Hold on to Peace - Image courtesy Ira Mitchell-Kirk

Hold on to Peace - Image courtesy Ira Mitchell-Kirk

Thursday 3 January 2013

Legato 2013

The new year brings into focus many things; for Legato it is a time to confirm artists and begin to juggle in my mind the available exhibition space with the vastly different works that will be in Cassino this year.

Receiving day for works is 16 May (or prior to this date by arrangement) and the exhibition will be hung on Friday 17th. The exhibition will be open the weekend of 18th and 19th of May, and will continue until Friday 31st May.

As curator, this is the exciting part of organising an international exhibition. Sometimes things change so plans can only be tentative. This year it is likely that the works I was expecting from Canada will still be touring in Canada, so the featured artists will be a weaver from New Zealand, joined by a painter and a mixed media artist. Other returning New Zealand artists have been confirmed, as well as new artists from Italy.


One of the artists newly confirmed for this year is Ira Mitchell-Kirk, whose work is the image always at the top of this blog. This work by Ira, Hold on to Peace, was the first image I received by email in Italy for the first Legato exhibition. The fragility of the girl who is tenaciously "holding on to peace" seems to say that you do not need to be big, powerful or wealthy to make a difference. Each one of us can maintain a positive link to a benevolent peace in any form, be it international efforts under the image of the metaphorical dove or simply a smile between peoples of different nations and beliefs. International Peace begins with each one of us, and spreads out through our friends and families, into politics, and finally between nations.

The first exhibition, in 2010, was solely of New Zealand art with "New Zealand" artists from Italy and Germany exhibiting to represent their countries of origin and their new home, New Zealand.  Thank you again to Margherita Giampietri, Francesca Gallo and Beate Minderjahn for your generous contributions and for being wonderful artists and ambassadors in the spirit of Legato.

Artists are also being booked for the 2014 commemorations, marking 70 years from the end of the Battle of Cassino. If you are interested in joining us in 2014 please contact me in the next few months; don't leave it too late as venues will be booked early for this important commemoration.