Lavazza took another major step in its ongoing commitment to helping promote the arts and culture around the world with the announcement of a multi-year collaboration with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. The strategic alliance comes on the heels of the launch of “Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim,” a remarkable exhibition sponsored by Lavazza currently on view at the Guggenheim New York, shown during the 80^th anniversary year of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Indeed, Lavazza has a strong link with the organization, having partnered with the Guggenheim New York since 2014 as Global Partner with an onsite product offering and sponsorship of four critically-acclaimed exhibitions to-date. The new alliance with the Peggy Guggenheim in Venice provides Lavazza the opportunity to serve its quality authentic Italian coffee experiences on-site with a Lavazza café, as well as help bring to life impactful exhibitions.

VENICE, ITALY – Francesca Lavazza. (Photo by Venturelli/Getty Images for Lavazza)

Coffee itself has been one of the main “supporters” of culture and the first “social media network” in history. Indeed, the drink is a symbol of sharing that has brought about the creation of countless ideas and works art. This is a mission which Lavazza, as a global coffee industry leader, has opted to embrace by way of collaborations, initiatives and important art and cultural projects. With Italy arguably being the cradle of culture, Lavazza naturally has within its DNA an innate sensibility and passion for the arts. A love that has over the years sparked collaborations with some of the globe’s leading contemporary photographers and lead unique cultural programs.

VENICE, ITALY – Francesca Lavazza and Philip Rylands. (Photo by Venturelli/Getty Images for Lavazza)

Francesca Lavazza, Lavazza Board Member and Member of the Guggenheim Board of Trustees states, “I am pleased to announce our new collaboration with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, an iconic institution founded by a woman who I deeply admire.” She added “I am also delighted that we at Lavazza have grown our support for the Guggenheim Foundation, which began in 2014 with the Guggenheim New York. With this latest collaboration in Venice, our company is taking yet another crucial step in developing our role as a global driver for the arts and culture. We are proud of Lavazza’s history of more than two decades of supporting photography projects, cultural institutions and other initiatives that not only strategically align our products with a key audience segment, but more importantly help generate unique and thought-provoking programs.”

The first exhibition Lavazza supports at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection is “Mark Tobey: Threading Light.” The show will be on view from May 6, 2017 – September 10, 2017, with its first weeks opening to the public during the famed Venice Biennale, the leading contemporary art show. It was Mark Tobey himself who nearly 60 years ago in 1958 received the City of Venice Prize at the Venice Biennale. And now, the first retrospective in more than 20 years explores and re-contextualizes a selection of 66 works by this major American painter whose influence on the movement towards a national modern art identity was in the past overlooked.

Additionally, since 2015, Lavazza has had a partnership with the Civic Museums of Venice, an organization that oversees and operates the most iconic institutions in the city. It was through this relationship that Lavazza was also able to work with the Fortuny Museum in Venice and realize a retrospective exhibition on this visionary artist at the Hermitage State Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia where Lavazza is also a strategic partner as of December 2016.

VENICE, ITALY –  Francesca Lavazza, Philip Rylands, Debra Bricker Balken and Judith F. Dolkart. (Photo by Venturelli/Getty Images for Lavazza)

LAVAZZA and its commitment to promoting art and culture

Lavazza has a long history of promoting the arts and culture. From its first steps taken with revolutionary campaigns created by the undisputed Italian advertising genius Armando Testa, through to the celebration of artistic creativity represented by the Lavazza Calendar, the company has always been a pioneer in the visual arts. From photography and design to fine advertising graphics, today Lavazza is a partner of leading international art museums. These include: the Guggenheim Museum in New York (USA), the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Venice), the Musei Civici Veneziani in Venice (Italy), and the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg (Russia). Lavazza also offers its support to the MUDEC (Museum of Cultures) in Milan, the Merz Foundation and Camera (the Italian Center for Photography) in Turin and to top international art and photography events worldwide, including the Mia Photo Fair in Milan and exhibitions by Steve McCurry, the author of the ¡Tierra! series of photographs shot in Honduras, Peru, Colombia, India, Brazil, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Vietnam, taking us on a journey to discover coffee trading routes and communicating all the passion and commitment that the Lavazza Foundation invests in coffee-producing communities. This is all of course enhanced by a more than 20 year history of working with some of the world’s leading photographers on the Lavazza Calendar projects, with the likes of Helmut Newton, Annie Leibovitz, David LaChapelle, Thierry Le Gouès and more.

About Lavazza

Established in Turin in 1895, Lavazza is an Italian coffee producer owned by the family of the same name for four generations. The world’s sixth ranking coffee roaster, today the Group has operations in more than 90 countries, through associated companies and distributors, and exports 53% of production. Lavazza employs about three thousand people and has a turnover of 1,473 million euros (2015 financial statements). Lavazza started out life by inventing the concept of coffee blending, or the art of combining different varieties of coffee from different geographical areas, in a process that remains a feature of most of the company’s products. The company also has a tradition stretching back over more than 25 years in the production and marketing of portioned coffee systems and products and is Italy’s leading player in the espresso capsule system segment, with operations in all business areas: home, away from home and office, with a focus, as always, on innovative technology and consumption systems.