A Legacy of Making is the title given to a series of exhibitions featuring the work of artists who are inspired by their Italian or Italian American culture. I selected these artists from my book, Italianità: Contemporary Art Inspired by the Italian Immigrant Experience.

I co-curated the first exhibition in Manhattan with Joseph Sciorra and have been independently  curating subsequent iterations, with different artists and different work, in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Let's start with the newer one first: A Legacy of Making: 26 Contemporary Artists Inspired by Their Italian Heritage in the Cummings Art Center at Connecticut College, New London. The exhibition is a greatly expanded iteration of the Manhattan show. Five additonal artists are included, and both larger work and a greater number of pieces, along with a site-specific installation, are installed on two levels. The exhibition is up through October 19.

A Legacy of Making: 26 Contemporary Artists Inspired by Their Italian Heritage, Connecticut College

Through October 19, 2024

Entrance to A Legacy of Making: 26 Contemporary Artists Inspired by Their Italian Heritage from Connecticut College's campus green. This ground-level space, entered both from here and from an interior staircase, extends to a skylighted upper level, the Atrium Gallery. Each level is partially viewable from the other, affording you a dramatic view of the installation. Here, work by John Avelluto, foreground; and clockwise around the gallery, by Angelica Bergamini, Diana González Gandolfi, Timothy McDowell, and Carolanna Parlato

Interior entrance to A Legacy of Making: 26 Contemporary Artists Inspired by Their Italian Heritage. Here: B. Amore on partition wall; Claudio DeMonte sculpture on pedestal

Installation view in the Atrium Gallery. From left: Patricia Miranda; far end: three by Mary Schiliro; back wall: Elisa D'Arrigo, Lisa Zukowski; right wall: Jennifer Cecere, Milisa Galazzi

Click here to view a walk-through of the entire exhibition.

A Legacy of Making: 21 Contemporary Italian American Artists at the Calandra Institute, New York City

September 2023 - April 2024

Calandra Gallery panorama, looking in as you come off the elevator: Nancy Azara, Mary Schiliro,

B. Amore, two by Diana González Gandolfi, Lisa Zukowskl (on pedestal); far wall: Karen Schifano. Gianluca Bianchino. Timothy McDowell, Chris Costan, Carolanna Parlato; John Avelluto (on pillar), Claudia DeMonte (on foreground pedestal); Elisa D’Arrigo (on far pedestal and wall), John Monti, Patricia Miranda

A Legacy of Making wason view the Calandra Institute through April, 2024. Joseph Sciorra and I curated the exhibition, which features 21 of the 59 artists in Italianità. Sciorra, who is the director of cultural and academic programs at the Calandra Institute, is also the author of Italianità's Foreword, so he was familiar with both the book's thesis and the artists in it. 


The Calandra Institute, an Italian American research institute affiliated with Queens College--but located in Midtown Manhattan--is at 25 W. 43rd Street, You can take a virtual walk-through of the exhibition here and read more about in in my conversation with John Avelluto in Two Coats of Paint