Active since 1966, when the first school was opened in Milan, Istituto Europeo di Design has been expanding and operating in the disciplines of design, fashion, visual arts, management and communication, in different cities both in Italy and abroad. IED Firenze offers every year the Arts Management Master course, in which the first semester final project is the development and organisation of a professional art exhibition. The students of the Master Course in Arts Management in IED Firenze are the curators, organizers and producers of At the edge of chaos. They were responsible for creating the statement of this exhibition, as well as choosing the artworks in collaboration with Palazzo Strozzi. The design, exhibition virtual layout, visual identity, and communication were also created by IED students.

Manifattura Tabacchi is an ex-industrial complex built in the 1930s, west of central Florence. Decommissioned since 2001, it is now involved in an ambitious urban regeneration project, which envisages creating a new district for the city animated by a centre for contemporary art and culture complementary to the historic centre, open to the territory and connected with the world. The interdisciplinary project dedicated to art, currently divided into Art Residences, independent spaces, festivals and workshops, is the ideal framework for the collaboration with Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi. Manifattura Tabacchi hosts the exhibition At The Edge of Chaos in its digital spaces.

The California State University (CSU), with 23 campuses throughout the state, is the largest university system in the U.S. CSU offers study abroad opportunities in numerous countries on different continents. The guiding principle is that students should be immersed in the academic and cultural life of their host countries. The CSU IP in Florence was founded in 1966 and the students participate in the Florence program for one year.

The CSU IP in Florence offers a rich curriculum with courses in Art History, Classics, Literature, Social Sciences, Italian Language, Cultural Studies and Architecture. The CSU art students’ study at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze and also work in the studios on campus under the guidance of Professor Marsha Steinberg, the CSU Art Coordinator. This spring 2020, due to the sanitary situation, the studio art students developed their artworks back in California working online with professor Steinberg.

Active since 2001, the Libera Accademia di Belle Arti is a school of art and painting, photography, fashion, graphic and design, which revolves around the key word of “experimentation”. It is located in Florence but aims at going beyond its borders, focusing on innovation and on the relationship with the workplace. The young artists enrolled in Visual Arts and Painting have developed their works as part of the performance techniques for visual arts course with the coordination of Professor Matteo Innocenti.