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About us

The Italian Cultural Institute in London is the official Italian governmental body dedicated to promoting Italian language and culture in England and Wales. To this end the Institute:

  • Organises concerts, cultural events and exhibitions.
  • Organises Italian courses.
  • Facilitates initiatives that promote the Italian Language in England and Wales, including collaboration with Italian Lecturers at English, Welsh and Italian Universities.
  • Encourages cultural and scientific collaboration between Italy and England/Wales.
  • Establishes contacts with institutions, bodies and personalities in the English and Welsh arts and scientific communities to promote projects that further the knowledge of Italian life and culture.
  • Provides documentation and information about Italian cultural life and the institutions working in
    this field.
  • Supports initiatives for the cultural development of the Italian community in England and Wales
    to facilitate both its integration in England/Wales and its cultural links with Italy.

 

More info on the Italian cultural network in the world at: italiana.esteri.it

Insights
  • History of the Institute

    In 1949 the Duke of Westminster gave the property in 39 Belgrave Square to the Duke Gallarati Scotti, Italian Ambassador at the time, for it to become the Italian Cultural Institute.

    Since it was inaugurated in 1949, the Institute has been directed by the Count Umberto Morra di Lavriano, Guido Calogero, Gabriele Baldini, Filippo Donini, Mario Montuori, Alessandro Vaciago, Francesco Villari, Benedetta Bini, Mario Fortunato, Pierluigi Barrotta, Carlo Presenti, Caterina Cardona, Marco Delogu and Katia Pizzi.

    The Institute is constantly involved in the organisation of conferences and concerts and it is regularly frequented by an heterogeneous British and Italian public as well as by professors, scholars and university students.

    The Institute has been hosting important personalities of the Italian and British cultural world, such as T.S. Eliot, who held a lecture on Dante in 1964, or Primo Levi, whose speech entitled 'From the Lab to the Writer's Desk' took place in 1986. Among those who have collaborated with the Institute it is worth mentioning Italo Calvino, Mario Soldati, Umberto Eco, Antonia S. Byatt, Piero Dorazio, Ian McEwan, Achille Perilli, Fabio Mauri, Carlo Maria Giulini, Fabrizio Gifuni, Luciano Berio, Claudio Baglioni, Luciana Serra, Howard Jacobson, Lisa Appignanesi, Paolo Sorrentino, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Zubin Mehta, Graziella Sciutti, Alberto Zedda, Marina Warner, Sylvano Bussotti, Marco Paolini, Renata Scotto, Ruggero Raimondi, Jannis Kounellis, the Taviani brothers, Jhumpa Lahiri, Francesco De Gregori, Ferruccio Soleri, Bernardo Bertolucci, Marina Abramovic, Nanni Moretti, Sir Antonio Pappano, Fiorella Mannoia, Hanif Kureishi, Anish Kapoor and many others