Reflections on Children Exhibition in Genoa, Italy

September 2nd – September 16th, 2006
By Natalie Saiph Massone (Artist)

The Children Charitable Art Exhibition at the Berio’s Events Showroom in Genoa, Italy was held for two weeks. I found this to be a very fulfilling experience because it gave me the chance to explore “children portraiture” as a theme, which had never occurred to me before. The involvement of CFW added a deeper meaning to my research of this theme. Not only do I better understand Cystic Fibrosis as a disease, but I also better understand the “what” and “how” of my art.

The event was carefully planned a year in advance and the results are a mixture of the good and the unexpected with the typical dissatisfaction of the “artist” herself. In Genoa, charitable art shows are rare. However, this event caught the attention of the media, which was a pleasant surprise. The local newspapers, the Il Secolo xix and the Il Mercantile gave us constant visibility with some articles that included news on the “exhibitions list” almost every day. The local television stations, “PrimoCanale” and “Telecittà”, also covered the event.

On Monday September 11, “PrimoCanale”, invited us to talk in their morning programme dedicated to cultural events. Mrs. Patrizia Gaggero, Manager of the Berio Events, my friend Ugo Nuzzo, and I were interviewed at a live broadcast. We talked about the show, our artwork and videos, and about CFW and CF. The TV interview allowed Mrs. Gaggero to announce the “11th September Project” which commemorates the 9-11 tragedy of 2001. The Public Library along with hundreds all around the world are taking part in this project including the Children exhibition and other events held by Unicef and Amnesty at the Berio’s spaces.

About 200 visitors attended the show over the course of two weeks. I was pleased that people were interested in coming to the show. Some of them picked up the invitations cards I left around town, others read about it in the newspaper. Some also came back a second or a third time, because they liked both the paintings and the photographs, accompanied by the sound of the sea-waves in the background, provided by Ugo’s video. People sat to rest while watching the two videos—one showed the sea and the other showed children Ugo saw during his travels around the world. Some works sold and I am confident that more will sell in CFW’s On-line Charitable Art Gallery, where the exhibition will be permanent (See http://www.cfww.org/store/gallery_children.asp).

CF is not widely known here among people and only one visitor said that she had a friend affected with CF. However, I have a nice memory of a lady that came to the exhibition: “These children have shaken me, are almost disturbing, because they are adult-children!” she said, since she hadn’t really expected those kind of portraits. I was really pleased because she expressed exactly what I wanted to convey through my paintings: to put the viewer against a wall and face the look of the children.

Finally, we closed the event with the visit of an art-class from the German School of Genoa. Last week, their art teacher, Mrs Gabrielle Kutzko, came to the show and liked it so much that she asked us if she could bring her class too. She also would like to arrange a meeting with the students at their school, talking about this art show and the CFW. They liked the exhibition and we were happy to take some pictures all together to conclude the event.

I want to thank everyone who helped us to arrange this art event, from CFW: Ms. Christine Noke, Mr. Diego Verger, and Ms. Jill Weinstein; from The Biblioteca Berio: Mrs. Patrizia Gaggero, Mrs. Rosanna Bacigalupo and all the Berio Events staff; and The Region Liguria for its financial support.