Safeguarding the Planet and Adding Value to Humanity Through the Arts and Culture: the Acqua dell’Elba Foundation Is Born
When love for territory meets respect for the environment, a desire is born to develop one in order to assist the other. This is the inspiration behind the Acqua dell’Elba Foundation (“Fondazione Acqua dell’Elba”), a non-profit entity which will be presented during the course of the second edition of the “Green Week” sponsored by the company from Marciana Marina, taking place from the 16th to the 22nd of May with the intention of encouraging the development of the island and its heritage by focussing on the environment, education, culture, health and the arts.
After 22 years of commitment in favour of sustainability, Acqua dell’Elba thus gives birth to an “Acquamarine-coloured sister” which, being outside of any commercial interest, will focus on contribution to the safeguard of the island’s ecosystem, developing its social and cultural heritage by encouraging growth through the creation of always-new projects.
The ”Green Week” will begin on the 16th of May in Ravenna, in view of the European Day of the Sea taking place over the 19th and 20th May, and the newly-constituted Foundation will take advantage of this occasion to present the fourth edition of
SEIF - Sea Essence International Festival, dedicated to the safeguard and development of the sea. Starting from this year, the festival will fall under the remit of the Foundation, so to celebrate this new beginning a theme was chosen – “Future Landscapes” – to narrate our tomorrows, both metaphorically and realistically, and the world as we would like to see it in a few years’ time, revolving around values of sustainability.
The Foundation itself will be officially presented on the 17th of May in Marciana Marina, in the historical headquarters of Acqua dell’Elba, together with all the projects and development ideas it will be connected to in the near future.
Sustainability and art: two complementary souls needing culture to truly cement their union. Indeed, this will be the central theme on the 18th of May, when the yearly donation of around 100 books to the libraries of Isola d’Elba’s high schools will be discussed, together with the subject of female empowerment which has always been dear to Acqua dell’Elba.
The Foundation is created on the strength of a romantic yet concrete basis, that is to say that respecting human beings is only possible through the safeguard of the environment and vice versa, in a mutually vital exchange which finds in the protection of the ecosystem and the landscapes its true unifying trait. For Acqua dell’Elba this connection is embodied by the project “La Via dell’Essenza”, “Essence Street”, now also falling under the remit of the Foundation. We will talk about the project involving the Elban trailways on the 19th of May, while we walk along one of its paths with Davide Fiz, an enthusiast of trekking and slow tourism who will later feature it in his own wonderful project, “Smart Walking”.
Between new synergies and ancient values, on the 20th of May the Foundation will discuss health and safety in connection with two truly extraordinary local realities: the Association in support of women affected by Endometriosis and the historical association “Diversamente Sani” (“Differently Healthy”), authentic Elban beacon of salvation for patients of oncological illnesses and their families.
On the 21st of May we will be surrounded by the suggestive landscape of Isola d’Elba’s Spiagge degli Argonauti (Shores of the Argonauts) and their darkly striped rocks, which inspired Alfredo Gioventù for the creation of his collection of artistic Home fragrance diffusers “Spiagge degli Argonauti” (“Shores of the Argonauts”). These works of art, defined by Gioventù himself as a “transposition of that natural heritage of which the island is rich, which through the centuries has become blended with legend”, will be showcased to the public in all of their beauty inspired by nature, so charged with connections to the geologic and mythological history of the island that they become its true representation. Indeed, each diffuser is a unique piece of art, a small sculpture created by hand and decorated with those typical signs present on the white lava walls found on the beaches in the north of the island. A rare artifact, a collectors’ item, on sale in a limited number and whose profit will be devolved to Fondazione Acqua dell’Elba and its future projects.
The week dedicated to the environment will conclude in Marciana Marina on the 22nd of May, World Biodiversity Day, with the presentation of the project for safeguard and development of bees and other pollinating insects. This project, undertaken in collaboration with WBA- World Biodiversity Association, is a homage to biodiversity, a concrete gesture in support of the planet’s survival and one of its most precious treasures, Isola d’Elba, the pearl of the Tuscan Archipelago.
