ROME—Rome is giving one of its oldest neighborhoods a new identity. This month, the city introduced the Ponte Art & Design District, a permanent zone dedicated to contemporary art, design, traditional craft, and antiques. The program is coordinated by Roma Faber, a young association formed in 2023, and is supported by both the Lazio Region and the Department of Culture of Roma Capitale., as first reported by la Repubblica.
At Via dei Banchi Nuovi, a 200-meter stretch now fully pedestrianized, anchors the initiative and signals a long-term commitment to the area. Around it, 28 different studios, galleries, schools, and workshops have been organized into a network intended to function all year, not just during festivals.
Programming follows two tracks. There are monthly public events (open studios, demonstrations, guided visits) that allow the curious to enter spaces normally closed off. Alongside that, is a scheduled series of talks and forums...
ROME—Rome is giving one of its oldest neighborhoods a new identity. This month, the city introduced the Ponte Art & Design District, a permanent zone dedicated to contemporary art, design, traditional craft, and antiques. The program is coordinated by Roma Faber, a young association formed in 2023, and is supported by both the Lazio Region and the Department of Culture of Roma Capitale., as first reported by la Repubblica.
At Via dei Banchi Nuovi, a 200-meter stretch now fully pedestrianized, anchors the initiative and signals a long-term commitment to the area. Around it, 28 different studios, galleries, schools, and workshops have been organized into a network intended to function all year, not just during festivals.
Programming follows two tracks. There are monthly public events (open studios, demonstrations, guided visits) that allow the curious to enter spaces normally closed off. Alongside that, is a scheduled series of talks and forums running through 2026, with subjects ranging from circular economy in crafts to the teaching of design. Partnerships with institutions such as the Accademia Italiana and the University of Arkansas point to an academic seriousness behind the calendar.
The other emphasis is on transmission: master artisans are expected to host students in their workshops, offering direct access to processes like bronze casting or marble restoration. The model positions Ponte not only as a district for visitors but as a working classroom.
The district’s name, Ponte (bridge), makes the metaphor explicit: old methods placed in conversation with new economies, a local history recast as infrastructure for the future.
Raphael, Self-portrait (1506–08). Florence, Uffizi Galleries, Gallery of Statues and Paintings. Photographic Cabinet of the Uffizi Galleries – Courtesy of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism.
UPTOWN—In spring 2026, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art will present the most extensive U.S. exhibition ever dedicated to Raphael, according to Artnet, offering a... Text by Marguerite de Ponty. Read More
Auguste Renoir, Study for The Great Bathers (1884 to 1887). Photo: The Morgan Library & Museum.
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Slip House, the brand new gallery opened at the base of a 19th-century, three-story former carriage house at 246 East 5th Street.
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Photograph by Erich Höhne. Courtesy of Deutsche Fotothek.
Wassily Kandinsky, a painter of color and form, once envisioned a future where dance would shed its ornamental constraints and move toward abstraction. In Concerning... Text by Marguerite de Ponty. Read More
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Janice Lourie's computer-driven loom transformed textile manufacturing. Photo courtesy of IBM
Textile art, or as Anni Albers said, "the poetry of materials," has had many lives. In the 40s, we loved fabric. 24 foot stage curtains.... Text by Pina Lomb. Read More
Franco Maria Ricci in 1984, at the launch of FMR U.S.A. at the New York Public Library.
Caverns were probably the first labyrinthine structures human beings came into contact with, in a distant past. And I, too, rummaged through my own past, finding a version of myself as the guise of a young amateur speleologist, equipped with the right clothes, flashlights, ropes, and climbing-irons. I was a second-year student at the Faculty of Geology and, with some friends, I had founded a so-called Cavern Society. My weekdays moved along on the surface, in the sunlight, while my weekends were usually devoted to the dark bowels of the earth. Text by fmr. Read More
