Craft Residencies in Italy

Arquetopia Foundation

Puebla, Mexico

Arquetopia Foundation is an award-winning, multiple award-winning nonprofit arts and academic foundation with a significant social scope and global presence across three continents. Now in its 14th year, Arquetopia is dedicated to promoting critical thinking, a commitment to ethics, and a sense of reciprocity in artistic practices. It offers customized, professional International Artist-in-Residence Programs that are renowned worldwide for their comprehensive, research-based approach, focusing on social creativity. Arquetopia's residency programs, situated in Puebla and Oaxaca in Mexico, Cusco in Peru, and Naples in Italy, are tailored to provide a vast array of learning opportunities. These programs are distinguished for their commitment to sustainability in the arts, fostering research and critical thinking in creative processes. Arquetopia's model challenges preconceived notions of history and place, encouraging artists to engage with local epistemologies and resistance models as sources of knowledge and inspiration for social change. The foundation emphasizes ethical artistic practices, acknowledging the problematic ties of artist residencies to colonization, imperialism, and the extractive practices of tourism. Established in 2009 as an autonomous and registered Mexican nonprofit, Arquetopia is self-sustaining, unaffiliated with any political, religious, or war industrial entities, relying on its self-generated funding model. The foundation was co-founded by Mexican visual artist and curator Francisco Guevara and North American classical musician Chris Davis. Originally started as an educational art center for inner-city youth, it quickly evolved to offer international artist residencies. Arquetopia stands out for its array of unique residency programs with substantial mentoring, focused on professional artists, writers, academics, and researchers. It provides a generous and culturally diverse space, hosting artists and scholars from all over the world, aiming to enrich the global arts community with a multiplicity of perspectives.

Beatilla Art Studio Eco Design Holiday Farm

Corta Barco, Italy

Beatilla is an Art Eco Design Holiday Farm residency program established in that combines artistic practice with ecological sustainability. The program hosts painters and artists in a working farm environment near Mantua, Italy, offering access to studio space, nature immersion, and connections to local culture through activities like cycling, farm observation, and visits to historical cities.

Tenuta Valente

Capaccio Paestum, Italy

Tenuta Valente is an artist residency program located in Capaccio Paestum, Southern Italy, welcoming professional artists of all disciplines to work in a peaceful, bucolic environment surrounded by the Cilentan Coast countryside. The program offers residents private en-suite bedrooms and access to a shared 200-square-metre studio to develop individual projects and engage with the local art community.

Vetrate Artistiche Toscane

Siena, Italy

Vetrate Artistiche Toscane in Siena, Italy, is a stained glass and mosaic studio founded in 1987 by the Bracciali brothers, offering artist residencies and specialized workshops focused on traditional and modern stained glass techniques dating back to the 12th century. Participants engage in hands-on creation, design consultation, restoration, and education in a fully operational studio environment. The program emphasizes bespoke artistry for architectural, religious, and decorative projects, including glass fusing and jewelry.