The Civic Collection “Giuseppe Albano”
These halls house the Permanent Exhibition of the artworks by Giuseppe Albano, an artist from Putignano. There are over one hundred pieces that Albano himself donated to the municipality in 1968. They are accompanied by about seventy artworks by the sculptor Domenico Trentacoste, Albano’s friend and master, from whom he inherited his Florentine studio in 1933. The entire collection had long been deposited in some rooms owned by the Municipality and a small part of that is still kept in the town hall. Nowadays, following the will of the family and above all of the artist’s wife, Albano’s artworks have found a definitive position in the Civic Museum, opened to the public in 2017.
Sculptures in the round, bronze and chalk sketches, heads and busts of various personalities, memorial and allegorical plaques are exhibited here. A specific section is dedicated to the chalk busts and bas-reliefs made by Trentacoste.
The set-up of the exhibition is part of the “CulturalPalazzo” project, fostered by the Assessorato alla cultura (local authority arts and entertainment department) with the aim of transforming the Museum from simple storage to a place where anyone can have a cultural experience. The project is based on research conducted since 2007 by the “La Goccia” Association at the invitation of the municipal administration of that time and then by the “Matele” Association, which realized the online gallery www.giuseppealbano.it in 2009.
The exposition follows the standards of a system called “Museo Facile”, which aims to make the contents of museums accessible to various types of public.
The bronze sculptures in the second hall, marked on the map and braille labelled, can be explored by touch. Moreover, the QR-Code gives access to the web page featuring the didactic contents about the collection and videos in Italian Sign Language (LIS).