PREPARING THE ITS CREATIVE ARCHIVE FOR THE PUBLIC
Since its foundation in 2002, International Talent Support has gathered over 18,000 projects from young fashion, accessories and jewellery designers, as well as from photographer, coming from all over the world. They have been neatly stored in the ITS Creative Archive, a home for the "history of fashion evolution" as Hilary Alexander put it in 2012.
Covid-19 has radically changed our fruition of culture. As we wait for the pandemic to end museums worldwide have been forced to explore the digital arena, if they hadn't already done so. From being mostly insiders' tools, digital archives are transforming into intuitive, easy-to-browse tools for the public. Sometimes adding exclusive content that the physical experience could not provide (the contrary is also true...).
AN INFINITE LABORATORY OF BEAUTY
The Archive is an open laboratory on the future of creativity, allowing a conversation between design, industry, and innovation. It has been visited by fashion design students, journalists ,fashion insiders and personalities of the likes of artist Marina Abramovic, curators Valerie Steele (FIT) Harold Koda (MET Costume Institute), Miren Arzalluz (Palais Galliera), Oriole Cullen (Victora & Albert), Stefania Ricci (Director of Museo Salvatore Ferragamo and Fondazione Ferragamo) and Laurent Cotta (Curator in Charge, Graphic Arts Palais Galliera).
The collection is ever-growing, branching out to describe the infinite expressions of creativity. Right now boasts over 18,000 portfolios, 240+ outfits, 125 accessories, 86 jewellery pieces and more than 700 digital photography projects, from 80 different countries. Tons of creativity.
In view of ITS Arcademy, we are currently screening and analyzing meticulously the entire ITS Creative Archive of portfolios and items, and for a variety of reasons: figuring our possibilities for exhibitions, understanding if we are missing items and want to make acquisitions from past finalists, brainstorming about possible workshops we could do based on projects we've received, re-elaborating thoughts we'd made on specific collections that we now see under a different light... lots of ticks, on an infinite checklist (we might keep this for a future article), including the dream of making all of this accessible for everyone remotely, through a dedicated app.
ITS ARCADEMY: A CONCEPT MERGING EXHIBITION AND EDUCATION
The closure of our archive, due to Covid-19, coincided with the beginning of the huge undertaking that is ITS Arcademy, our latest project. ITS Arcademy will combine the exxhibition concept with the academic one.
The exhibit area will include the ITS Creative Archive and temporary exhibitions, offering a space for dialogue between the world of fashion and those of the arts, cinema and design.
The educational part will be aimed at two different kinds of public: a popular one, with courses and workshops aimed at elementary, middle and high school students from all over Italy, visitors and the local community; and a professional one dedicated to insiders, where former ITS competitors will be able to return to Trieste to share their professional experience, and where companies will be able to organize workshops, seminars and special projects.