What is a fucina?
A fucina (or “foundry”) is a place of transformation and experimentation where materials, ideas, and skills meet to give life to new creative possibilities. Inpired by this idea, the new BeFamily workshop series, designed for children aged 6–10 and their families, explores the relationship between art, crafts, and hands-on making.
The program draws inspiration from the exhibition Fucina degli Angeli: Peggy Guggenheim and 20th-Century Artistic Glass (November 14, 2026–March 29, 2027), dedicated to the enterprise founded by Egidio Costantini in Murano in the 1950s, where artists such as Jean Arp, Jean Cocteau, Max Ernst, and Lucio Fontana collaborated with master glassmakers, transforming glass into a field for artistic experimentation.
The dialogue between art and craft cuts across the history of modern art, from the Arts and Crafts movement that reasserted the value of manual skills, to the Bauhaus, which placed the workshop at the heart of artistic education through collaboration between artists and craftspeople. During the twentieth century, countless artists explored new techniques and materials, from Pablo Picasso’s experiments at the Madoura pottery factory in Vallauris, France, to those of Fontana and Fausto Melotti in the furnaces of Albisola, Italy.
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection also explores the intersection of art and craft through works created with different materials and techniques: from Alexander Calder’s sculptural jewelry and silver headboard, to Yves Tanguy’s earrings painted on mother-of-pearl, and to the entrance gates of Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, designed by Claire Falkenstein, where sculpture, architecture, and crafts come together in a single creation.
October 24, 2026
Workshop organized by Fornace Orsoni Venezia 1888
Two slots: 11 am and 2:30 pm
Children and adults will create a small mosaic with the first letter their names using colored mosaic tesserae produced by Fornace Orsoni.
Location: Fornace Orsoni Venezia 1888, Cannaregio 1045-1045 A, 30121 Venice
November 14, 2026
Workshop organized by Anita Venturi
Two slots: 11 am and 2:30 pm
Inspired by the works of the Fucina degli Angeli, this workshop invites children to transform a simple cardboard flowerpot into a unique character through drawing, collage, and various materials, creating a three-dimensional plant-pot cover that explores the transformation of an everyday object into a work of art.
Location: Peggy Guggenheim Collection
January 23, 2027
Workshop organized by Fablab Venezia – Digital Fabrication & Social Innovation
Two slots: 11 am and 2:30 pm
A tinkering workshop in which children and adults design and create a machine that can draw on its own, exploring creativity, movement, art, and technology through shared experimentation.
Location: The Hub-Human Bits, Corte Legrenzi, 30171 Mestre, Venice
February 27, 2027
Workshop organized by Bonotto Foundation
A special experience at the Bonotto Foundation discovering Fluxus poetics and experimental poetry, followed by an educational-creative workshop preparing for the creation of a tapestry, guided by master weaver Giovanni Bonotto.
Location: Via Louvigny, 39, 36064 Colceresa, Vicenza
March 20, 2027
Workshop organized by Huang Xiaozhe
Two slots: 11 am and 2:30 pm
Following a live demonstration of lampworking by artist Huang Xiaozhe, children and their families will create a personalized ring or pendant using antique Murano glass beads, creating a collaborative artwork to take home and wear.
Location: Spazio Vivo, Sestiere Castello 3371/A, 30122 Venice
April 17, 2027
Workshop organized by Rebiennale s.r.l.
Two slots: 11 am and 2:30 pm
A workshop dedicated to creative recycling in which children and their families explore the hidden potential of waste materials, transforming them into new creations.
Location: S.a.l.e DOCKS: Magazzini del Sale, Dorsoduro 265, 30123, Venice
