Carrara, a UNESCO Creative City for Crafts and Folk Arts for many years, is a place where over 30% of the population consists of artists from all around the world. It is a city that represents a fertile crossroads of cultures and languages, where painting, music, theater, ceramics, photography, illustration, sculpture, mosaic, and video art intertwine to create a vibrant and multicultural artistic community.
In 2013 — a year of great civil and cultural ferment for the city — a diverse group of artists, varied in origin and style, founded the event Carrara Studi Aperti, later forming the Social Promotion Association “Oltre.” Since then, the initiative has grown to become an integral part of the territory’s cultural identity, an unmissable event for all lovers of beauty. It is a unique opportunity to enter the intimacy of the creative act, as silent witnesses to a moment usually hidden.
Carrara Studi Aperti is a journey spanning two thousand years of art, craftsmanship, and history. The routes wind through ateliers and studios, from the city center to the outskirts, from the sea to the mountains, telling stories of traditions and new languages. It is an exploration ranging from design to more classical forms, from demonstrations of ancient practices to the latest technological experiments.
Every year, dozens of artists open their studios and workshops to the public. These places, usually hidden and often located in the heart of the city, hold the intimacy of the creative process and, during the event, open up to reveal the “behind the scenes” of art.
Carrara and its Studi Aperti welcome visitors with dozens of ateliers, exhibition spaces, and collateral initiatives, offering a deep immersion into the urban and artistic fabric of the city, made possible by those who live art daily as practice, language, and relationship.
Carrara Studi Aperti is not just a widespread exhibition throughout the territory: it is a glimpse into an authentic and still genuine reality. It is an occasion to witness firsthand a microcosm where established artists and emerging young talents coexist; an ecosystem where professionals, students, enthusiasts, and developing talents live side by side, in a continuous exchange of experiences, inspirations, and visions.
