Call for Artists for the International Sculpture Center

An international sculpture center is being built in a small mountain village with just 200 inhabitants in Switzerland. The valley, already known for its Peccia marble, will now be complemented with all the disciplines and materials of sculpture.
With the "Centro Internazionale di Scultura" and the "Scuola di Scultura" Peccia, located in the Maggia Valley of Ticino, will have a training and meeting place for contemporary sculpture that is unique throughout Europe.

A few months ago, plans for the center were approved. The government of the Swiss canton of Ticino supports the six million Euro Centro Internazionale di Scultura in Peccia with three million Swiss francs. The other half of the amount is carried by the Fondazione Internazionale per la Scultura with the help of private donations. Now that the stipulation imposed by the canton - the relocation of the center away from the site originally planned which was situated on the river and was classified as geologically endangered - has been fulfilled and the preliminary contracts for the new building site have been signed, the sculpture center can be built in the next few months as a Public Private Partnership. The local community also made a contribution by financing the construction and development phase with a financing fund.

The center which is now being built at the entrance to the village of Peccia offers space for an exhibition building, five artists studios, as well as offices and workshops. The entire project was planned and prepared by the Ticino architects Michele and Francesco Bardelli. The heart of the center consists of five studios with approximately 50 square meters each where artists selected by an international jury can work with stone, wood, metal or other materials. The artists' studios are planned as workshops and are directly connected to a ca. 500 square meter work area with a twelve-ton crane.
The Artists in Residence live in the center of the village in individual apartments in an artist house for six months. "Thanks to the commitment of a patronage couple who are renovating one of the oldest houses in Peccia on their own, we can offer the respective artists not just work space, but also a place to live in the little mountain village", explains Alex Naef, Managing Director of the Foundation, and co-director of the sculpture school founded over 30 years ago, together with Almute Grossmann-Naef. These two see great potential for development in the center: as an engine of creativity for the entire region and as a strengthening of the cultural identity of Canton Ticino as a "terra d'artisti". The political leaders in the region also view the project in a similar light.

Call for Artists

The Fondazione Internazionale per la Scultura will award scholarships for three-dimensional artists every year starting in 2020. Duration of the residence will be from the beginning of May to the end of October every year. The jury will award the five artists who live and work at the CIS with a scholarship of CHF 1500 per month. The artists have a personal studio at their disposal, a common workstation with 20 ton crane and three workshops with equipment for the processing of various materials such as stone, wood and metal.
The students will live in individual apartments in the artist house in the village center of Peccia. Applications can be made until March 31, 2019.

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