BACAS Artistic Center Brings Artists Together

The Borghi Antichi Cultura Arti Scienze (BACAS) artistic center is opening its doors to artists in Italy. Conceived in New York City by artist Pietro Costa and poet Denver Butson, BACAS was proposed as a place for creatives to convene and collaborate, to share ideas and inspiration in a residency format. For over a decade, BACAS was just an idea, until a fateful meeting between Costa and Gisella Macchiaroli. The two decided that the Macchiaroli family’s castle near Teggiano, in Southern Italy’s Salerno province, would make a perfect home for BACAS’ inaugural season.

Ten days of instruction and conversation in the Castello Macchiaroli start July 2018, featuring representatives from a variety of disciplines. Fabrizio Caròla, Rossella Siani, and Enrico Dini will present on architecture; Leonardo Colombati, Edmund White, Tiziana Rinaldi Castro, and others comprise the writing and literature residency; and BACAS’ visual arts installations feature the works of photographer Grace Morgan, sculptor Arturo Ianniello, and painter Karen Revis.

BACAS’ program also includes musical residencies and academic discussions of the arts. While the initial venture will only last for ten days, “in our future editions [of BACAS], the residencies will be from two weeks to a month each,”said collaborator Tiziana Rinaldi Castro.

– Joe Powers