ACEA Contemporanea Award

Rome, May 21, 2026

From painting to sculpture, from photography to digital art, from performance to design and fashion, ACEA, together with Valore Italia, launches the ACEA Contemporanea Award: a project that places art and culture at the center as strategic drivers to generate concrete and lasting impact on ESG issues. At the heart of the initiative is water—a vital but not infinite resource.

The Award aims to foster an authentic dialogue between business and artistic creativity, enhancing the talent of new generations and enriching ACEA’s corporate collection with works capable of interpreting one of the most crucial themes for our future in a contemporary way.

The ACEA Contemporanea Award is a competition open to students and recent graduates of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, Accademia Italiana, and SAE Institute. Participants were invited to reflect on the value of water as a precious resource, now at the center of major environmental, social, and economic challenges. The artworks explored the relationship between humans, nature, and water, addressing themes such as scarcity, pollution, climate change, responsible management, and inequalities in access to water.

Students from Accademia Italiana won two awards: 

Giorgia Armario, with the photographic triptych Cosa sarà di noi, cosa sarà della neve? (What will become of us, what will become of the snow?), brings back memories of the places of her childhood, recounting how snow, twenty years ago, was a seasonal ritual shaped by play, cold and togetherness. Today, that cyclical rhythm seems to have been broken: snowfall at lower altitudes has almost disappeared, and in order to encounter snowy landscapes, it is now necessary to travel to increasingly higher elevations. In this work, the relationship between humanity and nature emerges as fragile and destructive, revealing ecological responsibilities, disruptions to hydrological cycles, summer droughts, and the recurring hydrigeological instability affecting the entire Ligurian hinterland.

Lars Lattacher, through his Acea Heritage Box, has developed an educational campaign that transforms the care of Rome's "nasoni" fountains info a playful learning experience. Designed for primary schools, the kit invites children to collect leaves near the city's fountains, process them by hand info sheets of paper, and use the excess water to create natural inks. The handmande paper is then stamped with iconic water-related imagery, resulting in small unique artworks for the children to take home. In this way, the project brings younger generations closer to rome's cultural heritage, teaching the importance of small environmental actions while turning the maintenance of public fountains into an educational and engaging activity. 

The winners will receive a monetary prize from ACEA, awarded by a jury composed of ACEA representatives, curators, and art critics, to support their university and training expenses. In addition, finalist works—selected through internal calls within the participating institutions—will become part of the permanent group exhibition at ACEA Heritage, the new exhibition space located at the historic headquarters in Piazzale Ostiense: a place where vision, innovation, and memory come together to shape the future.

“This project confirms how education is today a fundamental driver of young people’s cultural and professional development, - said Salvatore Amura, CEO of Valore Italia- Academies are privileged places where talent, creativity, and skills meet and transform into tangible value. Our commitment is to support these paths by offering young artists real opportunities for growth and connection with the productive world, enabling them to fully express their potential and actively contribute to the country’s future.”

“For Accademia Italiana, participation in the ACEA Contemporanea Award confirms an educational approach that has always sought engagement with local contexts and their excellence, - said Nicola Accurso, Managing Director, AD Education Italy - Bringing artistic research and experimentation into dialogue with impactful and current issues—such as the role of water for communities and the planet’s future—is exactly where creativity becomes a tool for sharing culture and responsibility. We are proud that students from SAE Institute are also part of this initiative: it demonstrates how the institutions within the AD Education group play a leading role in the contemporary creative scene, each with its own identity yet united by a shared vision.”

Congratulations to Giorgia and Lars and to all the students who participated in the Award!