Alchimia – Contemporary Jewellery School in Firenze

 

Alchimia is one of the very few schools throughout the world that is exclusively dedicated to the study of contemporary jewellery. In the beginning it was a challenge, but it was a necessary one, because at the time we opened in 1998, there was no other school like it in Italy.

In the history of humanity, jewellery has never been solely ornamental, it has always had strong symbolic value, it underlines social, religious and political status, it represents rites of passage, it bears witness to the beginning or end of something important at a personal and social level, it is a token of love, a custodian of memory, the hereditary object par excellence. Jewellery has always marked out popular culture and has attentively shown its evolution: our ambition from the beginning has been to open up a dialogue between past and present, bringing these values back to the here and now, using a contemporary language. What is contemporary jewellery today? To whom and to what does it refer? What are its reasons for being? What is the current concept of value? In a globalised world, what creative context are we working in? Researching to find answers makes us reflect and brings up other questions which then form the basis for further conceptual and practical research.

Great artists, and committed teachers, such as Giampaolo Bebetto and Manfred Bischoff have been important companions on this journey and have made highly significant contributions to the identity of Alchimia, offering their collaboration and unwavering belief in our project. The aesthetics, philosophy and didactics have benefited immeasurably by inviting the greatest interpreters of international contemporary jewellery to take on the role of tutor and engage in a constant dialogue with our students. The consequence of this immersion in the diverse styles, cultures and mindsets of the teachers and students has been the search for an unprecedented universal creative language in continuous development: a stylistic and conceptual evolution that has made the Alchimia of today unique in the world, not just as a place of study but also in the growth of autonomous creativity.

Since 2016 Alchimia has operated in two different locations, one dedicated to the Bachelor in Fine Arts major in Contemporary Jewellery and Intensive Courses, and the other exclusively for the students of the Masters in Fine Arts major in Contemporary Jewellery and Body Ornaments.

Both Alchimia sites are in the historic centre of Florence, Italy, something which we believe contributes a great deal to the school’s unique character.

Alchimia is a place of intense activity with exhibitions, symposia, lectures, collaborations with museums, contemporary art galleries, and centres of design, as well as participation in events and competitions. Every year, it is here that students and teachers come together to create and carry out extraordinary projects, immensely valuable in the way they increase students’ confidence in their own abilities and place them on the international art scene.

Lucia Massei

Discover more about it, go to the official Website of Alchimia: here.