Turin, Italy
Since 1995 the Foundation has supported young Italian and foreign artists, paying particular attention to the commission and production of new works, and has promoted contemporary art with the aim of attracting an ever-growing public to it.
Since over two decades, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo has pursued its commitment to contemporary art and culture. Among the first private foundations opened in Italy, it can be described as an observatory on the artistic trends and cultural languages of our time, across the fields of art, music, dance, literature and design. Launched in Turin on April 1995, on the initiative of its President, Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, the Foundation is a nonprofit institution that reflects a new conception of patronage, based on principles of individual responsibility and the sharing of personal passion, knowledge and resources.
The Foundation is housed in two buildings: Palazzo Re Rebaudengo in Guarene d’Alba, an 18th-century manor on the Roero hills, and a museum in the city of Turin, built from scratch in a district that testifies to the city’s industrial past and to its more recent transformations. The Foundation has its roots in the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection. Launched in 1992, and built over the years through close interaction with artists, the Collection is an exemplary constellation of works, and reflects the diversity of art research in the past few decades. The choice to institute the Foundation marked a further step in the story of the private collection, which evolved into an organized project open to the public sphere.
Preserving the central role of the artist, as part of a culture of collecting based on sensibility and personal involvement, is a mission spelt out in the Foundation’s statute, and takes the form of support to new generations of artists through the promotion and creation of exhibitions, and the production of works. The second mission of the Foundation centers on the visitor, who is both the target and protagonist of initiatives aimed at spreading and expanding knowledge about contemporary art. At the Foundation, exhibitions are a meeting point between artists, curators and public: a space for reflection which, through the works, increases the visibility of current art, and of the reading it gives of the issues of our time (from globalization to environmentalism, from labor to new technologies); exhibitions are forums that amplify the voice of visitors and their interpretations, thanks to the conversational approach of our cultural mediation service, which is provided regularly and free of charge; the exhibition is a space for inspiration and creativity, which find a practical, living expression in workshops especially designed by the Educational Department for each different sector of our visiting public (children, adolescents, young adults, school groups, teachers, families, disabled people).
Over the years Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo has extended its expertise, which is based on the experimental approach of the institution and on the highly developed skills of its staff. Today the Foundation is an internationally acknowledged exhibition center, as well as an educational institution with a strong identity and extensive experience in training, as shown by such programs as the Residency for Young Foreign Curators, launched in 2006, by Campo, an independent course for Italian curators launched in 2012, or by periodically held study days for teachers and educators, and seminars on such topics as accessibility and cultural mediation.
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo encourages the cooperation between institutions and the construction of networks: it is a vibrant actor in the art system of Turin and its cultural scene, interacting with public institutions, banking foundations, local communities, associations and businesses that operate on the territory. In 2014 it promoted the institution of a national Committee of Contemporary Art Foundations (Comitato Fondazioni per l’Arte Contemporanea), as a single negotiating partner to the Italian Ministry of Culture (MiBACT). In 2008 it co-founded the FACE network (Foundation of Arts for a Contemporary Europe). The Foundation can boast a widespread network of contacts in the international system, which translates into support for major events such as Biennials and Kassel’s Documenta, and exhibitions focusing on the Collection, which have been hosted in museums and foundations worldwide. With its prize “Premio StellaRe”, instituted in 2006, the Foundation intends to highlight the achievements and engagement of women in the domains of culture, scientific research and economy.
