Patrimonio culturale dell'Emilia-Romagna

The Museum was inaugurated by the municipal administration, with the technical and scientific cooperation of the regional institute for cultural heritage. It is housed in Villa Franceschi, one of Riccione’s handsome Art Nouveau Villas, and holds the municipal art collection, which includes hundreds of works, most from the post-World War II era. The most interesting lot, which is currently at the Pesa Civic Centre, was formed in the 1960s as a result of several painting competitions, one of which was dedicated to the sea, and donations, including one by the Franceschi heirs and another by the Forlì-born painter Maceo Casadei (Portrait of Fulvia). It also displays works by Tesi, Sughi, and Faccioli. Soon, the Museum will display works loaned from the modern art collection of the Emilia-Romagna regional administration. The Museum also has spaces for temporary and theme-based exhibitions.

The new Museum houses the municipal art collection, which includes material acquired as a result of painting competitions during the two decades after the end of World War II; the Franceschi and Casadei collection; and the Arcangeli collection, on loan from the Emilia-Romagna municipal administration, which has owned it since 1973. The public will be able to enjoy paintings, sculptures, drawings, and graphic arts from the figurative school – particularly from Romagna – as well as examples of abstract and informal contemporary art – both pre-1950 and post-1950 – by artists such as Giancarlo Balzani, Enzo Anginoni, Maceo Casadei, Roberto Sebastian Matta, Amleto Montevecchi, Franco Fiorucci, Carlo Crispini, Guido Fabbri, Guerrino Bardeggia, Giorgio Bastianelli, Nildo Breviglieri, Romano Buratti, Walter Faraoni, Mario Magnanelli, Nello Pari, Giacomo Pastore, Auguso Montevecchi, Armido Della Bartola, Guido Di Carlo, Aldo Astolfi, Boris Bonomi, Miksic Jusa, Rodolfo Pantaleoni, Ugo Rassati, Guido Roveri, Paolo Tommaselli, Sante Arduini, Federico Moroni, Nello Leonardi, Leonardo Castellani, Gino Mandolesi, Giovanni Omiccioli, Giò Pomodoro, Alberto Sughi, Giulio Turci, Luigi Veronesi, Virgilio Guidi, Vasco Bendini, Vincenzo Satta, Sergio Vacchi, Pompilio Mandelli, Giuseppe De Gregorio, Giovanni Romagnoli, Giulio Ruffini, Bruno Saetti, Mattia Moreni, Ervardo Fioravanti, Tino Repetto, Vittorio Tavernari, Maurizio Bottarelli, Bruno Pulga, Nani Tedeschi, Emilio Vedova, Nino Corazza, Luciano Minguzzi, Gino Gandini, Rezio Buscaroli, Cristina Roncati, Giovanni Poggeschi, Giovanni Korompay, Farpi Vignoli, Mario Nanni, Andrea Raccagni, Giannetto Fieschi, Carlo Corsi, Giovanni Ciangottini, Rosalba (Bianca Arcangeli), Renato Birolli, Gian Franco Fasce, Piero Ruggeri, Emilio Greco, Renzo Pasqualini, Angelo Biancini, Ennio Morlotti, Piero Giunni, Giuseppe Gagliardi, Vittorio Mascalchi, Tino Pelloni, Severo Pozzati, Alberto Burri, Bruno Olivi, and Giorgio Baratti. The Museum, which occupies three parts of Villa Franceschi – the tower, the gallery, and the terrace – aims to provide a dynamic cultural service promoting interdisciplinary experimentation; it has a monthly online magazine, http://villafranceschi.it, which has become an electronic clearinghouse for local contemporary cultural initiatives. The Museum also sponsors the Creolo Award (museo@comune.riccione.rn.it or the award’s secretariat: creolo@villafranceschi.it), which was won in the past by Cristina Ballerini. Now in its third year, it aims to promote visual and literary creativity as expressed through multi-media means. Recent exhibition activity has focused on creating a work-in-progress in the Agolanti Castle, which will exploit synergies between different artistic disciplines: painting, photography, installation art, video, music, performance art. Several seminar series were held, including Dialogues on contemporary art – The artists speak: Experiences in creativity, with renowned artists and art critics from Emilia-Romagna and Le Marche, such as Vittorio D’Augusta with Giorgio Cortenova, Marco Neri with Claudio Spadoni, Paolo Icaro and Stefano Verri with the musician Paolo Giaro, Leonardo Pivi with Marco Senaldi, Paolo Serra and Giancarlo Papi, Fathi Hassan with Gaia Serena Simionati, Marcello Jori with Roberto Daolio, Sabrina Mezzaqui with Susan Mohamed, Luca Caccioni with Walter Guadagnini, Luigi Carboni and Stefano Verri, Gabriele Arruzzo and Alberto Zanchetta, and finally Davide Eron Salvadei with Marta Gargiulo. The Illustrissimi Award was established in 2004. It aims to promote talented young artists, whose works are displayed in the Agolanti Castle. Each year, the award has focused on a different theme. The Odyssey: An endless source of mysteries and exhibitions; The Great Flood; Castles in the air; and last year’s award, which focused on Planet Earth. In 2006, the fourth annual Artefatta festival took place, created and organized by the Councillorship for Culture of the Municipality of Riccione. Other noteworthy exhibitions included Nicolosa Rastelli Leziroli’s monographic exhibition The faces of life, and the monographic exhibition on Virgilo Guidi (2007). Finally, within the framework of the Effettodoppler festival, which involved many local municipalities, the Museum hosted Niconote with the performance Fever 103°. Noteworthy exhibitions in 2008 included " Modigliani. La vita del genio "; in 2009 " Aldo Borgonzoni (1913-2004). Testimone del tempo. Opere dagli anni trenta al duemila "; in 2010 "Gian Marco Montesano. Il fantasma dell’opera" and "60 e dintorni. Nuovi miti e nuove figure dell'arte ", the collective exhibition " Sogni di carta. Dipinti disegni e incisioni dei maestri del '900" (2011) and "Lucio Saffaro. I luoghi segreti dell’essere e del tempo"