The Visual Arts section has given rise to a post-degree training programme which every year features meetings, conferences and intensive workshops, based on the residency approach, as adopted by other great European training centres. Every year, two or more intensive workshops are held, from spring to late autumn, led by artists and curators of an international standing, aimed at artists under 35 working across the national territory, with special focus given to artists from the Piedmont region. Throughout the duration of the activities, the participants and the visiting professors are hosted in the spaces of the Foundation, whose facilities, designed to include large common areas, foster contact and comparison between participants, while still guaranteeing the degree of privacy necessary for study and reflection. The training activities are entrusted by the Fondazione Spinola to the expertise of teachers between 40 and 55, with the aim of encouraging cultural exchange between the various experiences of a generation not so far-removed from that of the artists themselves. Since the start of its training activities, the Fondazione Spinola has hosted more than 100 young Italian artists, on average aged between 28 and 33, and has set up a network of university institutions with which it works in close collaboration: the IUAV in Venice, the Turin Polytechnic and the NABA in Milan. Every year, two ClasAV specialisation students, two from the Visual Arts and Curating Studies Course at the NABA and DAD (Department of Architecture and Design), after careful selection by the managing boards of each of the institutions, may take part in the workshops of the Fondazione Spinola, thus gaining university study credits. Since 2010 the Foundation has boasted a fertile collaboration project with the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa in Venice and with Via Farini in Milan. In the same year, it also became part of the international artists’ residency programme, Resò, sponsored by the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT, and based on the cooperation between various contemporary art institutions in Piedmont offering training activities. Today, the Fondazione Spinola Banna per l'Arte has become a key point of reference for young Italian artists, as shown also by the sheer number of requests to participate in its workshops. Furthermore, over 10% of the artists who attend the courses of the Fondazione Spinola are currently coming to the fore on a national and international level, taking part in prestigious exhibitions as well as international residency programmes.

Artistic Director: Gail Cochrane Scientific Advisor: Guido Costa

In 2007, with the launch of the Progetto Musica, the Fondazione Spinola Banna per l'Arte started a new line of work specifically dedicated to contemporary music, with the aim of encouraging creation and promotion of new works, help developping talents and give visibility to the most interesting experiences in the field of contemporary music, a sector specially open to new generations and future challenges.
Every year, in agreement with a tutor chosen among the most important international composers, two young and talented composers are selected; the Foundation commisions them a chamber music piece for a given ensemble. During composition, authors are in the care of the tutor, who accompanies them along an individualized route with many analysis and confrontation moments, from the beginning to the end of writing phase. Within the end of the year complete scorse are sent to the performers for the preliminary study.
During Spring of the following year the workshop takes place, a week-long full residency hosted in the building of the Foundation. During this period, which encompasses in-depth sessions and a tight agenda of rehersal with the ensemble and under the supervision of the tutor, young composers have the precioous opportunity of selecting, perfecting and make their musical ideas become reality. The group work materializes, at the end of the residency, in the first performance of the commissioned works, during a concert held in the concert hall of the Foundation, in the presence of promoters, journalists and important personalities of the Italian musical scene.

• Progetto Musica, all the editions