Fondazione

Fondazione sandretto re rebaudengo

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 has two venues. The Turin location, opened in 2002, is a museum architecture built in a neighborhood that witnesses the city’s industrial past and its transformations. Designed by architect Claudio Silvestrin, it stands in front of the “Fergat” public garden.

Palazzo Re Rebaudengo, in Guarene, is an 18th-century residence, protected by the Superintendence of Cultural and Environmental Heritage. It is one of the historic buildings of this small village nestled among the hills of Roero, an area that with the Langhe and Monferrato is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2019, not far from the residence, the Foundation opened the San Licerio Hill Art Park to the public. Installations by artists from around the world are placed among a wild forest and the rows of a young vineyard.

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.

the President

patrizia sandretto re rebaudengo

Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo is the founder and President of Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. After graduating in Economy and Business at Turin university, she approached the world of contemporary art as a collector, in the early 1990s.
She turned her passion for art into an organized activity in 1995, when she created Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. In 1997 the first building of the Foundation, Palazzo Re Rebaudengo, was opened in Guarene d’Alba (Cuneo).
In 2002 the Foundation took its activity of developing and promoting contemporary art a step further, with the opening of a new exhibition venue in Turin, which is now an internationally acknowledged center for research, experimentation, and exchange between artists, critics, rators and collectors from all over the world.

Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo is a member of the International Council of New York’s MoMA, the International Council of London’sTate Gallery, the Leadership Council of New York’s New Museum, the Contemporary Art Committee of Philadelphia’s Museum of Art, the Board of Center for Curatorial Studies of New York’s Bard College, the Board of Directors of Lyon’s Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA), of the Advisory Committee of the Shanghai’s Rockbund Art Museum.

Since 2008 she has been a member of the Cultural Committee of the General Confederation of Italian Industry.
Since 2014 she is President of Comitato Fondazioni Arte Contemporanea.
Since 2017 she is President of Fondazione IEO-CCM.
Dal 2015 insegna Teorie e Forme del Mercato dell’Arte alla IULM, Libera Università di Lingue e Comunicazione di Milano.

She has been awarded several prizes and honorary titles including the Recognition of Officer of the Italian Republic (2005), the title of “Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres” conferred by the French Republic (2009), the LEO Award of the ICI (2019), and in 2020 she was named “Ambassador to the World of Turin Excellence.”

il team