The Antonio Ratti Foundation originates in his founder's desire to turn his affective, historical, and entrepreneurial interests in fabrics, into a successful harmonisation of the artistic, cultural, economic, and industrial components of the textile field.
The Antonio Ratti Foundation is a non-profit organisation, acknowledged by a Presidential Decree in Italy, since May 1986.

The Antonio Foundation expresses its cultural vocation through research conferences, study meetings, training courses, exhibits and other activities, promoting the study and conservation of textiles, both ancient and innovative, as well as avant-garde research and promotion in the visual arts.

The most important initiatives devoted to ancient textiles are the Antonio Ratti Textile Centre, opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1995, and the Textile Museum, located in Como and curated by Ms. Chiara Buss, which harbours the collection of ancient fabrics that Antonio Ratti has been gathering since the Sixties. Along with ancient specimens, starting from October 1998 a multimedia catalogue gives access to a historic-critical documentation and to high-resolution digital pictures of all specimens, in different formats.
Furthermore, the Foundation organises monographic exhibitions and publishes 'The Antonio Ratti Book Collection', whose volumes highlight the most significant nuclei of the collection itself.

Among the activities addressed to operators in the textile sector, the Foundation organises the International Textile Forum, which is a biannual meeting chaired by prominent experts and famous researchers.

THE ADVANCED COURSE IN VISUAL ARTS

The Antonio Ratti Foundation has been organising under the patronage of the Municipality of Como since 1988 a specialisation summer course devoted to young artists. The course, which originally focused exclusively on drawing, changed direction in 1995 to become a truly multiform intensive seminar, the only one of its kind in Italy, available to students who already have specific knowledge and experience.
The Advanced Course in Visual Arts sets out to address the entire field of expression, with particular attention to new, emerging languages, offering participants a precious opportunity to work alongside artists of international renown as well as young talent from all over the globe.
The course is organised in theoretical and practical lessons held by the curators, Giacinto Di Pietrantonio and Angela Vettese, and the Visiting Professor respectively, along with conferences and seminars conducted by curators, critics, philosophers and artists who have been called upon to discuss their most recent projects.
The teaching approach changes every year in accordance with the program and the Visiting Professor, who also mounts a solo exhibition.
Furthermore, the end-of-course exhibition affords the young artists the chance to measure up with their own works alongside artists from cultures and backgrounds, often far removed from their own. While this is a challenge, it is also a stimulating, once-in-a-lifetime chance to plan, experiment with and realise artworks during a course, under the guidance of an influential artist rather than in the isolation of a studio, a chance to follow a specific project through.
The Advanced Course in Visual Arts is directed by Annie Ratti, with Anna Daneri as coordinator.

PRESIDENT
Antonio Ratti

RESPONSIBLE
Annie Ratti

CURATORS
Angela Vattese
Giacinto Di Pietrantonio

ORGANIZATION
Anna Daneri

QUADERNI
Charta editore, Milano

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