The High Craftsmanship Fair, Biennale Musica, and Venice Weeks: all the October appointments in Venice we have selected for you
The High Craftsmanship Fair at the Arsenale, Venice Design Week, Biennale Musica, and RADAR VENEZIA: October in Venice schedules encounters with artisans and designers, concerts, atelier visits, and new exhibitions. Alongside city-wide events are artists’ research projects, from Luca Rento’s videos to works by young artists from the Bevilacqua La Masa ateliers.
We have selected appointments through which to meet those who work, create, and exhibit in the city. A guide to organizing the coming weeks, with dates, venues, and links to programs.
Main October Appointments
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 throughout the city. 100% is the 2026 theme inviting designers to make the components of their projects legible: materials, processes, and responsibilities become part of the objects’ narrative. An opportunity to meet designers and follow design through its stages, from concept to production, choosing stops along the distributed program.
Venice Design Week theme and information.
Desidereus by Matthias Schaller
Through October 11, 2026
At the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, in the Fra’ Mauro Map Room, Matthias Schaller presents Desidereus. The installation juxtaposes the artist’s photography with Galileo Galilei’s seven drawings of the Moon and the artist’s book PerCosimo.
The relationship between Earth’s representation and cosmic observation gives the visit a precise viewpoint: how the images through which we attempt to know the world change.
Biennale Musica
October 10–24, 2026
A Child of Sound is the title of the seventieth edition of the International Festival of Contemporary Music, directed by Caterina Barbieri. Designed for those who want to explore contemporary music, the program includes world premieres, new commissions, site-specific works, and Biennale College Musica activities, 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, fashion shows, visits, and talks. The project involves universities, institutions, foundations, businesses, and training centers, connecting the entities that produce culture in Venice.
The Open Ateliers itineraries allow you to meet artisans, artists, and designers in their workspaces. Among the appointments, on Friday, October 23, Antonio Marras will be at the Procuratie in Piazza San Marco in conversation with Sara Sozzani Maino.
The program also includes the exhibition by Romi Loch Davis at Palazzo Venart and Quadreria Futura at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, with artist’s books by Jacopo Ascari and a contribution by Susanna Testa.
Discover RADAR VENEZIA and program updates.
Venice Cocktail Week
October 21–25, 2026
Hotel bars, cocktail bars, and historic cafés participate in Venice Cocktail Week with tastings, masterclasses, and encounters with Venetian bartenders and international guests.
The program (online from October 12) invites you to discover the craft of mixology and the professionals who practice it, choosing between in-depth sessions and aperitifs. Activities are distributed among participating venues.
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.
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 One Thing Leads to Another presents a selection of works by the twenty-eight artists under 30 awarded ateliers for 2025–2026 by Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa and 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 One Thing Leads to Another.
Dora Perini at SPARC: Too Much Sugar in the Soup
Through November 22, 2026
From Friday, October 9, SPARC, Contemporary Art Space exhibits Too Much Sugar in the Soup by Dora Perini. The exhibition is part of the RADAR VENEZIA program, and on Tuesday, October 20, the same space hosts 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.
