WHERE WOULD ART BE WITHOUT WOMEN?

'Mister Liso' wouldn't be nearly as nice.

Italy celebrates International Women's Day (Festa della donna, 8 March) with wit, a poster, and panache -- a word borrowed, naturally, from the Italian, pennacchio. 

And a jolly extra: Tomorrow, women can enter all state-owned museums and cultural sites free-of-charge!

This news is hot off the press of the Ministry of Art and Cultural Affairs (isn't it great to have a whole Ministry devoted to art and culture?).  Here's a rough translation of the key part of the announcement (original Italian below) from la penna di Zenobia:

Women have always been the inspiration for the many languages of art: in body and spirit, passion and sentiments, sacred love and profane love, mother and mistress.  For very many centuries, Woman was the Muse, the source of inspiration; now she has become an active agent, a creator of artworks with her own artistic commitment.  Just try to imagine for a moment any Art without its female component and you will quickly realize Woman's absolutely central role.

I confess it sounds better in Italian, but you get the idea.  

Wishing you all, world-wide, an exceptional International Women's Day 2011!


PS:  Don't forget, there is a special Women's History Carnival running throughout the month of March.

First off the bat is Early Modern Notes on the 9th of March, with a follow-up towards the end of the month which will round up all the activities.  You can nominate blog posts for the Carnival using this nomination form.  Plus, keep up to date on what's happening by subscribing to the RSS feed for Women's History Carnival announcements.

Follow events on Twitter, too:

• Follow @historycarnival for news
• Hashtags #whc11 or #twitterstoriennes

From the Ministry website:

Da sempre soggetto ispiratore per il linguaggio dell’arte: corpo e spirito, passione e sentimento, amor sacro e amor profano, madre e amante, la Donna è stata nei secoli rappresentata in tutte le sue sfaccettature, passando nei secoli da primigenia musa ispiratrice a protagonista attiva nella stessa produzione e committenza artistica. Basta pensare per un attimo cosa sarebbe l’Arte senza la componente femminile per comprenderne il ruolo assolutamente centrale.

Per questo il MiBAC celebra la Festa dell’8 marzo, offrendo a tutte le donne l’ingresso gratuito in tutti i luoghi d’arte statali (musei, aree archeologiche, biblioteche ed archivi), molti dei quali per l’occasione hanno organizzato mostre, aperture straordinarie, visite guidate ed eventi a tema.

My thanks to Blogging Pompeii for the tip-off.
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