Gravina in Puglia Cultural Heritage Conservation Italy

Workshops

Messors supports and promotes art and cultural heritage.

Our educational workshops are immersive experiences involving participants in hands-on, in-the-field and in-situ activities.

Since 1989, our comprehensive approach stimulates an engaging learning environment complemented by interactive and connecting experiential outcomes.

Our workshops and projects play a creative, dynamic role in conserving historical contexts, food culture, and archaeological and artistic treasures in the rich cultural settings of Puglia and Basilicata in Southern Italy.

In all the workshops offered, participants interact with experts and members of the region to explore ways tangible and intangible cultural patrimony and its conservation can substantially impact communities and larger cultural and social issues.

Our Approach

Program founder and director Tonio Creanza has been running fresco and art restoration workshops and sustainable preservation projects of historical sites for over 20 years. His passion for the historically rich region is echoed in the programs approaching them with the enthusiastic concept “to do is to learn”, recognizing the importance of process and learning through practice.

Historical architecture, ancient settlements, Byzantine frescoed caves, art and food culture heritage is our living school in which we acquire knowledge and tools.

History

In 1989 a collective of specialists with interests in conservation and regional artistic and cultural heritage, was established in Italy. Since its inception, the company has been working on archeological research, extensive restoration projects on frescoes, architecture, canvas, wood and stone statues and decorative painting, guided tours, educational field school projects, food anthropology, and study abroad university programs in fresco restoration and archeology.

I had come to the hilltop city of Altamura in southeastern Italy for a working vacation. It turned out to provide more historical and cultural enrichment than a month of guided tours. I would be working with a group dedicated to revitalizing historic sites in Puglia...we all departed with a deep sense of pride, knowing we had helped preserve a bit of history. And more than that, we were now part of it.

Ward Lauren, Los Angeles Times

Workshops

Art  Conservation and Restoration

Fresco and Paintings.

The workshop includes the practices of conservation and restoration of frescoes and paintings on canvas. The session begins with an introduction, practical hands-on experience, excursions and lectures. After introductions which are common to all areas, participants may choose a specific area of focus.

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Art Curation & Conservation

Paper, Easel Paintings

The program offers a comprehensive exploration of the diverse and interdisciplinary fields of conservation and art curation, connecting theory and practice. Participants will gain hands-on experience in the preservation of paintings on canvas and paper, as well as in the broader field of cultural presentation.

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Culinary & Shepherding

Explore the food culture shaped by millennia of migrations on the paths of transhumance. 

The venerated cuisine of the Mediterranean has been created and re-created through the course of history by geography, social customs, migration and the mythical universe wrapped around ‘eating’. The food culture is inclusive of ‘life style’ which upholds traditional methods of farming and fishing and nurtures the practice of family meals, and social festivities.

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Italiano Dal Vivo – Italian Language Workshop

The program is designed for beginner to intermediate learners with alternating language practice through structured lessons, excursions and activities. 

Language lessons taught by certified instructors from the Dante Alighieri Society  – Matera are intensive, focused sessions on grammar, vocabulary, and conversation. Each session adapts to the group’s level, building practical fluency and confidence.

 

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The Olive Grove Workshop

A Journey Through the Olive Harvest and the World of Olive Oil

Step into the heart of Puglia, where centuries-old olive trees stand as living symbols of Mediterranean culture and identity. Set in the Murgian landscape of Gravina, Altamura and Matera, this workshop offers a journey into the food practice, history, and culture that have shaped the Mediterranean for millennia.

Fornello Cave Project

Fornello is a site made up of a Byzantine fresco cave, twelve additional cave dwellings, and evidence of a settlement dating back to the third century B.C. The ancient settlement includes a shepherd’s house that dates to the 1700s and dry-stone courtyards that outline a pre-existing sheep farm.

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