The Sciaredo Foundation

The History

In 1988, after the death of Marcelle Klein and several years of unsuccessful search for possible descendants, the Klein / Tentori estate, including Casa Sciaredo, came to the canton of Zurich; The executor of the will is the then Swiss bank company SBG Zurich. While still alive, the sisters wrote a will that is intended to ensure the continued existence of “Sciaredo” as a place of creation for artists. After several years of discussions, the SBG, in consultation with the Zurich Finance Directorate and at the request of the Swiss Workers' Association SWB and Visarte Zurich (since 2012 Visarte Switzerland), together with the Sciaredo association (it has been responsible for maintenance since the late 1980s) responsible from home and garden) to establish a foundation based in Ticino. On September 16, 1996 the Fondazione Sciaredo was founded, based in Lugano.

The mission of the foundation

The statutes define the mission of the foundation in the following way:

• The atelier house has to be placed at the disposal of visual artists or other cultural producers, such as photographers, filmmakers, architects, designers, writers and so on.
• The atelier house has to be preserved as one of the rare original examples of   “Neues Bauen” in the Kanton Tessin.
• The artistic estate of Georgette Tentori-Klein has to be maintained in an appropriate way.
• The activities of the foundation have promoted and made accessible to the public.

The board of the foundation

From 1996 up to 2013 the following individuals worked on the board:

• Willi Christen, architect, Zurich, first president and executive and representative of Visarte Zurich (1996-2010)
• Ellen Meyrat-Schlee, sociologist, Zurich (1996–1999)
• Leonhard Fünfschilling, architect, Zurich (1999–2003)
• Alexander Zoanni (2004–2012) as representatives of the SWB
• Thomas Rutherfoord, artist, Winterthur (1996–2003)
• Jürg Attinger, artist, Winterthur (2003–2009), representative of the Sciaredo Association
• Paolo Fumagalli, architect, Lugano (1996–2004)
• Lukas Meyer-Piattini, architect, Lugano (2004–2010), representatives of the Kanton Tessin
• Susanne Muller, artist, Prêles (1996–2009), member for the communication with French-speaking Switzerland
• Annelise Zwez, art critic, Biel-Bienne, representative of Romandie (2009–2017) and president of the board (2013–2017)
• Roland Gut, architect, Meilen, representative of the Association Sciaredo (2009–2018) and vice-president (2012/13)
• Urs Dickerhof, artist, Biel-Bienne, representative of Visarte Switzerland (2012–2017)
• Bernd Zocher, editor, Zurich, freely elected member (2012–2017)

The current members of the board

• Gabriele Clara Leist, creative writing coaching, Teufen, president of the board (since 2017) and representative of the Schweizerische Werkbund (since 2013) – leist@geniestreich.ch