News from the Archives: Toward the Museo Alinari in Florence
From October to December, at Villa Fabbricotti in Florence, five talks with the key figures of the museum project explore the future of the Alinari photographic archives and of the new museum set to open in the former Scuola Marescialli, the old Carabinieri NCO school.
The challenge of the new Museo Alinari
What does it mean today to design a museum of photography? How do you build a place able to tell the story of a heritage that, before it is even a collection, is a boundless memory of images, people, places and stories? These questions are unavoidable when talking about the future Museo Alinari, set to open in the monumental complex of Santa Maria Novella, in the spaces of the former Scuola Marescialli.
This is where the museum, a significant part of the Archivi Alinari and the Library will find their home: a vast body of photographs and documents which, even before anyone thinks about rooms and displays, raises the question of how to look at it and how to tell its story.
With the future museum in view, the Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia (FAF) has chosen to devote the 2026 edition of Notizie dagli Archivi Alinari (News from the Alinari Archives) to the ways a great photographic archive can become a place of knowledge, research and participation.
Five talks at Villa Fabbricotti
The series of talks the Foundation organizes every year thus becomes Verso il Museo Alinari – Conversazioni (Toward the Museo Alinari – Conversations): five events, from October 8 to December 14, at Villa Fabbricotti, bringing different experiences and skills together to reflect on the museum to come. The program is made possible with the support of Fondazione CR Firenze as part of the activities dedicated to the future Museo Alinari.
To guide the development of the museum project, FAF has set up an international Advisory Board that will provide scientific and strategic advice and help shape the main cultural choices. Some of its members will lead the five conversations, invited to Florence to share their experiences and ideas with the public.
The speakers come from very different institutions: from the Photothek of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris to the Museo Egizio in Turin, from the Münchner Stadtmuseum in Munich to the Museo Galileo in Florence, alongside scholars, photographers and architects. A mosaic of experiences that lets each talk look at the Alinari project from a different angle.
The program
All talks start at 5:30 p.m. at Villa Fabbricotti, via Vittorio Emanuele II, 64, Florence. Admission is always free and open to everyone, with no booking required, while seats last.
The opening talk on Thursday, October 8 – Sugli archivi fotografici: materialità, memoria, relazioni (On photographic archives: materiality, memory, relationships), with Costanza Caraffa, director of the Photothek of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut, Elizabeth Edwards, professor emerita of History of Photography at De Montfort University in Leicester, and photographer and researcher Nicola Lo Calzo (CY Cergy Paris Université), who teaches at Sciences Po – CANCELED DUE TO A WEATHER ALERT, TO BE RESCHEDULED
On October 28, Sarah Kenderdine, professor of Museology at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Roberto Ferrari, executive director of the Museo Galileo in Florence, and architect and set designer Lorenzo Greppi will take part in Ripensare i musei: spazi, tecnologie, esperienze (Rethinking museums: spaces, technologies, experiences).
On November 19, Martin Barnes, Senior Curator of Photography at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, Marie Robert, Head of Photography and Cinema Collections at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, and Nicoletta Leonardi, chair of the scientific committee of the Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia, will speak on Esporre la fotografia nei musei (Exhibiting photography in museums).
December 3 brings Santa Maria Novella: uno spazio per più musei (Santa Maria Novella: one space for several museums), devoted to the relationship between museum, language and city, with Giuseppe Antonelli, professor of History of the Italian Language at the University of Pavia and scientific director of the Museo Nazionale dell’Italiano (MUNDI), architect Giorgio Caselli, head of the Servizio Belle Arti e Fabbrica di Palazzo Vecchio at the City of Florence, and Giorgio van Straten, president of the Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia.
Closing the series on Monday, December 14 are Christian Greco, director of the Museo Egizio in Turin, Kathrin Schönegg, Head of the Photography Department at the Münchner Stadtmuseum, and Claudia Baroncini, director of the Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia, with the talk Musei e Comunità (Museums and communities).
Five conversations, then, but a single thread: understanding what a museum built around a great photographic archive can be today, and what shape the relationship between the Alinari images and the public might take in the future. The program is made possible with the support of Fondazione CR Firenze as part of the activities dedicated to the future Museo Alinari. For more information, contact the Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia at +39 055 462 8069 or email faf.toscana@alinari.it
