On January 15, 1968, a devastating earthquake reduced Gibellina and the Belìce Valley to rubble. Nearly sixty years later, the same date marks the beginning of a very special year for the city, as the first Italian Capital of Contemporary Art.
The event, promoted by the Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea of Ministero della Cultura, supported by Regione Siciliana, Comune di Gibellina, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea “Ludovico Corrao” and Fondazione Orestiadi, for which the evocative title Bring me the future has been chosen, during 2026 will demonstrate how art can become a tool for cultural, social and community regeneration.
A choral initiative, built with the municipalities of the Valle del Belìce, the provincia di Trapani and a broad national and international partnership, Gibellina Italian Capital of Contemporary Art will be the epicenter of a new momentum for the entire territory, generating integrated and participatory projects, an attractive hub for artists, cultural operators and visitors from Italy and abroad, as well as a stimulus for a national reflection on the role of art as a foundation of civil and community life.
Between visual arts, performance, music and critical thought, the event enhances the identity and memory of places, engages public space, blends tradition and contemporaneity with the aim of creating a lasting legacy.
Welcome to Gibellina, Italian Capital of Contemporary Art 2026!
Highlights
Why Bring me the future?
Because Gibellina, the first Italian city proclaimed by the Ministero della Cultura Italian Capital of Contemporary Art, throughout 2026 will be inhabited by a vision of the future that places beauty, art, and culture at the center as shared and regenerative values.
A unique example at national and international level of a city reborn from the ashes of an earthquake through art, Gibellina will launch a choral project in its streets, squares and symbolic places, but also throughout the Belice and Trapani areas, providing an opportunity for the whole country to reflect on the role of culture as a fundamental value of civil life.
Discover Gibellina
Performative Arts
Between theatre, cinema and music, the performing arts will inhabit iconic places of the city and the surrounding area, engaging the public with social themes, inviting them to welcome and dialogue, blending visual and sound dramaturgies, and giving spaces back to the community.
Exhibitions
Conceived to preserve memory and reinterpret the present, exhibitions by national and international artists will inhabit iconic sites reactivated through redevelopment interventions, bringing historical experiences back to life and creating a dispersed exhibition system across the territory.
Residencies
Between urban and social interventions and collective practices developed through encounters among artists, young people, and the local community, the residencies build a path of mutual learning that invites respect for - and attentive listening to - places and those who inhabit them.
Education & Participation
Workshops for all audiences and intergenerational projects turn the Capital into an exercise in cultural citizenship: by involving institutions, contemporary artists, and artisans, art helps recover shared memories and build participation.
Symposia, conferences
and civic workshops
In collaboration with research institutes, academies, and universities, the city becomes an open laboratory, home to a National Advisory Committee on Contemporary Art and, through reflections, meetings, and conferences, a place for developing and sharing the key issues of Italian art.
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English (UK)