia.
Exhibition info
New York University Florence (via Bolognese 120) is planning a busy program for the 17th edition of The Season. The events at Villa La Pietra will explore the wider currents of history, art, literature and music. Guests can enjoy lectures from artists, theatrical performances and concerts. To RSVP, please send an email to lapietra.reply@nyu.edu, or call +39 055 5007210.
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More than 50 works connected to the Gallery of Mirrors and Biblioteca Riccardiana will make up this major exhibition at Palazzo Medici Riccardi on Baroque master Luca Giordano (1634-1705). Expect a series of sketches on loan from the National Gallery in London as well as other important artworks from private collections in Europe and the United States, the Uffizi and the Opera del Duomo Museum in Siena, among others.
Exhibition info