About us
Fondazione
Stelline
Undisputed leader in the civil debate in Milan and Lombardy, nowadays, the Fondazione Stelline is recognised as an inclusive and multi-disciplinary environment both nationally and internationally, located in the city’s financial and cultural centre.
Home to an important Conference Centre, a place for meetings, debates, training, fashion, technology and science, at regional and national level. The cultural and artistic offerings, in a winning combination with conference activity, make this a strategic centre where cultural dominance is reinforced in the name of innovation and sustainability.
©Franco Mascolo
A hybrid space for enjoying exhibitions of contemporary art and big-name photography, as well as taking part in debates, encounters, talks, concerts and museum educational workshops. All the events are actively included in the city’s events schedule and are part of a conscious discourse with the proposals and innovations on an international cultural front.
Mission
A firmly rooted Milanese institution at the thriving heart of the city. Its values of modernity and current events blends with its historical and architectural values to make the Stelline headquarters a place of culture, meetings and in-depth research.
The Foundation was established in 1986 to protect and promote the historical Palazzo and encourage the cultural, social and financial development of Lombardy and Milan within an international framework.
A place for social, cultural and political debate, the Fondazione Stelline has always expressed its vocation to plurality, the spread of ideas, innovation, particularly with regard to the Lombardy area and the City of Milan.
Since 1996, the Fondazione Stelline has organised, promoted and hosted important international art events dedicated, especially in recent years, to contemporary Italian and international artists in its exhibition spaces which have recently undergone conservation renovation work and doubled them in size.
Organisational chart
Fabio Massa
Board of Directors
Maurizio Salerno | Vice President
Barbara Bianchi Bonomi
Andrea Gavazzoni
Silvana Menapace
Board of Auditors
Vittorio Grazi
Fortunata Lopreiato
Sandro Orsi
Pietro Accame
Alessandra Klimciuk
Francesca Pometto
Donatella Aldigeri
Suppliers Department
Alessandro Manfredi
Norma Iannacone
Organisational and Administrative Secretary
Matelda Di Re
Emanuela Volpe
Discover the appointments
of the Fondazione
The Headquarter
Inextricably linked to the Ambrosian history and culture and important figures like Leonardo da Vinci and San Carlo Borromeo, right up to contemporary figures like Paolo Grassi who founded the School of Dramatic Arts at the Stelline, as well as Carlo Tognoli, Italian politician and journalist and government minister on several occasions, who was the founder and first President of the Fondazione Stelline from 1986 to 1992.
The Fondazione Stelline’s sits at the heart of the places linked to Leonardo, precisely where, in the past, the roots of the great Renaissance artist’s Vineyard found fertile ground, “Leonardo’s Botanical Gardens” opposite the Santa Maria delle Grazie Basilica, home to the most famous mural painting in the world, “the Last Supper”.
The Palazzo is one of the most firmly rooted historical places in the history of Milan, located opposite the Santa Maria delle Grazie Church housing Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, and represents one of the most important periods within the Milanese urban fabric. Originally it was an ancient convent for the Benedictine sisters of Santa Maria della Stella, then – from 1600 – a school and refuge for orphans (the “little stars”) thanks to the will of San Carlo Borromeo.
Purchased by the Milan City Council to turn it into the headquarters of the International Institute for Technology Management, the part at number 61, was restored in the 1970s following a project by the architect, Jan Battistoni.
Today, the ancient palazzo, covering a surface area of 19,750 m2, has been revived thanks to restoration work which has preserved and enhanced its entire uniqueness: the stone stairways, the cloister corridors and the central magnolia, one of the most emblematic symbols together with the magnificent mosaic flooring created in the 1970s by Bobo Piccoli. In recent years, important work has been done in favour of environmental sustainability. The full restoration work of the central heating plants, with the creation of a geo-thermal plant serving the entire building and a heat-pump system, now means the Palazzo delle Stelline is an old building with one of the lowest atmospheric emissions in Italy.
Read the statute of the Fondazione Stelline