Art Curating and Design Management is the RUFA Summer Academy course, developed in collaboration with NATIVA, dedicated to the conception and creation of an art exhibition through the tools of design thinking. The programme addresses all the practical elements of an exhibition project: from choosing the spaces to communicating the event and presenting the final project.
Art Curating and Design management
DURATION > 1 WEEK
LANGUAGE > ENGLISH
WHEN > 13 – 17 JULY 2026
CAMPUS > ROME
An essential collaboration
The Art Curating and Design Management course offers a different approach to curatorial work, integrating skills in art curating, design, team management and design management.
From the idea to the vernissage
Curatorial work begins with selecting the team and analysing the artists’ portfolios. Participants will be asked to get to know the artists, understand their expressive language and interpret it in order to communicate it coherently. Every exhibition requires a theme, a common thread around which the selection of works to be exhibited and enhanced can revolve. For this reason, students are expected to have a certain knowledge of the art world.
Enhancing an exhibition is a complex process involving multiple factors: image consistency, graphic design, specific elements related to the event, the arrangement of works within the space and the actual design of the exhibition setup. The course also introduces the use of the Regenerative Event Framework as an essential methodological approach, together with virtualisation through rendering and simulation within the selected space.
The development of the exhibition project will be constantly guided by design thinking, encouraging greater empathy with the context, the stakeholders involved, the team and the artists. Through iterative processes, aspiring curators will learn to monitor, manage and control every creative and practical aspect of the project, concluding the workshop with the exhibition vernissage, as planned, designed and produced by the students.
Students will practise using the tools typical of the design process: they will learn how to conduct a brainstorming challenge, organise and harmonise every stage of an art exhibition, develop specific pitching exercises and reach the final vernissage.
At the end of the course, participants who have attended at least 4 of the 5 scheduled lessons will receive a certificate of attendance, which may be used for the possible recognition of 2 CFA academic credits.
Course type: group – in person Participants: Min. 8, Max. 20 | The programme is open to university students in Fine Arts, Art History, Design and Marketing/Communication, as well as professionals and enthusiasts in the fields of study and research related to the workshop programme. Attendance: Monday to Friday, from 9 am to 5 pm Duration: 13 – 17 July 2026 Cost: €850 Requirements/materials: No entry requirements. Participants are invited to bring their own laptop/tablet Language: Participants are required to have a good command of English. Lecturers: Francesca Gollo, Fabrizio Pizzuto and NATIVA’s Evolution Guides Location: RUFA – Via Degli Ausoni 7/A – Rome; NATIVA Via degli Ausoni, 1 – Rome; RUFA – Via G. Libetta, 7 – Rome + visits around the city of Rome. Certificate: At the end of the course, participants who have attended at least 4 of the 5 scheduled lessons will receive a certificate of attendance, which may be used for the possible recognition of 2 CFA academic credits.
The workshop includes an introductory section of guided visits to museums and sites of Classical heritage, not only to discover the ancient world but also to capture its interaction with metropolitan Rome, transforming personal impressions into inspiration for choosing colours and materials that participants will record in their travel journals or mood boards under the guidance of the lecturers. After a brief but comprehensive introduction to the moulage technique, participants will move on to creating their own designs directly on the mannequin, assisted by the lecturers. At the end of the course, the entire class will reflect collectively on how to create a coherent styling and presentation for their creations, according to an eco-design approach that trains creatives to work both individually and collectively while reflecting on the multiple relationships and impacts involved in fashion-making.
FRANCESCA GOLLO
Francesca Gollo is a multimedia designer and lecturer in Multimedia Exhibit and Multimedia for Cultural Heritage at RUFA – Rome University of Fine Arts. She collaborates with public and private institutions in the field of multimedia design and cultural heritage enhancement.
She graduated in Communication Design from Politecnico di Milano in 2008. From the outset, she focused her research and production on multimedia and the effects these languages have on the body and space. She worked with Studio Azzurro on editorial and multimedia graphic production for museums and exhibitions including “Fabrizio De André. La mostra”, “Museo Laboratorio della Mente” and “Sensitive City – Expò Shangai 2009”. After moving to Rome in 2011, she founded and served as production manager of the “Aye Aye. Interactive Experience” group, with whom she researched the narrative and communication possibilities offered by multimedia language, creating, for example, the installation “Grande Cavallo Blu” (2014) for the Centenary of Santa Maria della Pietà, and Nerola – Memorie interattive (2013), an exhibition project dedicated to the memories of the village. From 2013 to 2020, she worked at the Museo Laboratorio della Mente ASL Roma 1, focusing on Educational Services, event organisation and the curation of exhibitions by national and international artists, including Jaswant Guzder, Canadian psychiatrist and artist, Sarah Bennett, British artist, and Gea Casolaro, Italian artist. She taught Multimedia Languages at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples.
FABRIZIO PIZZUTO
Fabrizio Pizzuto is an art critic and art historian, certified by the Italian Ministry of Culture and authorised to carry out interventions on cultural heritage. He teaches Contemporary Art History and Art Management and is Coordinator of the RUFA Master’s Programme in Art Curating and Management.
He specialised in Contemporary Art History at the School of Specialisation in Siena, directed by Enrico Crispolti, with a thesis developed after a residency in Paris at the Cité des Arts for Incontri Internazionali d’Arte in 2006.
He currently manages the unconventional exhibition space and online art criticism platform KHLAB, which he co-created and co-founded. He is a curator and Art Dealer for Wepp Art s.r.l. He collaborates with the Nation 2.0 platform in Dubai (United Arab Emirates).
He collaborates with Inside Art Magazine and with Liquitex on artist residencies in Rome at the Fondamenta space.
He has curated and continues to curate exhibitions and has written texts for galleries and exhibition spaces in Italy and abroad.
He lives and works in Rome. Occasionally, he can even be reached.
ALESSANDRA DE SANTI
Alessandra is an Evolution Guide at NATIVA. She graduated in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Pisa in 2017 and obtained a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Groningen (Netherlands) in 2021, specialising in Sustainable Chemistry. From 2021 to 2022, she worked as R&D Project Manager at Mondi Group in Graz (Austria), where she managed the development of interdisciplinary research projects in the sustainable packaging sector, from the laboratory phase through to practical implementation.
NATIVA CAMPUS
CAMPUS is NATIVA’s training school, offering learning experiences focused on sustainability. It brings together regenerative theories and practices developed over more than 15 years of experience and places this knowledge at the service of those who wish to play an active role in the transition towards new economic, social and cultural paradigms.
NATIVA is the Regenerative Design Company that supports hundreds of companies in radically evolving their businesses, accelerating their transition towards regenerative economic models.
It is the first Benefit Corporation in Europe and B Corp in Italy and is co-founder of the Regenerative Society Foundation and founding member of Fondazione per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile. Together with Fondazione per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile, it launched CO2alizione, an initiative aimed at supporting the transition of Italian companies towards climate neutrality.
RUFA Winter-Summer Course Students and Alumni: 10% RUFA Students and Alumni: 50% Very early bird: by 31 December 2025 – 15% Early bird: by 31 March 2026 – 10% Course/group/family package: contact [corsibrevi@unirufa.it](mailto:corsibrevi@unirufa.it) Participants who, after completing the course, enrol in a First- or Second-Level Academic Diploma Programme will receive a 10% reduction on the annual tuition fee for the first year of attendance.
RUFA has established several agreements with facilities providing housing services. For further information, please contact [corsibrevi@unirufa.it](mailto:corsibrevi@unirufa.it)
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