Dear Friends, it is my pleasure to announce that an Italian Cultural Center has been founded in Seattle. The name chosen is "Il Punto!" (the Point) because it is envisioned that the center will be "il punto d'incontro" (the meeting point) for all Italians, Italian-Americans and people passionate about Italy from around our region.

The mission is to promote Italian culture through our common passion for food, literature, art, design, film, theater, dance, language, and music.

This is a big challenge; however, we believe that with the help of the community we can make this happen.

Some of the tasks we need to complete now are:

-Finding a location for the center. At the moment the center has a special place in our hearts, but there is the need to find a permanent location where we can organize events with meeting rooms available for activities and to be used by other associations.

-Creation of a web site. We are working on a web site with a calendar where all associations can list their programs - "un punto d'informazione" (informazione point) for everybody. At the moment, we created a Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/ilpuntoseattle. We will also use this platform to promote activities and share cultural information.

- Biblioteca Italiana Seattle (BIS) will continue to exist under Il Punto! All the volunteers did an amazing job this last year. There are more than 800 books available at BIS, located at D'Ambrosio's Gelateria in Seattle. If you do not know about the BIS library yet, like our Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/bibliotecaitalianaseattle.

All of BIS's books are also on Goodreads where you can read the plot, the reviews (in Italian and English) and check the rating.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/35856375-bis-biblioteca-italiana-seattle

-Italian conversation group. We are creating small conversation groups for beginners and intermediate/advance moderated by an expert. The groups are open for a small fee to people that want to improve their Italian.

There are several Italian clubs and associations in Seattle and we would like to involve them and invite them to join us in these projects.

If you are interested, please send us an email at ilpuntoseattle@gmail.com

Is there a specific area you are interested in? Contact one of our board members directly, including his/her name in the title of the email:

Andrea Callegari (President and Chair of PR and web committee)

Daniela Giordano (Vice-President, Chair of Italian lectures and Networking committee)

Vita Conforti (Secretary)

Laura Pattacini (Treasurer and Chair of Finance committee)

Valeria Vasta (Director, Chair of Location and Venues committee and Chair of BIS committee)

Silvia Casadei (Director, Chair of Italian Language activities committee)

Franco Tesorieri (Director, Chair of Italian Food and Cooking committee)

Paola Croci (Director, Chair of Italian Arts and Cultural Events committee)

Roberta Tauriello Torgerson (Director)

Stay tuned for more information! We hope to organize in the New Year an official opening event to celebrate Italian culture!

Facciamo il punto!

Best regards,

Andrea Callegari
President of Italian Cultural Center - Il Punto!