The “Corrado Alvaro” foundation will not abandon its historic headquarters in San Luca, birthplace of the great Calabrian writer, screenwriter and journalist. This is the first element that will characterize the new course of the Foundation which will soon be returned to the bodies that will have to support it. This was revealed by Luciano Gerardis, current commissioner of the “Alvaro” foundation, who yesterday presented the new scientific committee and the program of initiatives that has been prepared to relaunch the Foundation, and the figure and work of Corrado Alvaro. «From this point of view, I would like to reassure the residents of San Luca. – Luciano Gerardis specified – No one has ever thought of stripping Alvaro’s hometown of the headquarters of the Foundation named after him. Indeed, we are thinking of making San Luca a destination for visits for Calabrian school children to discover the Alvarian places.”
We look to the future, therefore, with renewed confidence and enthusiasm, after the period of crisis that characterized and put the very existence of the Foundation at risk. «Now we need to plan the future of this body – stated Commissioner Gerardis in his speech – I accepted the position from the prefect Clara Vaccaro, despite being honored by the same, out of institutional duty. Assignment that will end soon. With the completion of these obligations and the presentation of the Scientific Committee, we will return the Foundation to the founding bodies, who will appoint the president called to manage this new course”.
Gerardis dedicated a large part of the meeting to the future project of the Foundation. «A project – he explained – that is very respectful of the life and work of Corrado Alvaro». Defining the writer from San Luca, “a multifaceted personality, who expressed himself in many cultural forms”, Gerardis specified that in the composition of the scientific committee, the various elements that make up his work were taken into account. «For me it was a great pleasure – he added – to work with people of great caliber, who enriched me greatly on a professional, cultural and human level».
Among the proposals contained in the Foundation’s substantial project, the digitization of Corrado Alvaro’s work, the republication of his complete works, various cultural initiatives, «and a revisiting of the Corrado Alvario prize, which is part of the institutional duties of the Foundation». But the main objective is not to make Alvaro an academic icon, but through the contribution of the representatives of all the Calabrian universities and not only to ensure that this aspect is not underestimated. Discovery of the Alvarian places, with the involvement of the Aspromonte National Park, through dedicated itineraries for students, and broader projects, even at an international level, such as the one, already advanced to the Calabria Region, to dedicate a large part of the Region’s stand at the Turin Book Fair, 2026, the year of the 70th anniversary of the death of the Calabrian writer to Corrado Alvaro. Scientific research, conferences and studies.
«All these projects are large and varied. But they are ideas and initiatives that will only be able to move forward if we have the fundamental contributions of the founding bodies.” – said Gerardis again who closed by focusing on the members of the new scientific committee. «Studying his work, in all its complexity and variety, means studying that dialogue that made Alvaro a writer of rest and wandering, of Calabrian and European identity».
