MIC Faenza – International Museum of Ceramics
MIC Faenza – International Museum of Ceramics – represents the most important collection in the
world and a real cultural center dedicated to ceramics. Founded in 1908 by Gaetano Ballardini with
a forward-thinking and ambitious project, featuring international and promotional insights into
ceramics in all its aspects, today the MIC heritage consists of over 60,000 works dating from 4000
years bC to the present day. It includes works from Asian, South American, Arab, Mediterranean
and European cultures, showing masterpieces from the greatest master of Art.
The MIC Faenza is structured in several departments; it hosts a library and photographic and documentary archives. The library is a precious reference point for researchers, scholars, artists, students and art critics. It owns about 80,000 volumes and pamphlets dedicated to ceramics and art in general.
Through the Educational department “Playing with ceramics”, MIC Faenza promotes educational workshop devoted to primary and secondary schools, research centers and universities. It promotes the organization of guided tours, workshops to learn about the history and technique of ceramics and make connections with other disciplines. MIC Faenza has also implemented workshops targeting the most vulnerable groups such as the elderly, people with neurodegenerative diseases, Italian and foreign women in socio-economic difficulties, immigrants and people with disabilities, the blind, the visually impaired, and the deaf.
MIC Faenza hosts a Restoration Laboratory that deals with restoration and conservation of ceramic materials, of any technological and chronological type. The staff of the department,
coordinated by the Chief Curator, collaborate with the University of Bologna and Ravenna arranging training and refresher courses for students of the restoration department. The laboratory also performs commissioned work, for private and public institutions.
Since 1938, every two years, MIC Faenza organizes the Faenza Prize, a great and well-known competition dedicated to contemporary ceramic art. Its main aim is to encourage research and innovation in the techniques, materials, forms and modes of expression used in ceramics, so as introducing new trends, ideas and influences from the international scene into the art world. This
Prize is linked with an international network of Institutions dealing with contemporary ceramic art competitions (such as Martinsons Award, MINO, Blanc the Chine, Ceramic Art Andenne, etc.).
Every two years, the the MIC Faenza coordinates Argillà Italy, a market exhibition of international artistic handicrafts.
