The international journey of contemporary arts will conclude in 2026 in L’Aquila with the arrival of the “ItARTS – Back to L’Aquila” International Festival, one of the major events included in the official program for L’Aquila, Italian Capital of Culture 2026.
After stops in Uzbekistan, China, and France, the Festival will arrive in the capital of Abruzzo with a major international event that brings together music, visual arts, and new technologies, transforming the city into a global hub for creativity, education, and innovation.
The initiative, conceived and organized by the “A. Casella” Conservatory of Music in L’Aquila—chaired by Ugo Marinucci and directed by Claudio Di Massimantonio—is carried out in partnership with the Saint Louis College of Music in Rome, the Academy of Fine Arts in L’Aquila, the University of L’Aquila, and the Polytechnic University of Turin, and is funded by the Ministry of Universities and Research (MUR) as part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).
The project has received the approval of the Committee of Guarantors and was launched with the goal of promoting Italy’s artistic and cultural heritage on an international scale, interpreting it as an ongoing dialogue between tradition and experimentation, memory and innovation.
Among the Festival’s distinctive features are the creation of a “Living Learning Laboratory,” an international living laboratory based on hands-on learning and interdisciplinary collaboration; the production of new multidisciplinary works inspired by STEAM culture (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics); and the development of a platform for contemporary artistic research and dissemination that brings together the world’s leading higher education institutions in the arts and music.
The Festival’s final stop in L’Aquila will take place in February 2026 and will feature a series of events that will bring the city’s main cultural venues to life:
• February 14, 2026 – “Renzo Piano” Park Auditorium: *Donne all’Opera*, a musical performance dedicated to Italian opera;
• February 18, 2026 – “Renzo Piano” Park Auditorium: Shared, The Performance;
• February 19–22, 2026 – Palazzo ONMI (former daycare center, Viale Duca degli Abruzzi): Shared, The Installation;
• February 20–21, 2026 – Theater of the Academy of Fine Arts in L’Aquila: *Dei Maestri Dipintori*, a musical theater production.
“The ItARTS – Back to L’Aquila Festival represents an extraordinary opportunity for dialogue between institutions of higher artistic education, academia, and the local community,” said Pierluigi Biondi, mayor of L’Aquila – “Through this initiative, L’Aquila reaffirms its role as a meeting point between tradition and innovation, an international laboratory of creativity, and a place where different cultures and languages come together. Culture is the driving force behind our rebirth and the foundation upon which we are building an increasingly open, aware, and active community. We are a single region, strengthened in a thousand ways.”
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In recent days, other major projects that will make up the official program of L’Aquila 2026 have already been announced, including the National Arts Award—20th edition, organized by the Academy of Fine Arts in collaboration with the MUR, the “Event of the Academies,” a major exhibition dedicated to contemporary sculpture, and the exhibition “Architecture and Urban Planning in Abruzzo 1930–1960,” organized in collaboration with MAXXI L’Aquila.