Safeguarding rural cultural heritage and biodiversity at Castello di Potentino and the surrounding valley
About Us
Friends of Potentino, Inc. is a 501(c) 3 US registered public charity, established in 2022 in partnership with Potentino Società Agricola SRL.
Our Mission
Friends of Potentino provides funding to promote and safeguard rural cultural heritage and biodiversity conservation at Castello di Potentino and in the broader Seggiano Valley in Tuscany, Italy, benefitting community welfare by supporting environmental sustainability through educational programs, cultural events, media outreach, and agricultural practice.
For businesses looking to donate, we accept donations via Benevity & The Charities Aid Foundation
Education and engagement
Friends of Potentino believes in the importance of making accessible an environmentally sustainable vision of rural life. We will fund projects that aim to connect people to the nature and traditional rural cultural practices that surround Potentino.
Building on Potentino Società Agricola’s belief in making their rural and environmentally sustainable and way of life more accessible and appreciable to a wider range of people,
Along with leading these initiatives, funding raised by Friends of Potentino supports a number of related grant opportunities. Please get in touch with us to find out more.
Upcoming projects sponsored by Friends of Potentino
Beginning in 2023, Friends of Potentino will be making donations to some of the following programmes:
Volunteers
Potentino Società Agricola has been hosting young people for over 20 years. About 6,000 volunteers have passed through Potentino’s gates. Helping with harvests and wine-making and cooking, many have gone on to become wine-makers and cooks or work in hospitality or farming.
The purpose of volunteering at Potentino is to create an interest and understanding for sustainable ways of living through a hand’s-on experience of agriculture and nature.
This philosophy has deeply informed the mission and types of projects that Friends of Potentino support.
Potentino Exploration Project
The new and innovative Potentino Exploration Project (PXP), created in partnership with the Southern Methodist University, aims to focus on the heritage, archaeology, and biodiversity of this fragile landscape. Through integrated research, the project wants to increase awareness of the ethical management of endangered cultural and natural heritage while also connecting to and respecting the local community.
Taxon Expeditions
Taxon Expeditions is an organisation focused on education, biodiversity discovery and citizen science. They organise expeditions to remote areas for people interested in nature and science and help them make scientific discoveries. International experts are engaged to guide participants through all the steps of real scientific research. Together, they discover, name, and publish completely new species of wild animals. Taxon has partnered with Friends of Potentino to carry out expeditions wherein participants study the fauna of this majestic valley and compare its soil biota with conventional vineyards in Tuscany. Furthermore, they provide the opportunity to conduct a mini research project on the biodiversity of the ancient olive trees and organic vineyards, and nature reserves.
The Gallery, Concerts and Cultural Events
The main purpose of Friends of Potentino’s cultural events is to cross pollinate, bringing culture from urban settings to rural and vice versa, as well as supporting artists and performers from Italy and further afield.
Friends of Potentino will sponsor a series of concerts and live events held at Castello di Potentino in the courtyard as well as a small number of exhibitions in the castle’s Gallery. If you would like to be part of this programme please contact us.
Polyphonic singing is one of the oldest forms of music and Castello di Potentino brings together groups of singers from all over the world who continue in this tradition of using only their voices to create a polyphony of sound in the courtyard. Groups have come from Sardinia, Croatia, Austria, Albania and Georgia always supported by the local singers from Monte Amiata.
‘On The Walls’ is a Documentary Festival which uses the medieval courtyard walls as a screen for film projections. Current issues ranging from the political to the environmental are represented.
Entry to these events are free and open to the general public.
Artists in Residence
Friends of Potentino hosts international artists and writers during the winter and early spring. Hopefully inspired by their surroundings, a different optic in portraying the valley is created and brings a wider audience to its valuable history and nature. Reflective expressions of human interaction with place are part of how we understand who and where we are.
We particularly encourage applications from artists and writers whose work engages with environmental subjects. Please contact us if you would like know about upcoming opportunities.
The On-going and Future Objectives for Friends of Potentino
Restoring Heritage Olive Groves and Vineyards
Promoting sustainability in rural environments
Taking Potentino off grid with minimal or ‘0’ C02 emission
Run in-depth educational study programmes
Developing projects for the protection of biodiversity and natural resources
Raising Awareness of Traditional Culture
Expanding the Potentino Biodiversity ‘Fortress’ – encouraging resilient ecology and healthy habitats
Creating a modular Tool Kit/Blue Print which can help to restore and protect the environment in other contexts through example and inspiration.
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