It was born with the objective to promote creativity in art and craft, with an openness to the sacred, in the service of the Catholic Church and of society as a whole. The school is international while being rooted in the local region so that it may revive the tradition of art and craft in the city of Florence. Through stimulating old art and craft workshops that have marked the history and the economy of the city through the ages the school seeks this renewal, forming students through apprenticeships and empowering them to create new work in the tuscan tradition.
The cooperation with the historical craft workshops and with the Opera del Duomo, a live laboratory of restoration and maintenance of the Florence Cathedral, contributes to the formation of new, specialized professionals possessing an artisan’s precision together with an artist’s creativity. The school’s motto “forward in tradition” means to characterize the environment of the shool. An environment in which students learn to design and realize works of art that are fully contemporary, that speak to the men and women of today, while at the same time being connected to the tradition of 20 centuries of Catholic art.
The Christian faith is centered on the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. It is rooted in history and tradition, though it is also a faith that is present–here and now– to the men and women that encounter it. Contemporary artists must seek ways to represent the sacred, so that it may speak to today’s audience.
The school, that doesn’t adhere to any particular artistic style, is above all a workshop where students and teachers, artists and artisans, may produce sacred art of high quality. So that this may happen the school aims to help artists to go “forward in tradition” through four main means:
