FONDAZIONE QUERINI STAMPALIA VENEZIA

In the heart of Venice, a stone’s throw from Piazza San Marco, is one of the most interesting cultural complexes in the city of the lagoon: Palazzo Querini Stampalia, the home of the Foundation of the same name created in 1868 by Count Giovanni, who died the following year without direct heirs.
The Palazzo is home to a Library, a Museum and an area for temporary exhibitions.
The Library’s collection covers a wide range of subjects with over 370,000 volumes for public use, including 32,000 directly accessible on open shelves for consultation. It remains open according to the Founder’s wishes until late at night, including public holidays. An agreement with the City of Venice classifies it as a Civic Library, in recognition of the role that it plays in the city widely recognised by Venetians.
Among its collections, the oldest section is composed of manuscripts, incunabula and 16th century printed books, atlases and maps, which together with the private archives of the Querini Stampalia family provide precious historical sources for scholars.

In the museum, with its eighteenth century and neoclassical furniture, are porcelain, bisque, sculpture, globes and paintings from the 14th to the 20th century, most of which are from the Venetian school. The atmosphere of a noble residence is enhanced by mirrors and lamps of Murano glass and fabrics woven after historical designs. The works on display include paintings by Giovanni Bellini, Lorenzo di Credi, Jacopo Palma il Vecchio, Bernardo Strozzi, Marco and Sebastiano Ricci, Giambattista Tiepolo, Pietro Longhi, Gabriel Bella and a sketch by Antonio Canova.
A place of many places, of a thousand differences - detectable in its history, architecture, and the variety of its activities - the Foundation is an area of cultural production based on the study and enhancement of the historical heritage of the museum and careful attention in gathering the most advanced contemporary proposals. To this end, with the Conservare il futuro project, contemporary artists are invited to compare themselves to and interact with the Foundation’s collections, drawing inspiration from them for new expressions of vital experimentation. Similar lines of investigation have been opened in the sectors of literature, poetry, theatre, dance, design and graphics. An intense programme of educational activities offers schools, families, senior citizens, etc. ever new interpretations of the Museum, Library, exhibitions and the architecture of the building itself through laboratories and educational courses.

On the ground floor of the 16th century residence there is the area that was restored in 1963 by Carlo Scarpa and the work of the architect from Ticino, Mario Botta, a pupil of the Venetian master who designed the site’s new service area around an evocative covered courtyard. The rooms of the Cafeteria open onto it, welcoming the public for a break, a snack, or a working breakfast in an unusual environment, facing the windows of the Bookshop which, together with a sophisticated choice of design objects and carefully selected volumes on historical and contemporary art, also offers a section dedicated to specialists working in museums, libraries and archives. The Auditorium completes the construction of this unique, complex and flexible structure where historical rooms next to areas of contemporary design offer a stimulating and functional setting for individual study, cultural initiatives and special events.