6ARTISTA is back: the renowned residency programme for young artists promoted by Fondazione Pastificio Cerere
Now in its sixth edition, the project was conceived by Marcello Smarrelli and is being carried out this year as a collaboration between Fondazione Pastificio Cerere and RUFA, with the support of the Italian Ministry of Culture and SIAE, as part of the Per Chi Crea programme.
The project offers six emerging artists under 35 the opportunity to develop their research within a three-month residency at the Foundation’s spaces, located in the heart of the San Lorenzo district in Rome. The participants selected for the 2025–2026 edition are: Vanshika Agrawal, Emma Brunelli, Micol Gelsi, Davide Miceli, Giulia Romolo, and Nadia Vallino.
The selection was curated by a jury composed of: Claudia Cavalieri (Director of Fondazione Pastificio Cerere), Niccolò Fano (Director of Matèria Gallery), Silvia Giambrone (Artist), Davide Lunerti (Curator), Pietro Ruffo (Artist), and Marcello Smarrelli (Artistic Director of the Foundation). The call was aimed at RUFA students and graduates (up to 2019), no older than 35 years and of Italian nationality, residing in Italy or abroad.
The programme foresees that, over the course of twelve months, two artists at a time will share a studio for three months inside the historic Pastificio Cerere building. At the end of the residency cycle, in February 2026, the artworks produced will be showcased in a group exhibition curated by Davide Lunerti and Marcello Smarrelli, held in the renovated spaces of the Foundation.
During the residency, the Foundation and RUFA – under the supervision of tutors Marta Jovanović (Artist) and Fabrizio Pizzuto (Art Historian) – will offer a rich calendar of training activities, meetings, studio visits, and exchanges with sector professionals: critics, curators, journalists, and representatives of cultural institutions. The artists will also be able to attend RUFA seminars and workshops free of charge, for a total of 30 hours.
“6ARTISTA – says Marcello Smarrelli – represents an important opportunity to renew the Foundation’s commitment to the education of young generations of artists, enhancing the value of shared practices and the experience of a unique place: Pastificio Cerere. A space where, for over fifty years, art has generated art, and which continues to be a crossroads of multidisciplinary figures and new possibilities for cultural growth.”
The goal of the project is to consolidate a national and international institutional network, offering participants concrete opportunities for growth and professional exchange.
Fondazione Pastificio Cerere
The Foundation is a non-profit organization and a contemporary art hub that promotes freedom of expression and artistic experimentation, contributing to a contemporary vision of Rome on both national and international levels. Since 2015, it has been a member of the Contemporary Art Foundations Committee promoted by the Italian Ministry of Culture (MiC). Since 2005, it has been based in the former Pastificio Cerere – a historic pasta factory built in 1905 – which began to be inhabited by artists and intellectuals in the 1970s, becoming a permanent laboratory for cultural experimentation. Since 2011, under the artistic direction of Marcello Smarrelli, the Foundation has expanded its commitment to public art projects, educational programmes, scholarships, and training activities for students of all ages.
