ART CITY Bologna is the new institutional program promoted by the Municipality of Bologna and Bologna Fiere, which from 25 to 27 January 2013 was staged alongside Arte Fiera, held for the thirty-seventh time this year, and proposes an original exploration of museums and other places of art in the city, with over 50 events between exhibitions and cultural initiatives.

Thus the weekend traditionally devoted to the most important Italian fair in the sector becomes an opportunity to find out about and rediscover Bologna’s extraordinary historical palaces and other cultural locations, transfigured through the incursion of the contemporary.

ART CITY Bologna is a coherent project that aims to make the most of the city’s artistic heritage by rendering it accessible through means of networking like the free ART CITY Bus – a shuttle linking Arte Fiera to the center and taking visitors on a tour of the city’s places of art – and the ART CITY Map – which indicates the stops on that tour and provides useful information. Six stops are provided: Arte Fiera in Piazza Costituzione; Museo per la Memoria di Ustica in Via Ferrarese; Pinacoteca in Via Irnerio; MAMbo in Via Don Minzoni; Villa delle Rose in Via Saragozza; Centro Storico in via Farini/Carbonesi with a ride every 20 minutes from 12.30am to 08.00pm.

The accessibility is guaranteed by extended opening hours and free entrance or reduced charges for the possessors of any Arte Fiera ticket or card at the locations mentioned above. Moreover, Infopoints are available at the Bologna Welcome touristic info points – in Piazza Maggiore and at Guglielmo Marconi Airport – while staff responsible of welcoming the public is present in the numerous venues of the event. Services for families and children are offered by the initiatives of ART CITY Children.

ART CITY Bologna sees the Municipality of Bologna and BolognaFiere collaborate with those of the city’s institutions that have always been in the forefront of cultural proposals: the University of Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Accademia di Belle Arti, Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna and Fondazione del Monte, along with private bodies devoted to the promotion of contemporary art such as the Fondazione Furla, Fondazione Marino Golinelli, Biografilm Festival, Associazione Bologna per le Arti, Associazione Culturale ALL WRITE and the Galleries of Modern and Contemporary Art associated with Confcommercio Ascom Bologna.

This exceptional effort of orchestration has led to the creation of a wide-ranging program coordinated by Gianfranco Maraniello, director of the Istituzione Bologna Musei.

The full program of ART CITY Bologna is available online:
http://www.artefiera.bolognafiere.it/en/international-exhibition-of-contemporary-art-arte-fiera-2013/776.html