Arnaldo Minuti (Italian Consul General in Boston, MA)

Benvenuti a Boston, Capitale della Creatività Italiana nel Mondo” per il 2024

Nov 18, 2024 608 ITA ENG

Among the most fascinating American cities to host and represent the relationship between Italy and the United States, certainly Boston, Massachusetts, New England is very important. Here past and future, tradition and innovation meet, and Italian creativity is well represented by many researchers and innovators.

This year Boston has one more reason to be at the center of the relationship between the two great countries that We the Italians studies and represents. To talk about it, we are grateful and happy to host the Consul General of Italy in Boston, Arnaldo Minuti.

Dear Consul Minuti, your Consulate has been awarded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has listed Boston among the “Capitals of Italian Creativity in the World” for 2024. What is it about in detail?

This is a unique opportunity for us to promote Italy in this area of the United States, to promote our language, our culture, our ability to innovate, as much in music, cinema, theater as in science and technology! It is also a great opportunity to strengthen ties with our country, to develop new relationships and contacts, to build new bridges between Italy and one of the most dynamic areas of the US.

Please describe us the purpose and activities of your project

Our project, which we carried out throughout this year, allowed us to present the many expressions of Italian creativity through a series of events and initiatives promoting our country, developed with the contribution of the many Italian talents present in this area.

Boston Capital of Italian Creativity 2024” gave voice to artists, scientists, academics, professors, researchers, students, entrepreneurs, professionals and innovators from Italy and of Italian origin who live in this area of the world and who, with their daily commitment and passion for Italy, contribute in an essential way to presenting a positive image of our country, growing friendship and consolidating ties between Italy and the United States.

Congratulations on the video presentation of your project! Why is 21st century Boston reminiscent of 15th century Italy, from the point of view of creativity?

Certainly because of the creative and innovative force of its educational and scientific environment; because of the concentration of knowledge that in a few square miles is encapsulated in the most prestigious universities in the world; because of the willingness and tension toward the new. It is the spirit of our Renaissance cities, true forges of creativity, where the talent of artists and scientists intercepted the tension toward the future that characterized that era of great inventions and discoveries.

This is the concept that we wanted to express in our project and that connotes Boston as an American city that with these characteristics can be considered a meeting point between Italy and the United States, an ideal platform for strengthening contacts and relations between our two countries.

Is it possible to argue that the resilient and stubborn tradition of past Italian emigration and the brilliant and talented innovation of the Italy of the present and future meet in Boston?

It certainly does. Boston is one of the destination cities of the great migratory flows that left our country at the beginning of the last century, which continued between the two wars and after World War II until the 1960s. Our compatriots lived in various areas and, in particular, shaped the North End, which still today is one of the most vibrant and lively Little Italys in the United States.

The new “intellectual” migration of recent years has thus found in Boston an environment not so distant from our country, in which it has been able to settle more easily and make a significant contribution to the city's socio-economic growth. In other words, the creative “Italian” spirit that allowed our ancestors to find their way to a successful future in the United States is not dissimilar to that which today allows our young graduates, who come to Boston to specialize and further their studies, to fit in as best they can and contribute to the progress of humanity.

Your video mentions Italo Calvino's six American Lectures on Creativity, prepared 40 years ago for Harvard and never able to be delivered, with six key words that are absolutely relevant even today…

The titles of Italo Calvino's famous “American Lessons” were an important source of inspiration for the project of “Boston Capital of Italian Creativity 2024,” which was conceived precisely on the centenary of the birth of the Italian intellectual, creative genius, internationally known and admired. The values of lightness, rapidity, exactitude, visibility, multiplicity and coherence have freely oriented our activities and have been an interesting way to address the theme of creativity.

Exactly in these days you are organizing the Festival of Creativity. We would like our readers, both those who reside in New England and everyone else, to learn more about this wonderful initiative...

Thank you Director! The Italian Festival of Creativity, taking place in Boston these days, is the centerpiece of the project!

Over the course of 8 days of events, all free of charge, we celebrate Italian creativity in its many expressions. From literature, with a “creative” dialogue between two great Italian writers, Dacia Maraini and Marco Malvaldi, to cinema, with the start of the review of new Italian films of the moment. From creativity in comics, with the participation of graphic artist Leo Ortolani, the inventor of Rat-Man, who will illustrate his works dedicated to space to talking about Italian technology in space with our astronaut Col. Walter Villadei who a few months ago was on the International Space Station. From the flavors of our country's food and creative gastronomy that will come to life in the menus studied by the Chefs of ALMA, the international school of haute cuisine, with whom during the Festival we will also celebrate the IX Week of Italian Cuisine in the World, to the Italian language workshops in which middle and high school students will immerse themselves in various activities inspired by our culture and innovation.

Then we have scheduled the play “Il Principe” by Machiavelli (here comes Renaissance Florence again...) and three days dedicated to science, technology and business in the themes of life sciences; energy, climate and sustainability; advanced manufacturing, robotics and space. And then music! Two great concerts that we present as a preview: “Va, pensiero” realized in collaboration with Berklee College of Music, a jazz and gospel reinterpretation of the great Italian opera arias. An extraordinary creative encounter between two musical traditions, with the likes of Ron Carter and Joe Lovano, directed by Marco Pignataro!

And then “Belpaese,” a concert dedicated to the centenary of Giacomo Puccini, with soprano Annalisa Raspagliosi. We will close the Festival with a beautiful gala event, where we will present Italian creativity awards to four prominent members of the Italian American community in recognition of their social and public engagement! The full program is available on the dedicated website www.italyinboston.org.

Speaking of Italian creativity, is there a “creative” message dedicated to Italians and Italian Americans in Boston and New England that you would like to express at the conclusion of the interview?

Certainly. The message is to gather the creative energy unleashed by the Festival - which is the awareness of being bearers of the great humanistic, cultural, scientific tradition of our country - to accomplish something important together, to direct the resources of the Italian American community and the passion for our country toward future projects that can nurture collaboration and friendship between Italy and the United States.

 

 

 

 

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