The Ave Arte Center was founded in 1961 in Grottaferrata. It is coordinated by artist Silvana Cerquetti, who assumed the stage name “Ave” by which she is best known and remained its artistic director until 2004. Since its beginnings it has been concerned with sacred art, creating places and works rich in spirituality.   THE METHOD. Fundamental is team work, with which the aim is to seek essential, unified, clear forms capable of allowing those who must experience them to ‘feel at home,’ to recognize themselves. That is why there is a constant effort to dissolve thoughts, ambitions, conditioning of individual personalities, working so that art and architecture merge, becoming inseparable from each other. Indeed, the works are characterized by an aesthetic language in which it is difficult to separate the role of art from that of architectural design. Listening is the starting point of each project. The work is conceived as a service to give voice to and express the community for which the work is intended. In the relationship between clients and the team, the idea of the project is in fact refined, then followed in the totality of functional and technical aspects by specialized consultants or with the help of local technicians. Over the years, the art team has been enriched with the collaboration of various artists and architects who, for longer or shorter periods, participate and contribute to the experience of art in communion.   THE WORKS. In the 50 years of the Ave Art Center’s existence, more than 200 artistic works have been carried out, more than 80 liturgical adaptations, 8 parish complexes: sculptures, paintings, stained glass windows, mosaics, projects and realizations of new churches and chapels, liturgical adaptations and renovations, both in Italy and abroad. Since 1965 the atelièr has moved to the International Citadel of Loppiano, near Florence.   MORE INFORMATION Centro Ave Arte can be contacted directly for consultations, collaborations, projects or orientation visits; we will also be happy to have you in our studios, in the International Citadel of Loppiano, 20 km from Florence.