laFondazioneNY, established by the late design icon Massimo Vignelli [2] and Riccardo Viale [3], former Director of the Italian Institute of Culture [4], has over time built a bridge between the United States and Italy, two very different cultures that also have surprising points in common.

The Foundation has encouraged a continuous flow of young talents who have been awarded and honored for their achievements in the arts and human sciences.

Thanks to laFondazioneNY [5], they have been given the opportunity to have unique, firsthand experiences outside an academic setting.

Initiatives of exceptional quality and originality have followed one after another, often surprising the public in New York and its surrounding areas by promoting a winning and often unfamiliar image of contemporary Italian culture.
 

The year 2014 has also been filled with events like the Gotham Prize [4], which awards the excellence of Italian artists in the areas of cinematography and arts.
 

We would also like to remember “A Conversation with Prof. Paola Salvi” from the Accademia di Belle Arti Milan, and the “Italian Master of Contemporary Art Michelangelo Pistoletto on the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci,” as well as the recent conference about Slow Luxury, “Luxury in Today’s Society: Between Excellence and Excess [6],” organized by the Museum of Arts and Design [7], which saw the involvement of many journalists from the Financial Times and Italian companies like Buccellati [8] and Cesare Attolini [9].
 

The Foundation’s initiatives not only aim to better promote the best of all things Italian in New York, but also to ‘export’ the best of all things American to Italy.

Like, to cite one example, the exhibition recently inaugurated at the Fondazione Roma Museum [10] – Palazzo Sciarra, which will be hosting “American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell [11]” through February 2015. For the firsttime in Italy, more than one hundred iconic works from the Norman Rockwell [12] Museum in Stockbridge, MA will be on display.
 

The passing of President Massimo Vignelli last spring has been a difficult moment for laFondazione NY: He was the heart and soul of the Foundation.
 

Today the baton has been passed on to another icon, Dante Ferretti, a multiple award-winning artist of Italian cinema and cinematography.

You might remember his recent solo exhibition here in New York at MoMA, “Dante Ferretti [13]: Design and Construction for the Cinema,” in cooperation with Luce Cinecittà [14], Rome, and strongly supported by well-known writer and journalist Antonio Monda [15].
 

Riccardo Viale, the mastermind behind all this and Founder and Chairman of laFondazioneNY, tells us about the eccentric highlights of their annual gala which will be held on December 8 at the Museum of the Moving Image [16] in Astoria, Queens.
 

For the occasion, six dreamlike costumes from the wardrobe archive of Tirelli Atelier will be on display. This extraordinary Italian ‘sartoria’ has dressed actresses from all over the world in movies such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Robin Hood, and The Brothers Grimm.

The atelier was founded in 1964 by Umberto Tirelli, and creating costumes for movies soon became his major business activity. The costumes will be contributed to the permanent exhibition opening at MoMI in 2015, a main sponsor of which is Dolce & Gabbana.
 

“The idea of promoting an exhibition of the Sartoria Tirelli [17] in New York was conceived many years ago,” Riccardo Viale tells us. It has been possible to realize it for 2015 and in preview for this gala thanks to the generosity and cultural interest of Dolce & Gabbana. Specifically, I would like to thank Federica Marchionni, sensitive interpreter of Italian excellence of which the Tirelli costumes are one of the finest examples.”
 

The MoMI has in turn enthusiastically welcomed the idea and the new President of laFondazioneNY Dante Ferretti has made himself available to help with design and set up.

The absence of a fundamental figure, the foundation’s father, will certainly be felt at this year’s gala. We’re talking about Massimo Vignelli, of course, the great designer, world famous architect and icon of the Italian culture.

Vignelli wanted the foundation to promote the best of contemporary culture. “Massimo is always with us, in our hearts and in our minds,” Viale continues. “The activities and laFondazioneNy’s style follow his imprint. At the gala a short video made by i-Italy, which has worked in close contact with him on a number of projects, will be broadcast in his memory. I would also like to mention that a new award for young Italian and American designers has recently been established by us in his name.”