The High Craftsmanship Fair, Biennale Musica, Radar, and the Venetian Weeks: all the October appointments we have selected for you
The High Italian Craftsmanship Fair at the Arsenale, Venice Design Week, Biennale Musica, and RADAR VENEZIA: October offers a calendar of encounters with artisans and designers, concerts, atelier visits, and new exhibitions. Alongside these widespread events are artists’ research projects, from Luca Rento’s videos to works by young artists from the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa ateliers.
We have selected the events through which to discover who works, creates, exhibits, and produces in Venice. A guide to plan the coming weeks, with dates, locations, and links to the programs.
We’re curious to hear what you think!
October’s events
High Craftsmanship Fair
October 1–4, 2026
For four days the Tese dell’Arsenale hosts the fourth edition of the High Craftsmanship Fair. Master artisans, workshops, and studios from across Italy present objects and techniques: an opportunity to observe materials, methods, and design choices up close, speak with those who create the products, and understand the work that determines their quality.
The visit allows you to compare different skills and productions in the same place, dedicating time to the people and objects that attract your attention.
Read Venezia da Vivere’s guide to contemporary craftsmanship.
Venice Design Week
October 9–18, 2026
Venice Design Week offers exhibitions, talks, presentations, workshops, and aperitifs in various locations across the city.
100% is the 2026 theme, inviting designers to make the components of their projects legible: materials, processes, and responsibility become part of the story behind the products. Exhibitions, discussions, and aperitifs with the designers offer a great opportunity to meet the designers and follow the design process from idea to production.
All the information on Venice Design Week
Desidereus by Matthias Schaller
Through October 11, 2026
Alla Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, nella Sala del Mappamondo di Fra’ Mauro, Matthias Schaller presenta Desidereus. The installation juxtaposes the artist’s photography with Galileo Galilei’s seven drawings of the Moon and the artist’s book PerCosimo.
The desire of the stars is what drives humankind toward what it cannot yet see. It takes us into space through one of the most precious relics preserved in Venice: Fra’ Mauro’s Mappa Mundi, dating to around 1450.
The representation of Earth and the observation of space engage in dialogue with the textile selection by Dries Van Noten of Fortuny fabrics that make up the installation, and with the artist’s interview with astronaut Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency, astronaut and pilot, selected in June 2026 as pilot for the Artemis III (ESA/NASA) mission.
The work by Matthias Schaller is in collaboration with the Sonnabend Collection Foundation and under the patronage of the European Space Agency (ESA).
Biennale Musica
October 10–24, 2026
Arvo Pärt, Keiji Haino, Laraaji, Lyra Pramuk, Walter Zanetti, KMRU, DJ Nobu, from club culture to the dance scenes of Príncipe and Dar es Salaam’s Singeli, artistic director Caterina Barbieri builds a global, radical, and contemporary program, capable of speaking to every generation.
A Child of Sound, the seventieth edition of the Venice Biennale’s International Festival of Contemporary Music, is for those who want to explore contemporary music, offering pathways through composition, sound research, and different ways of listening, with international artists and ensembles.
Biennale Musica program and venues.
RADAR VENEZIA
October 19–24, 2026
Venice Fashion Week presents RADAR VENEZIA: six days of fashion, high craftsmanship, and ateliers, with exhibitions, runway shows, and visits, Atelier Aperti, telling the story of fashion, art, craftsmanship, and the protagonists of the city of the future.
Among the key moments, the appointment with Antonio Marras on Friday, October 23 at the Casa di The Human Safety Net, the Procuratie in St. Mark’s Square, in conversation with Sara Sozzani Maino.
The project involves universities, institutions, foundations, businesses, and educational spaces, connecting the realities that produce culture in Venice. The Atelier Aperti itineraries offer the chance to meet artisans, artists, and designers in their own workspaces.
The program includes the exhibition by Romi Loch Davis at Palazzo Venart and Quadreria Futura at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, artist’s books by Jacopo Ascari, curated by Susanna Testa.
The program will be online from Wednesday, October 7. Discover RADAR VENEZIA and program updates.
Venice Cocktail Week
October 21–25, 2026
Discover Venice through the art of mixology in the city’s best hotel bars, cocktail bars, and historic cafés.
Masterclasses, tastings, aperitifs, talks, and guest shifts with Venetian and international bartenders.
The program (online from October 12) invites you to discover the craft of mixology and the professionals behind it, with a choice of in-depth sessions, aperitifs, and parties.
Read more about participating venues and details on Venice Cocktail Week 2026
Venezia Sounds
Saturday, October 24, 2026
Morcheeba, The Zen Circus, Motta, and Emma Nolde are among the headliners of Venezia Sounds, the benefit concert promoted by Fondazione Giancarlo Ligabue and Medicine Rocks.
The appointment is Saturday evening at the Tese dell’Arsenale with music supporting research: the 2026 edition benefits Humanitas and VIMM in Padua.
Venezia Sounds information and tickets
Exhibitions to See in October
Luca Rento at Fondazione Querini Stampalia
Through January 17, 2027
Before Everything Vanishes, curated by Alfredo Cramerotti, brings together twenty-five years of research by Luca Rento. Video is the medium through which the artist investigates time, change, and our relationship with what disappears.
The works arise from work on framing, color, and duration: images recorded and reworked even years apart.
Where: Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Campo Santa Maria Formosa, Castello 5252
Open: Tuesday to Sunday, 10 AM–6 PM
Information on Before Everything Vanishes
La Nota Mancante at Palazzo Valier
Through November 21, 2026
Fondazione Maddalena Di Giacomo presents La Nota Mancante, an exhibition dedicated to memory and perception. Historical and contemporary works dialogue with olfactory research developed for the Foundation’s spaces and artworks.
The route allows you to discover Palazzo Valier and an entity participating in the Radar Venezia itineraries, observing how images, scents, and memories contribute to the exhibition experience.
Where: Palazzo Valier, San Polo 1022
Information and visiting arrangements
Artists from the Bevilacqua La Masa Ateliers: Two Exhibitions
At Giudecca, Every Painting Is Landscape brings together Eric Pasino, Chiara Peruch, and Jacopo Zambello, curated by Stefano Coletto. We visited the exhibition—open through November 21—and the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa ateliers: places to discover works alongside artists’ daily practice.
Where: Sala del Camino, Chiostro dei SS. Cosma e Damiano, Giudecca.
From Friday, October 9, the exhibition Da cosa nasce cosa presents a selection of works by the twenty-eight artists under 30 awarded ateliers for 2025–2026 by the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa and the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia. Curated by Camilla Mozzato, the exhibition presents a year of research through painting, photography, video, installations, and performance.
The venues are the Galleria in Piazza San Marco and Palazzetto Tito, where on Thursday, October 22, the RADAR VENEZIA workshop on training and creative production will also take place.
Information on Da cosa nasce cosa
Dora Perini at SPARC: Troppa
Until November 22, 2026
From Friday, October 9, SPARC, Spazio Arte Contemporanea presents Troppa by Dora Perini. The exhibition is part of the RADAR VENEZIA program. On Tuesday, October 20, the same space will host the CreativeMornings breakfast, also part of the event.
Where: SPARC, Contemporary Art Space
Monday to Friday, 10 AM–6 PM.
For the October 20, 2026 appointment, follow RADAR VENEZIA program updates on Venezia da Vivere or Venice Fashion Week.
Glasstress, Between Venice and Murano
Through November 22, 2026
Glasstress presents works by over fifty international artists and designers created through collaboration with master glassmakers at Berengo Studio. The project allows you to observe how a production skill from Murano enters the research of artists with different languages and paths.
Where: the exhibition spans two venues: Palazzo Ca’ Tron on the Grand Canal and Fondazione Berengo Art Space in Murano.
Ca’ Tron: daily, 11 AM–7 PM, last entry 6:30 PM. Murano: 9 AM–5 PM, closed Wednesdays.
Information on Glasstress 2026
Installation view - Ogni Pittura è Paesaggio 2026 Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa ph.Giorgio Bombieri
Installation view - Ogni Pittura è Paesaggio 2026 Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa ph.Giorgio Bombieri
Installation view - Ogni Pittura è Paesaggio 2026 Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa ph.Giorgio Bombieri
Installation view - Ogni Pittura è Paesaggio 2026 Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa ph.Giorgio Bombieri
BAIFF – Burano Artificial Intelligence Film Festival
October 13–17, 2026
The fourth edition of the Burano Artificial Intelligence Film Festival takes place at Fondazione Querini Stampalia. The program features audiovisual works created with artificial intelligence support, exploring how these tools enter the processes of image creation and cinematic storytelling.
Canicula at Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi
October 26–27, 2026
Two days of conversations with artists, curators, and scholars explore the themes of Canicula, the exhibition by Fondazione In Between Art Film at the Ospedaletto Complex, inaugurated during Biennale Arte. The symposium, curated by Bianca Stoppani, is dedicated to artistic practices and moving images.
Where: Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi
Free admission until capacity is reached
Photos by Settimo Cannatella and Marta Formentello. Published photographs kindly provided by press offices.
