The Annual Festa Luncheon sponsored by the Italian Club of Seattle will be held this year at the prestigious Seattle Yacht Club overlooking Portage Bay. The date is Friday, September 20th, 2024 from 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM. The Seattle Yacht Club offers us a beautiful dining room, great food and free parking, all for the reasonable price of $60 per person. Tickets will be available later this year.
Gary Galeotti
Last year’s Gill Centioli Award winner was the dedicated and tireless Festa volunteer Gary Galeotti. For the 2024 recipients of this and the Patricia DeLaurenti Volunteer of the Year Award , watch this space!
This year’s Keynote Speaker is yet to be announced. Last year we welcomed Ralph Bufano who led The Museum of Flight in Seattle, WA from 1991 to 2005. During his tenure he developed a new $140 million master plan and increased the museum’s collection by 70%. A 38-year veteran of museum and arts management, Bufano previously worked at the Corning Glass Center and Museum in Corning NY, The Paine Art Center and Arboretum in Oshkosh WI, Director of the Experimental Aircraft Association Aviation Foundation in Oshkosh, WI where he helped build a new $7 million Museum also as Director of the Ward Museum in Salisbury, MD where he directed the development of a new $6 million, 38,000-square foot art museum. Prior to that, he worked as president of The Kansas City Museum in Kansas City, MO.
Ralph A. Bufano, FRAeS — Bufano Management LLC
For the past several years, Domenico Minotti has prepared a quiz for Festa Italiana, an annual celebration of Italian culture, food and music held each year at the Seattle Center at the end of September. Since this year’s Festa Italiana will be virtual, Domenico has prepared a virtual quiz to go along with that. The quiz was premiered September 9th 2020 at the Dante Alighieri Society’s English Language meeting held virtually on Zoom. Links to PDFs of the quiz and the answer key along with the presentation are available below.
In the late 1920s, Nick’s parents emigrated from Sant’Angelo, Limosano, a small hilltop town in Molise. The population at that time was about 1000 but is now 345 as Nick learned on a visit last year. The family spoke their dialect at home. Nick studied Italian at Columbia University and Perugia and got lots of practice while on Fulbright study grants in Milan in the mid 60’s. Nick returned to the states and to his first love, medicine, at Georgetown University and came to Seattle in 1976 to work at the US Public Health Hospital on Beacon Hill, better known as the Marine Hospital. He and his father Pasquale would attend Dante meetings back then but took a break until retirement a few years ago. Nick serves as a Consigliere for our Dante group.
A special memorial collection of works has been added to “Le Arti della Festa Italiana” Art Exhibit at the Italian Festival this year in honor of Roberto Mario Tacchi whose elegant woodcarvings adorn Seattle public spaces and personal collections and who passed away May 15, 2019 at the age of 80. Born in Florence Italy, Roberto learned his craft from his father, becoming the seventh generation of woodcarvers in the Tacchi family.
As opposed to his large public works, this collection will be of “chamber pieces” that he carved primarily for family, friends and private collectors. They will be on display in the Armory on Saturday and Sunday, September 28 & 29, 2019 from 10 AM – 5 PM each day. Admission is free. Patrons of the “Taste of Italy” Wine Tasting on Friday night, September 27th will also be able to view the collection.
His public works present in the Seattle area include the exterior doors of the First Presbyterian Church in downtown Seattle, the chapel at Providence Marianwood in Issaquah and a memorial display in the Bell Harbor Conference Center. Surely even more treasured are the frames, sea shells and other carvings found in the homes of the many people who sought out his work for its elegance and sensuous beauty. When the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington obtained the loan of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi painting in 1982, they commissioned Roberto to carve a Late Gothic altar and triptych in order to properly display this revered work.
