MUDIS – The Museum of Ceramics in Palazzo Trabia

Palazzo Trabia, the ancient noble residence of the founder of the village – Giuseppe Lanza Barresi, Duke of Camastra – is now home to Mudis, the Museum of Ceramics, opened on the 24th of December 1994, after years of patient renovation works and a strong desire to create a temple of history, art, culture, and traditions.

IIn the rediscovery of ancient traces, the museum represents the memory of the past and, at the same time, the knowledge of the present. Centuries of tradition show how plentiful are the traces that have to be treasured, but they also teach us that ceramics cannot live only in the history of the past.

The message that the “Amici della Ceramica” Association wants to spread today is tradition and innovation. The association has been managing the museum for a couple of years now and their mission is to create a new experience, in which the museum will represent the future together with its genetic relationship to the memories of the past, in the awareness that the new can only be introduced by those who have experienced the past.

The Museum in Santo Stefano di Camastra can be all this and more. It rejects the traditional set up as a space for storage and exhibition of beautiful objects, creating a place where the visitor isn’t just a passive component but is instead an active protagonist, who takes part in the cultural evolution.

A place to learn and enrich the culture of Santo Stefano through a fruitful dialogue with other cultures; a place of research, study, construction, economic and cultural promotion of ceramics.

The Museum is divided as follows::

• on the ground floor: the reception with big ceramic jars and some contemporary pieces, an unusual room with 25 large jars buried in the ground, a room entirely dedicated to the traditional ceramics on the village of Santo Stefano; a gallery for temporary exhibitions; a room with a traditional tile of Santo Stefano, a temporary display of archaeological finds discovered in the area;

• on the second floor: also known as piano nobile: a few rooms dedicated to contemporary ceramics artists; two rooms dedicated to the town with ancient ceramic tradition, a conference hall.

The association also manages the ITACA Artist Residence, a place where artists, ceramists, designers, and art students are invited to create works that will enrich the collection of the Museum of Ceramics.