ExtrArtis, Artists Residencies for Creative Economy

Sorrento has been the destination of the Grand Tour, the place of stay of transnational travellers in the past centuries. The land of the Sirens has represented one of the most attractive Passe-partout of the geographical area under examination.

The reasons are based on the choice to reach, in this case mainly by sea, destinations of inspiration or of quiet and wellness. Sorrento, also known as the city of Torquato Tasso, covered a tourist offer responding to the expectations of the travellers, even exceeding them: many were enchanted by the uniqueness of the Sorrento territory, enraptured by the historicity of the places and the beauty of the landscape, so much so as to make it their new home. With the globalization, the way of traveling has changed and the simplicity of transnational mobility has determined an enormous growth of the hospitality places present in the city. In recent years, this has made Sorrento one of the most visited destinations in the entire Italian territory. The year 2019 marked record numbers: 2,522,975 presences of foreigners; 334,679 presences of Italians. For a total of 2,857,654 presences.

The beginning of 2020, had even better expectations, predicting, with a conservative estimate, the achievement of 3,000,000 presences, a result unfulfilled by the global pandemic emergency. The territory has faced one of the worst moments in the history of its tourism, with drops of about 90% in employment, and ephemeral summer stays at rates. The year 2021 saw a slight upward trend in presences compared to the previous year, but the situation is still far from a return to normal conditions. During the pandemic, with a view to recovery, ExtrArtis was born and developed as a project aimed at combining the revival of tourism in a cultural and artistic research, in unique structures of its kind.

The idea of the artist's residence is to host emerging artists in tourist hotel residences that have unique distinctive features, and thanks to their stay in such structures for medium-long stays, they can find the inspiration to create a new work of art. Sorrento has historically been a source of inspiration for its beauty, so the futuristic vision of ExtrArtis is to revive and select Sorrento tourism thanks to its traditional vision, to be the muse of artists.

Let's start again from beauty, Sorrento being the genesis of ExtrArtis.