Masterpieces in Lace: exhibition at the Burano Lace Museum

Masterpieces in Lace: at the Burano Lace Museum

The Burano Lace Museum presents "Masterpieces in Lace", an exhibition that examines the role of lace in 20th-century Italian art, focusing on the 1920s and 1930s. The display pairs historic pieces with modern creations to show how lace moved from craft to design and artistic practice.

The exhibition opens from the cultural shift that recognized lace, from the late 1920s onward, as comparable to other decorative arts such as glass and ceramics. Through preparatory drawings, working cartoons, period publications and manufactured works, the route documents collaborations between workshops and designers that shaped a modern lace language.

Highlights

• Insights into the main lace techniques: needle lace and bobbin lace.
• Viewing original designs, cartoons and archival publications illustrating creative processes.
• Comparisons between antique lace and modern interpretations to trace continuity and innovation.
• Works by key figures such as Giulio Rosso, Fausto Melotti, Vittorio Zecchin, Giovanni Gariboldi and Tomaso Buzzi.

Notable items include Giulio Rosso’s "Corteo in costume" for Jesurum, shown at the III Monza Biennale, and materials connected to the international visibility of Italian decorative arts, including the 1931 Stedelijk Museum exhibition. The itinerary concludes with a postwar section and displays of influential period magazines that helped spread modern taste.

Practical details

• Location: Burano Lace Museum, Piazza Baldassarre Galuppi 187.
• Dates: from 21 April 2026 to 8 January 2027.
• Opening hours: daily 10:00–16:00 (last admission 15:30); closed on Mondays.
• Tickets: €7 full price; €3.50 reduced (ages 6–14, students up to 25, over 65); free for children up to 5 and eligible visitors. Exhibition access is included in the museum ticket; combined tickets with other Venice civic museums are available.
• Curators: Chiara Squarcina and Giorgio Levi. The exhibition is dedicated to scholar Doretta Davanzo Poli.

Part of the fifth edition of the Lace Biennale, this exhibition offers a focused look at the meeting point between exceptional craftsmanship and design that shaped Italy’s decorative arts in the early 20th century.