StARTers – Assaggi d’Arte, the Siena Art Institute’s popular free entrance talks that come with a complimentary aperitivo, will come back to Siena for Fall 2025!
This year, the talks will be deeply interwined with The Peace Room project, focusing on the co-design of common dialogical spaces through the reflection on a series of themes: Care, Truth and Futures.
The lecturers will be both Italian and international, resulting in a mix of English and Italian language talks. All events, hosted at the Siena Art Institute headquarters Il Punto / The Point in Siena, are free admission and open to all, with no reservation required.
With the aim of expanding the overall accessibility of the talks, due to their inherent documentary value, the StARTers will be available both in presence and online, streaming on the Siena Art Institute Youtube channel.
Learn more about StARTers – Assaggi d’Arte and other resources for local people and visitors here.
All the StARTers – Assaggi d’Arte events for Fall 2025
October 7, 6.00 P.M. – Paola Anziché
Paola Anziché (Milan) lives and works between Turin and Milan.
After completing her studies at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts and earning a master’s degree from the Städelschule in Frankfurt, she was awarded the 12th edition of the Italian Council (2023/24). Her practice investigates the relationship between weaving and biodiversity through the use of natural fibers.
She has exhibited her work in Italian and international institutions.
These include: Muse – Science Museum of Trento; Tashkeel Gallery (Dubai); the National Mountain Museum (Turin); Museo Ferragamo (Florence); Turner Contemporary (Margate); the 21st International Exhibition of the Triennale Milano; Fondazione Remotti (Camogli); GAM Torino; MAMbo Bologna; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo; and Careof (Milan).
She has also participated in artist residencies in Portugal, Bolivia, Guatemala, Brazil, Azerbaijan, Finland, the United Arab Emirates, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.
Presentation in English.
Photo by Peter Stridsberg.
October 14, 6.00 P.M. – Jeremy Davis
Jeremy Davis is a sculptor and educator based in Michigan, where he serves as an Associate Professor of Art at Central Michigan University.
Originally from West Texas, Davis began his artistic journey as a musician before turning his focus to sculpture. He studied at the Lyme Academy in Connecticut, where he developed a strong foundation in classical techniques.
Later, he moved to Chicago to pursue his MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). While at SAIC, Davis collaborated with prominent contemporary artists and began creating work that explores the intersection of sound and visual art, challenging perceptions of traditional sculpture.
His current practice remains multidisciplinary and experimental, grounded in material exploration and a deep interest in how form, space, and sensory experience can communicate meaning and challenge assumptions.
November 4, 6.00 P.M. – Kirsten Stromberg
Kirsten Stromberg (b. San Francisco, CA, USA) is an artist and educator who lives and works in Florence, Italy. Working at the intersection of experimental music, visual art, and education, her work focuses on practices of listening and decentering as forms of critical resistance and reparative practice.
Themes she has explored include pain, loss, and recovery in the world-body, attunement across human and more-than-human worlds, perceptual attention, ecosystemic relations, and synaesthesia.
Kirsten graduated a Senior Fellow from Dartmouth College concentrating in electro-acoustic music and studio art. She completed her MFA in Arts and Consciousness Studies at John F. Kennedy University. Over the past two decades, she has continued studies under mentors and artists Rose Shakinovsky and Claire Gavronsky (known collectively as rosenclaire) in both Italy and South Africa.
For over 20 years, she has dedicated herself to international education and contemporary art, lecturing at several universities and art institutions throughout Italy. Currently, she teaches painting, experimental music and sound art at Syracuse University Florence.
Former positions include Program Director of the MFA in Studio Art at SACI Studio Art College International, Studio Arts Coordinator, and Studio Arts Supervisor at Syracuse University Florence.
Additionally, she held teaching positions at SACI, Washington University in St. Louis, the Istituto Lorenzo de Medici in Florence, and the Florence University of the Arts. She is also currently on the steering committee of Paradox Fine Art Forum, whose goal is to foster dialogue and advocacy for art education and artistic research through forums in cities throughout Europe.
Kirsten’s work has been shown/performed in both solo and group exhibitions internationally including: Museo Novecento, Murate Art District, and Fabbrica Europa in Florence; The National Museum in Warsaw, Poland, L.A.C.E and Huntington Beach Center for The Arts in the Los Angeles area; The SF Arts Commission, 21 Grand and Works/San Jose’ in the San Francisco Bay Area; as well as exhibitions and projects in New York, London, Copenhagen, and Berlin.
November 11, 6.00 P.M. – Helen O’ Toole
Helen O’Toole is best known for her large-scale abstract oil paintings. She was born in County Mayo, Ireland, where she worked on the family farm and played Irish music.
O’Toole studied art in Sligo and Dublin in the early to mid-eighties. In 1986, she packed her belongings in one suitcase and moved to the United States for adventure and to escape endemic unemployment. O’Toole pursued graduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, and later studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, Maine.
She has participated in residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Ireland (1992), The Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA (1991-1992), and The Bemis Foundation, Omaha, NE (1993).
From 1993 to 1995, she lived in Singapore and taught at LASALLE College of the Arts. She spent a year working in in a studio in Brooklyn, New York before moving to Seattle to teach at the University of Washington, where she is currently the Floyd & Delores Jones Endowed Chair in the Arts.
For the past 30 years, she has exhibited in national and international exhibitions.
O’Toole has received numerous prestigious awards, including a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2016), a Contemporary Northwest Art Award (2016), a Pollock Krasner Award (2013), the Jack and Grace Pruzan Fellowship (2009-2015), and the Wycoff Milliman Endowed Fund, among others.
THE PEACE ROOM project has been created with the contribution of the Region of Tuscany and GiovaniSì within the Toscanaincontemporanea2025 program:
