The “Andrea Alfano” Municipal Art Gallery of Saracena

When the municipal art gallery in Saracena was inaugurated on May 1, 1985, named after the great Castrovillari painter Andrea Alfano, the official speaker, Professor Aldo Maria Morace, then from the University of Messina, stated: “... the initiative in Saracena marks a change in direction, it summarizes and echoes the desire for redemption of an entire region... the drawings, paintings, and sculptures that Saracena has gathered in this newly inaugurated gallery, with tenacious will, represent a new, invigorating form of 'Italian miracle', in the sense of the ability to invent, to affirm life where it would seem forbidden, to defeat a condemnation where it would seem inevitable...

Saracena did not resign itself to the state's guilt regarding the longstanding issue of decentralization and the widespread distribution of cultural and artistic heritage: it acted on its own, with astonishing initiative, with a sharp determination to adapt the means used to the available resources, managing – thanks mainly to the generosity of the artists represented in the gallery – to collect an absolutely unusual collection of works, which I would say is forbidden, for a municipality that has very limited resources for this item in its budget. And it is a heritage – I want to emphasize this – that, regarding the 20th century, has no comparison or parallels with what the three main cities of Calabria have managed to acquire.”

The establishment of the art gallery was made possible thanks to the donation made by the surviving founding members of the Cultural Association “Sestium,” which had operated successfully in the 1950s. The collection consisted of 70 paintings by the most renowned contemporary masters, such as Guttuso, Purificato, Omiccioli, Monachesi, Tato, Attardi, Fantuzzi, Gionfra, Consolazione, Vangelli, Turcato, Pericle Fazzini, Enotrio Pugliese, Andrea Alfano, Montanarini, Ragogna, and others, as well as 5 sculptures, including a superb “Head of a Woman” by Emilio Greco.

In the following years, under the impulse of its director and a group of artist friends, the gallery expanded with new donations, bringing the collection to a remarkable number of 236 works, including paintings and drawings, and 23 sculptures. Among the new contributors, we note, among others: Philip Raa (Girl’s Face), Carlo Acciari, Lello M. Barresi, Pino Caccamo, Nora Carella, Elsa Cattani, Salvatore Colantuoni, David Grazioso, Leonardo De Magistris, Amleto D’Ottavi, Valery Escalar, Carmelo Fodaro, Francesco Guerrieri, Ernesto Lombardo, Carlo Lorenzetti, Roberto Marchionne, Lillo Messina, Franco Mulas, Vittorio Paradisi, Luigi Passeri, Marco Rossati, Luigi Russo, Piero Sbano, Nunzio Solendo, Armando Stefanucci, Nino Suriano, Lino Tardia, Mario Tornello, Ernesto Treccani, Aldo Turchiaro, Gianni Turina, Umberto Verdirosi. Among the sculptors: Alessandrini, Bruscaglia, Bucci, Cangini, Chiaramonte, Consolazione, Falciano, Fianchini, Graziotti, Emilio Greco, Lorenzetti, Meloni, Montrone, Mori, Niglia, Nuhìu, Paladino, Ronzoni, Scholtz, Signoretti, Tentarella, Verdini.

The works arrived free of charge from all over Italy, from artists proud to be part of the now “famous” municipal art gallery of Saracena. However, difficulties soon arose as the available space was no longer suitable to house such a vast artistic heritage.