Creativamente Roero – Artist Residencies among Villages and Castles

Contemporary art among the villages of the Roero

Creativamente Roero – Artist Residencies among Villages and Castles is a widespread event that has been transforming the Roero and Monferrato territory into a vast contemporary art laboratory since 2018. Promoted by the Creativamente Roero Association and curated by artistic director Patrizia Rossello, the initiative invites Italian and international artists each year to stay in small towns, where they observe the landscape, engage with residents, and create site-specific works destined to remain as a shared heritage.

Castellinaldo d'Alba, a stop on the traveling festival

The municipality of Castellinaldo d'Alba, located in the province of Cuneo in the heart of the Piedmontese Roero, is one of the host villages for the event. The final day features a traveling festival that crosses all participating municipalities in a single day, with inaugurations of the works produced during the residencies. In Castellinaldo, the stop takes place in the late afternoon at the former water tower, a symbolic landmark of the town, where the artist's work is presented to the public and becomes a permanent part of the urban landscape.

A three-phase residency model

The project follows a consolidated model divided into three stages: initial exploration of the site, creation of the work with community involvement, and the public presentation event. This participatory approach has allowed dozens of artists to be involved over the years and has disseminated over thirty permanent installations throughout the territory, creating a true open-air museum distributed among the hills of the Roero, now a UNESCO World Heritage vineyard landscape.

Art, wine, and tradition

Every stop of the traveling festival is accompanied by food and wine tastings, as well as music and dance performances, which weave the artistic experience with the rural and viticultural identity of the area. In Castellinaldo d'Alba, the day concludes with local stakeholders, starting with the Association of Winemakers of Castellinaldo, guardians of the Barbera and Roero wine tradition, in a toast that seals the encounter between contemporary art and wine culture.

A cultural network of Piedmont

Creativamente Roero involves a network of municipalities in the Roero and Monferrato, with the support of the Piedmont Region, banking foundations, and local entities, and the patronage of national institutions and UNESCO site associations. The event represents a virtuous example of enhancing small towns through art, capable of attracting visitors and restoring centrality to Piedmontese villages.