Artspace's first international exhibition runs from Saturday 8th October to Sunday 13th November 2005 at the Barchessa di Villa Morosini - XXV Aprile, in Mirano, Venice, Italy.

A hugely successful opening was on held on the 8th Oct. Artspace were most heartily welcomed by Gianni Fardin, the Mayor of the Comune di Mirano. By Giancarlo Boccotti, the Head of Culture for the town. Mario Esposito, Culture Service. By Roberta Ballestriero, Curator of the exhibition and by Professore Gianfranco Quaresimin, Director of the L. Lotto Art Group. The speeches were in Italian and Dr Alastair Ward gave a vote of thanks on behalf of Artspace in Italian.

The exhibition is extremely good and the curation by Helen Ward has worked brilliantly. Artspace thank her and Alastair as well as Phillip Ayriss for their hard work and Michael Beal and Andrew Grant for representing Artspace artists at the opening.

The works are well displayed in one long room with a central screen and a smaller room with larger work. Work is arranged by artist and is well spaced out. The exhibition starts near the entrance with images linking the British and Italian identities. As one progresses around the exhibition the work is clearly a statement of the complexity and richness of English Identity.

There were about 200 people at the official opening and the work was well received. We are told that many significant figures from the art world in Venice had travelled to Mirano to see our work.

We thank the Comune di Mirano, Mr. Mario Esposito, Mr. Bruno Tonolo, Prof. Gianfranco Quaresimin, Roberta Ballestriero, the staff of the Barchessa and all the members of Lorenzo Lotto for the opportunity for this exhibition and for the wonderful hospitality they gave us in Mirano.

Michael Beal
October 2005