"Festival dell'Arte sul Mare"

        The international Symposium “Scultura Viva” is an artistic event of the City of San Benedetto del Tronto and it was born in June 1996. Since its birth , it has been realized each year, on behalf of the Municipality, by the Association “l'altrArte”, which provides its artistic and organizational management by its President Piernicola Cocchiaro and its catalogue and design by its Vice President Fabrizio Mariani.

        The Symposium takes place over one week in June, during which the invited artists create their works on the breakwater blocks, aligned along the promenade of the south pier of San Benedetto del Tronto, under the fascinated gaze of the public.

        During the editions from 1996 to 2021, thanks to the Associazione Albergatori "Riviera delle Palme" which hosted the artists and to the Elettropneumatica which freely provided the technology, 184 sculptures were created by 177 artists from all over the world.

        Since 16th edition, in 2012, thanks to the collaboration with Cassa di Risparmio di Ascoli Piceno Foundation, the Symposium was enriched for the first time by a new section dedicated to wall paintings, in which famous Italian and foreign wall painters created beautiful murals of 12 square meters each (129 square feet), along the last section of the south pier, today Museo d'Arte sul Mare of San Benedetto del Tronto.

        To date “Scultura Viva” has produced a total of 218 artworks, of which 194 are sculptures and 24 are murals. They, along with the other four sculptures present on the pier, constitute the heritage of what is the unique Museo d'Arte sul Mare in Italy and maybe in the world.