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‘Eyes in Color’ stopping at URI as part of national tour

University’s first Italian Heritage and Cultural Month puts spotlight on heritage and culture d'Italia with traveling exhibit, music, and more

Artist Franco Azzinari is on a mission to convey the importance of awareness of climate change issues to protect the planet, especially for younger generations.

KINGSTON, R.I. – Oct. 21, 2024 – Brazil is more than 5,000 miles from Italy but the two ocean nations are uniting this month in a unique traveling exhibit being hosted at the University of Rhode Island.

Inspired by the appearance of several classical Italian guitarists and mandolin players visiting URI this month — and the fact URI has one of the largest Italian study programs in the U.S., thanks to its International Engineering Program — several complementary events are taking place on campus, celebrating Italian culture and offerings for the first time at the University.

Azzinari and URI’s Michelangelo La Luna (left) both come from San Demetrio Corone, a small town of Albanian minority in Calabria, Italy. In 2012, the two met up for an exhibit of Azzinari’s work inspired by Ernest Hemingway, before traveling to Montana to visit Hemingway’s son, Patrick.

The centerpiece event is a traveling exhibit by Franco Azzinari, “The Painter of the Wind.” Azzinari was born in San Demetrio Corone, Cosenza, Italy, in 1949. He left Calabria as a teenager and traveled Europe, launching a notable artistic career. In his global travels, Azzinari was always drawn to places that reminded him of home — its characters, countryside, and colors.

Since 1989, Azzinari has worked on the “Eyes in Color” project, dedicated to the children of the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon, whom he taught how to draw and paint the rainforest there. Azzinari would also bring them pencils, brushes, paints, and sketchbooks, so that they could continue to paint after he left. The goal of the project, endorsed by UNICEF and presented by Azzinari to Pope Francis in a private meeting at the Vatican in 2019, is to protect the rainforest and its endangered population and to launch a message on climate change and deforestation of Amazonia. The project will be presented in several institutions in the U.S. this October, followed by exhibitions in Italy and other locations around the world.

URI has one of the largest Italian study programs in the U.S. Many, like engineering student Carlos Fragoso Uriarte ’25, spend a year in Italy studying and working as part of their degree program.

Azzinari first visited Rhode Island a decade ago when he brought his exhibition “Looking for Hemingway” to Boston; he and fellow Calabrian, and URI professor, Michelangelo La Luna, also traveled to Montana to visit Patrick Hemingway, son of Ernest.

Now they are uniting again for the “Eyes in Color” exhibit at URI.

The Friday, Oct. 25, opening of the exhibit will include a poetry reading by Italian-American poet and alumnus Laurence Sasso and a drawing workshop by Azzinari. The exhibit will be on display in the Language Center in Swan Hall, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with events starting at 3:30 p.m. The paintings will be on display there for three weeks.

The Azzinari visit, and other programs taking place around it, are important, says La Luna, noting that Rhode Island possesses the highest percentage of people of Italian heritage per-capita in the country and URI has one of the largest Italian undergraduate programs in the U.S.

URI Italian students present “L’Italiano e il Libro” for visitors from the Italian consulate in Boston.

Additional events for URI’s first Italian Heritage and Cultural Month include a conversation with La Luna on Nov. 13 in Swan Hall for the birthday of the celebrated Italian author Dacia Maraini, followed by a performance by Italian 305 students inspired by Tre Occhi su Pinocchio, one of Maraini’s plays. The month-long program also includes outreach beyond campus, including lectures to the Westerly Dante Society and South County Art Association by Azzinari and La Luna, talks on Italian opera and jazz, a concert of Vivalidi and Piazzolla, and a performance of “L’Italiano e il Libro” (Italian and the Books) by Italian students for Arnaldo Minuti, consul general of Italy in Boston.

URI’s Italian IEP program, which La Luna directs, is also hosting a celebration for current and potential Italian majors and minors on Oct. 23; alumni are welcome, too. Pizza and gelato will be served.

‘Eyes in Color’

“Eyes in Color” is the most important project by Azzinari, who says he loves the children of Amazonia because they remind him of his own childhood in Italy. He often missed food or toys, but found enjoyment in the colors of nature: “They remind me about myself,” he says. “In the morning I would look for coal in the fireplace to use it for my first drawings on wood. Now, I love sharing my painting skills with these children: they represent the most precious creatures in the world, and they are the future of our planet.”

Azzinari’s drawing workshop on Oct. 25 is open to any interested URI student or community member; no registration needed. The event is open to the public but URI students will have priority for the workshop.

The “mobile exhibition” is on display at URI through November, with the aim of getting to as many people and venues as possible. 

“Eyes in Color” opened at URI on Saturday, Oct. 19, in Edwards Hall, part of the URI Guitar and Mandolin Festival, and will move to the Language Center in Swan Hall on Oct. 25, remaining in place there for three weeks. Learn more about additional events here or by contacting Michelangelo La Luna: laluna@uri.edu.