Academy of Fine Arts of Ravenna – Fabulae

Fabulae: le storie dell’Accademia, la storia dell’Accademia.
The Academy of Fine Arts in Ravenna presents this exhibition, staged in the new exhibition spaces of the Classense Library, alongside other events taking place from Saturday 7 October at the Academy, at the Academy Gallery, and with the opening of the workshops to the public. It will be a fascinating interweaving of stories, within which visitors can trace the threads of the new creative endeavours of the youngest mosaic artists, encompassing both collaborative projects and individual works.
A mosaic practice that honours tradition whilst remaining open to new media, enriched by painting, sculpture and jewellery design, as well as multimedia and photography. Works of great aesthetic and technical quality that are sure to amaze visitors: a large stained-glass window dedicated to Chartres, a large deck of Tarot cards, the vivid gaze of Empress Theodora, and exquisite jewellery – all strictly in mosaic.
This serves as a reminder that it was precisely within the Academy’s classrooms that Ravenna mosaic emerged as a contemporary art form, thanks to the study and revival of the ancient technique, when the School of Mosaic—established at the Academy in 1924—accompanied the resurgence of Ravenna as a city of art and the capital of late-antique and Byzantine mosaic heritage, as envisioned by Corrado Ricci between the 19th and 20th centuries.
A school that has now become unique within the landscape of higher artistic education in Italy, offering a three-year degree programme and a two-year specialisation programme dedicated to mosaics, which attracts young people from all over Italy and the world to Ravenna to learn an art form that is highly relevant today.