about
White is light, and light is where all seeing begins. It also holds every color of the spectrum at once.
WHITESPACE Projects Napoli is an artist residency and international program for contemporary creativity, based in a historic building in the heart of Napoli's ancient center. We act as a bridge between Napoli, New York, and the wider world, building a network of artists who come to expand their practice through the experience of this city and this place.
Our name comes from white space, or negative space: the open area that gives form its meaning in visual art, design, music, and writing. Japanese aesthetics has a related idea, Ma, the interval between things, a pause charged with possibility. That openness is what we offer our residents: room to look, listen, and make.
We use "white" in this sense alone, meaning light, space, and creative openness, and we reject any racial or exclusionary reading of the word. Like white light, which contains every color, WHITESPACE is open to all cultures, ideas, and practices.
WHITESPACE Projects Napoli is an APS (Associazione di Promozione Sociale), a non-profit organization registered in Italy's RUNTS (Registro Unico Nazionale del Terzo Settore).
FOUNDER / DIRECTOR
WHITESPACE Projects Napoli is part of the life journey of its founder, visual artist, philanthropist Pietro Costa, who has lived in New York for fifty years and acquired decades of experience in museums and artistic projects. It reflects his decision to choose Napoli as a new place of choice for his art activities, alongside New York. Costa brings his resources and international know-how to foster new connections between artistic communities, creating a visionary and creative hub.
His rich life experience includes a forty-year career as a visual artist, along with collaborations with museums, galleries, artists, and patrons, which have inspired him to expand his artistic activity beyond his studio into the surrounding communities, leading to various philanthropic initiatives.
He is the founder (2002) of the non-profit Luquer Street Projects Inc. (LSP) a 501(c)3 in New York, which has nurtured and supported interdisciplinary initiatives and promoted exchanges between visual artists, poets, and writers in the communities of New York, Vallo di Diano and now Napoli as well.
In the Vallo di Diano area of Campania, through LSP, he launched the non-profit cultural residency program (2017/18) BACAS – Borderless Alliance of Cultures Arts and Sciences.
CURATORIAL COORDINATOR
Concetta Luise is an independent curator and Italian art historian. She holds a BA in Art History from Università Federico II in Naples and two MA degrees: Arts, Museology, and Curatorship from the University of Bologna and Museum Studies from New York University. After four years working in New York galleries, museums, and auction houses, she returned to Naples to foster dialogue between Italian and American contemporary art.
From 2021 to 2024, she worked in the Curatorial Department at The Drawing Center in New York, contributing to exhibitions such as Naudline Pierre: This Is Not All There and Greater Beauty: The Drawings of Kahlil Gibran, and conducted archival research for Frank Walter: To Capture a Soul. She also collaborated as researcher and author with David Zwirner Gallery and Christie’s in New York. Among her recent independent curatorial projects are Matteo Silverii: Nostalgico mio presente (2024, Naples), Of Other Kin (2023, New York), and Trasmissione (2020, Bologna). Luise regularly publishes essays and writes for contemporary art magazines including Exibart and Juliet Art Magazine. She lives and works between Naples and New York.
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Angela Manetti is an art director, visual designer, and innovation manager with a long career in publishing and advertising, specializing in the creation of brand identities, visual storytelling, and commemorative corporate books. She provides visual communications consulting for individuals, for private, public and not for profit organizations. She has authored numerous corporate publications and has taught visual communications at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, UNINIT - University of International Studies in Rome and Alma Mater in Bologna in the Faculty of Political Sciences, specializing in “Journalistic communication for public and corporate sectors."
Since 2024, she has focused on innovation and advanced digital technology, producing immersive 360° VR productions in partnership with the Milan-based agency Impersive S.r.L.
PROJECT COORDINATOR & WEB DESIGN
Pietro Francis Costa is a Brooklyn-based digital designer, project manager, and cultural experiences organizer working across contemporary art, design, and cultural production. His work centers on shaping projects that bring together artists, institutions, and audiences through carefully considered visual language, spatial thinking, and long-term collaboration. He is a core organizer for the not-for-profit BACAS (Borderless Alliances of Culture, Arts, and Sciences), where he develops international residencies, exchanges, and cultural programs, and serves as Managing Director of Luquer Street Projects, Inc., guiding the direction and coordination of its cultural initiatives.
For additional information:
www.luquerstreet.org
www.bacasitaly.org
www.pietrocosta.com
