Winter 2016
:
Volume
31
, Number
2
Since 1998 Giorgio Pellegrini has directed the Paper and Watermark Museum of Fabriano. He has overseen construction of a major new wing of the museum, a section on the Civilization of the Book, and a Center of Documentation of the Art on Paper. He has developed relations with European and international paper museums including the Robert C. Williams American Museum of Papermaking in Atlanta, with which he won the American Association of Museums' IPAM award (International Partnership Among Museums). In 2002, participating in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, he met this issue's guest editor Lynn Sures with whom he initiated "Paper, Print and Book" workshops bringing students to study with important Italian artists and craftsmen. Universities in Australia and Russia have now undertaken similar activities with the museum. He founded the International Biennial Fabriano Watercolour Prize, partnering with the Biennale of Shenzen (China); and is co-organizer of the Leonardo Sciascia Biennal of Graphics, each boosting connections between artistic activities and use of handmade paper for art. He initiated a related museum Artist's Residency Program. Among the many international events he has brought to the museum include the 2014 biennial conference of IAPMA and that of the IPH. GIORGIO PELLEGRINI: Where did you study the techniques of paper and book conservation? Was there a teacher who was very important to you? GABRIELE DONDI: I studied in Urbino, my hometown, at the State Institute of Art, previously known widely as the Urbino School of the Book. My teacher was my father Arnaldo Dondi, a teacher for 40 years at the School of the Book. After completing five years of studies at the State Institute of Art I took a course at the Ministry of Culture. An exam at the end of that training certified me with the professional qualification of "restorer of books" and with it, access to commissions from the various state bodies.
