ISTÓS - Calascio Advanced Training School
ISTOS is the pilot project of the “Scuola di Calascio per il perfezionamento della tessitura, lane e fibre vegetali autoctone”, born as part of the cultural, social and economic regeneration project of the town of Calascio, “Rocca Calascio Luce d'Abruzzo”, financed with PNRR M1C3 MISURA 2 funds “RIGENERAZIONE DI PICCOLI SITI CULTURALI, PATRIMONIO CULTURALE, RELIGIOSO E RURALE” - INVESTIMENTO 2.1. “ATTRATTIVITÀ DEI BORGHI STORICI” CUP I24H22000520001.
MASTERCLASS | ADVANCED COURSES
12-17 May 2025 | Natural Dyeing, Valentina Ferrarini
04-09 May 2026 | Color, Composition, Natural Resist Dyeing, Diamantina Palacios
11-23 May 2026 | Technologies for Circular Fashion, Benedetta Morucci
15-20 June 2026 | Folk Weaving Techniques, Eva Basile
22-27 June 2026 | Folk Weaving Reinterpreted in an Artistic-Contemporary Key,
- The Value of Heritage Rural Garments: Contemporary Tailoring with Handwoven Fabrics, Antony Knight
-Historical Garment 1890-1895: Analysis and Construction, Concita Vadalà
WORKSHOPS |
24 May 2025 | Il giorno della taranta: Upcycling Abruzzo Blankets, Fade Out Label
25 May 2025 | Pescatori di olive: Upcycling Olive Harvest Nets, Fade Out Label
14-15 March 2026 | Denim reassembled, Fade Out Label
19 April 2026 | Collective Embroidery, Sara Basta
10 May 2026 | Creating a Shawl with Nuno Felting, Diamantina Palacios
24 May 2026 | The Art of Traditional Cushions, azienda Semmiflex
OUTREACH EVENTS AND LECTURES
To mark the presentation of the ISTÓS School and the Rocca Calascio – Luce d’Abruzzo programme, Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio is presenting a short series of talks entitled “Textile Memory in the Abruzzo Apennines”, conceived as an opening or closing event for the Masterclasses.
The series explores Abruzzo’s textile heritage through the study of decorative motifs and their symbolic meanings, oral traditions, and the ways in which cultural memory is passed down, with a particular focus on the Abruzzese Jacquard blanket, an icon of local tradition and a source of new contemporary interpretations.
All lectures are free and open to the public.
21 FEBBRAIO 2026 | SIMBOLI DECORATIVI E MEMORIA TESSILE NELL'APPENNINO ABRUZZESE
Closing event of the Masterclass “16–21 February 2026 | Mountain Knitwear: Contemporary Designs Using Abruzzese Wool and Vintage Knitting Machines”
Promoting the ISTÓS School and the Rocca Calascio – Luce d’Abruzzo programme
VENUE: G. Favetta Hall, Museum of the Abruzzo People (Museo delle Genti d’Abruzzo), Via delle Caserme, 58 – 65127 Pescara (PE), Italy
⏰ Saturday, 21 February 2026, 5:00–6:30 pm
Pescara, 21 February 2026 – This talk offers a fascinating journey into the hidden symbolism of the region’s textile artefacts. The featured speaker is Adriana Gandolfi, an ethno-anthropologist and renowned scholar of Abruzzese and Molisan traditions, who will guide the audience through a multimedia presentation.
Through comparative analysis, Gandolfi will illustrate the symbolic systems of the decorative arts, exploring their roots in the cultures and religious traditions that have intersected throughout the Mediterranean basin over the centuries. At the heart of the lecture will be a comparison between symbolic motifs and repertoires of different origins and natures and those recurring in textiles produced in the Abruzzo Apennines over the past two centuries.
21 MARZO 2026 | ASSUNTA PERILLI - LA CUSTODIA E LA TRASMISSIONE DELLA MEMORIA TESSILE ORALE DELLA MONTAGNA. TESSUTI E COPERTE RACCONTANO.
Launch event promoting the Masterclass “22–27 June 2026 | Traditional Weaving Through an Artistic and Contemporary Lens”, led by Angela Giordano
VENUE: G. Favetta Hall, Museum of the Abruzzo People (Museo delle Genti d’Abruzzo), Via delle Caserme, 58 – 65127 Pescara (PE), Italy
⏰ Saturday, 21 March 2026, 5:00–6:30 pm
Pescara, 21 March 2026 – This event offers a journey into the oral textile traditions of the mountainous areas of Abruzzo. The featured speaker is Assunta Perilli, an archaeologist by training and an expert in hand spinning. Through stories about the history and techniques of traditional textiles from the Abruzzo mountains, she will share her challenging yet fascinating encounters with the elderly craftswomen of her homeland.
From these women, she has gathered the memory of a millennia-old body of knowledge. She will take us on a journey through the wealth of knowledge passed down through a rich oral tradition, of which she is now one of the very few remaining custodians.
9 MAGGIO 2026 | MANTÈ. LA COPERTA ABRUZZESE JACQUARD: TRADIZIONE E SVILUPPI NELLA CONTEMPORANEITÀ
Launch event promoting the Masterclass “11–23 May 2026 | Circular Fashion Technologies”, led by Benedetta Morucci
VENUE: G. Favetta Hall, Museum of the Abruzzo People (Museo delle Genti d’Abruzzo), Via delle Caserme, 58 – 65127 Pescara (PE), Italy
⏰ Saturday, 9 May 2026, 5:00–6:30 pm
Pescara, 9 May 2026 – This event explores the dialogue between historical textile heritage and innovative approaches to pattern cutting and design. Eleonora Moreschini, a fashion designer who graduated from Sapienza University of Rome and the Academy of Costume and Fashion in Rome, will present her work cataloguing Abruzzese blankets and her project to repurpose them for contemporary fashion.
Through a presentation of her thesis, “Manté – Memory with Random Access”, which combines previously undocumented textile history with contemporary aesthetic storytelling, she will reveal an experimental creative process driven by the bold use of contrasts.
23 MAGGIO 2026 | STRUMENTI ED ESPERIENZE AL SERVIZIO DELL'IMPRENDITORIA GIOVANILE
Sala Consiliare Comune di Calascio, ore 11-12.30
Event promoting the ISTÓS School and the Rocca Calascio – Luce d’Abruzzo programme
Talks:
“Starting a Business Where the Market Cannot Reach: Local Governance, Impact and Regenerative Value Chains in Remote Rural Areas”
Speaker: Giulia Candeloro
“Building the Future with Public Funding: Yes, It Can Be Done… Today!”
Speaker: Marina Giangiuliani
6 GIUGNO 2026 | FORTI E GENTILI: STORIE DELLE PROTAGONISTE DELLA MODA D'ABRUZZO
Museo Giuseppe Lisio, Comune di Roccamontepiano, ore 17-18.30
Event promoting the ISTÓS School and the Rocca Calascio – Luce d’Abruzzo programme
Speaker: Virginia Spadaccini
This lecture aims to highlight the figures who shaped fashion in Abruzzo, often little known despite their role as pioneers of what would become Made in Italy. Particular attention will be given to the role of women working in mountain communities between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The topics explored form part of the author’s broader research, which has culminated in the forthcoming publication Storia della moda d’Abruzzo. 1900–1960 (A History of Fashion in Abruzzo, 1900–1960), currently in press with Carabba publishers.
20 GIUGNO 2026 | TESSITURA DELLA TRADIZIONE
presso Cooperativa ViviCalascio, Sala Calascio Oggi, VIA ANGELINI 4 - 67020 Calascio (AQ)
Closing event of the Masterclass “15–20 June 2026 | Traditional Weaving Techniques”, led by Eva Basile, promoting the ISTÓS School and the Rocca Calascio – Luce d’Abruzzo programme.
27 GIUGNO 2026 | INCONTRO CON ROSSANA LA VERDE, Calascio
presso Cooperativa ViviCalascio, Sala Calascio Oggi, VIA ANGELINI 4 - 67020 Calascio (AQ)
Launch event promoting artist Rossana La Verde’s Artist Residency
For this occasion, artist and fashion designer Rossana La Verde will bring her project “Si può sempre riprovare” (“You Can Always Try Again”) to Rocca Calascio. The project explores inhabitable sculptural forms whose boundaries are constantly redefined, engaging with the body and transforming the way it moves and occupies space.
Described by the artist as “an exercise that continually ventures elsewhere”, the works take shape as solid volumes or structures poised to collapse at the slightest movement. Surfaces that create friction or offer support overlap, generating unprecedented bodily configurations, new balances, different spatial footprints and new thresholds of contact with the surrounding environment.
ARTIST RESIDENCY
June 15-27, 2026 | Creation of a textile artwork
***
IUNO is pleased to announce Rossana La Verde’s (Caltanissetta, 1997) residency at ISTÓS – School of Calascio for Advanced Training in Weaving, Wool and Native Plant Fibres.
The residency takes place within a research context dedicated to textile practices and situated forms of knowledge rooted in the Abruzzo region, and will be accompanied by public events and opportunities for exchange with artists, artisans and professionals working in the field of textile arts.
For the occasion, artist and fashion designer Rossana La Verde will bring to Rocca Calascio her project "Si può sempre riprovare" (One Can Always Try Again), in which inhabitable sculptural forms, whose boundaries are constantly redefined, encounter the body, altering the ways it moves through and occupies space. Described by the artist as “an exercise that continually pushes itself elsewhere”, the works take shape as volumes that are either solid or ready to collapse at the slightest movement; surfaces that generate friction or support overlap and give rise to unprecedented bodily configurations, new balances, different spatial footprints and alternative thresholds of contact with the surrounding environment.
This exploration of the relationship between the body and textile material will continue throughout the residency, from 17 to 27 June, through an engagement with new materials, tools and techniques drawn from the local textile tradition. The exchange between Rossana La Verde’s ongoing research and the work of the School, its teachers and the students attending during this period will unfold as an open and reciprocal dialogue, bringing together materials, forms of knowledge and complementary visions.
On 27 June, Si può sempre riprovare (One Can Always Try Again) will be presented to the public in the presence of the artist.
Rossana La Verde (born in Caltanissetta in 1997) earned a diploma in Sculpture from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan and later completed a Master’s degree in Fashion and Visual Arts at the Iuav University of Venice, where she explored the intersection between artistic practices and the languages of fashion.
Her research develops through an imagery that investigates the emotional dimension tied to memory, giving shape to a poetic universe in which childhood elements and pain coexist. Within this context, the act of imaginative play becomes central as a tool for reworking and reconstructing what has been lost.
In 2022 she won the ARTbite x Cramum award and subsequently took part in several group exhibitions, including one with Paratissima. She also developed a performative line of research, presented at Traffic Gallery in Bergamo. At the same time, she works as a costume designer, collaborating with RAI and designing costumes for theatrical productions by Lucia Di Pietro at Officine Caos, Fuori Margine, Centrale Fies, and Fabbrica del Vapore. Last December she collaborated with Wissal Houbabi and IUNO at the MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome. She recently presented a solo exhibition at Gallery Room in Milan.
The ISTÓS project - School of Calascio for Advanced Weaving, Wools and Native Plant Fibers aims to create a productive cultural school that promotes the processing of wool from native sheep breeds as a local, sustainable and valuable material, contributing to the regeneration and economic and social development of the Abruzzo region.
The training is aimed at creatives, artisans, designers, artists, curators, restorers, costume designers, set designers, teachers and researchers, with the aim of developing an advanced training centre that promotes and disseminates sustainable practices in production processes and the recognition and protection of local resources.
Promoted by FONDAZIONE ARTE DELLA SETA LISIO [www.fondazionelisio.org] together with local organisations such as CHIU TESSITURA [www.instagram.com/chiu_tessitura] and LAMANTERA [www.lamantera.com], the IUNO contemporary arts research centre [https://iunoiuno.it] and the SOLIDO knitwear studio [www.instagram.com/sldknit], the school offers an educational programme consisting of specialised courses, artist residencies and experiential workshops.
>>> PRESS-KIT
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Elena Baistrocchi, Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio, Firenze
Valeria Befani, Chiu Tessitura, Calascio (AQ)
Benedetta Morucci, Lamantera, Anversa degli Abruzzi (AQ)
Cecilia Canziani e Ilaria Gianni, Iuno, Roma
Matteo Barra Gardiner, Solido, Tivoli (RM)
COMMUNICATION CONTACT
Katia Maratea, Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio
Benedetta Morucci, Lamantera
Follow Us on Instagram @istos.scuoladicalascio
