Who we are
Immersed in the lush green of the Florentine hills, we champion the ancient traditions of hand-weaving silk with gold and silver. Our spaces are dominated by great late 19th-century hand-operated looms, the ideal ‘machines’ for creating exclusive fabrics under the skilful hands of master weavers who still work just as hand-weavers have for centuries. We promote the art of weaving also by offering targeted teaching activities and professional certification courses that unite theory and practice to provide full-round, impeccable training.
The Foundation
Fidalma Lisio’s aspirations took concrete form in 1971 when she established Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio. Desirous of safeguarding her father’s legacy and continuing the activity he had launched, she took over the ancient manufactory, with its handlooms and the technical drawings, with the precise intent of continuing to propose the ancient production techniques before they could disappear forever. She flanked her enterprise with a qualified art school, which soon was training students from all over the world.
History
Giuseppe Lisio founded his first manufactory in Florence in 1906. Today, Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio continues to manufacture priceless silk velvets and brocades just as he did, always by hand, on the same ancient Jacquard looms, and always with the same aim: to keep the art of weaving precious fabrics alive.
Historical archive
The Fondazione Lisio keeps textile culture alive through studies, research and ongoing collaborative efforts. We continue to catalogue and valorise the documents and the handmade products that have uniquely characterised the Lisio manufactory’s 115-year history.
Staff
We are a heterogeneous group composed of art historians, teachers specialising in textiles, designers, textile technicians and weavers, experts in the editorial/publishing, project development and communication sectors. A group, in short, so composed as to be able to efficiently respond, with its myriad competences, to any need relating to management of the manufactory, the school, the Jacquard magazine editorial offices and exhibitions and events.
Partners
In all its multifarious activities, Fondazione Lisio has always counted on long-lasting, profitable collaborative relationships. Only thanks to synergies with other entities, to ever-new, changing project challenges, to interchange and ‘interculturality’, can the foundation succeed in renewing itself and keeping alive such a special historic reality.
