Four leading figures of the contemporary cultural scene will guide students in the Mentorship Program
News
IED Firenze Mentorship Program
Date
12 May 2025
With the project Campo Aperto – On Imagining Beyond Boundaries, IED Florence announces the mentors who will guide students through a journey of exploration across design, fashion, art and communication.
The Mentors
Four leading figures of the contemporary cultural scene will accompany the students as mentors:
Stefano Cipolla (Visual Arts Area)
Art director, graphic designer, and professional journalist. Always immersed in the world of newspapers: in the 1990s, he began designing magazines as a freelancer, and in 2001 joined the daily il Manifesto. In 2004, he moved to La Repubblica, where he worked on the design of sections and special projects (such as La Domenica di Repubblica, R2, and Repubblica books) and oversaw two graphic redesigns (2007 and 2014). Since February 2018, he has been the Art Director of the weekly L’Espresso. As of September 2024, he is the creator and editor-in-chief of the quarterly newspaper Grafica Magazine.
Leonardo Bigazzi (Art Area)
Curator and producer of artist films based in Florence. He is currently curator at the Fondazione In Between Art Film (2020 – present). In this role, he co-curated, among others, the exhibitions Penumbra (2022) and Nebula (2024) at the Venice Biennale Arte. He is also curator of Lo schermo dell’arte in Florence (since 2008) and founder and curator of VISIO – European Programme on Artists’ Moving Images (since 2012). He has commissioned and/or produced over thirty artist films. Recently, he edited the book VISIO – Moving Images in Europe since the 2010s.
Maria Cristina Didero (Design Area)
Independent curator and author in the field of design, based in Milan. She collaborates with magazines such as Domus, Vogue Italia, and Wallpaper as Milan Editor. She has curated exhibitions worldwide, worked for 14 years with the Vitra Design Museum, and developed projects for institutions including the Deste Foundation, the Holon Design Museum, and Design Miami. In 2024, she won the Best Curatorial Project Award at Design Miami/Basel.
Elisa Pervinca Bellini (Fashion Area)
Senior Fashion News and Sustainability Editor at Vogue Italia, where she has worked for almost 20 years. For more than 10 of those years, she focused on scouting emerging designers through Vogue Talents. Passionate about sustainability, she was part of Condé Nast’s first Sustainability Council and, in 2019, launched Vogue Italia’s podcast series.
A Guide for the Students
The mentors will provide students with tools to read and interpret ongoing cultural transformations, fostering new forms of imagination and critical production. Their expertise represents a wealth of knowledge and perspectives that will enrich the collaborative and porous dimension of Campo Aperto.
With the contribution of these figures, IED Florence reaffirms its mission as a bridge between school and society, creating opportunities for dialogue that transcend disciplinary boundaries and generate new trajectories of thought and action.
Related projects
- Campo Aperto: Imagining Beyond Borders
- Garden Talks: A series of events dedicated to those who imagine design as a collective practice.
Stefano Cipolla
Art Director of L’Espresso and EIC of Grafica Magazine
Leonardo Bigazzi
Curator and Producer of Artist’s Films
Maria Cristina Didero
Curator and Curatorial Director of Design Miami 2022
Elisa Pervinca Bellini
Senior Fashion News & Sustainability Editor at Vogue Italia
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