Giardini Corsini, I really can’t imagine a more perfect location to present, for the first time in Florence, my new Botanical Jewels Collection. From the 17th to the 20th of May, I look forward to showing you my latest creations, just picked from my garden.

ARTIGIANATO E PALAZZO botteghe artigiane e loro committenze was created in 1995, the brainchild of Neri Torrigiani and with the patronage of Princess Giorgiana Corsini. Its primary objective was to take a new look and provide a contemporary context for craftspeople and their crafts as the expression of quality and technique, not only in terms of clients, but also focusing on the concept of artisan workmanship which, by nature, is “modern” but solidly based in tradition.

The intent was also to underscore the strong social relevance of artisans of the past when their workshops often prospered around the “palazzo”, the homes of the wealthy, as a “showcase” and venue for experimentation in an on-going interchange with clients from all social classes and benefiting from a direct relationship with the public and tradition as the preserver of a social aesthetic.

And it is through handicrafts, or “manufatto” (from the Latin “manu facere”: made by hand), that ARTIGIANATO E PALAZZO exhibitors have always been warmly encouraged to give live demonstrations of the techniques in which they excel.

Throughout the exhibition, visitors discover how artisans create their objects by hand by watching them work in the small workshops erected in the garden and orangeries.

Every year, organizers select approximately one hundred artisans who are the focal point of the event, most of them from Tuscany, but also many other areas of Italy and even abroad.

In addition to its importance as a cultural event to popularize crafts, the exhibition offers an opportunity to take a closer look at “applied arts” in order to bring them into our daily lives and set this event apart from more traditional craft shows and fairs.

Every year, a “Mostra Principe”, or Main Exhibition, is organized as part of ARTIGIANATO E PALAZZO. It spotlights a business (or cultural entity, museum, etc.) that began as an artisan activity to become successful on an international level.

It is an “exhibition within the exhibition” offering a special creative itinerary that has been acclaimed at the highest levels and which acts as a “beacon” for the other exhibitors.

By bringing together an ever-larger group of master craftspeople, we hope with the ARTIGIANATO E PALAZZO project to catalyze the attention of a broad-based audience open to these issues with the full interest and involvement of the protagonists involved: the artisans and their clients.