CENTRO PECCI About us

Over 25-year history

The museum project of the Center for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci, developed over a quarter of a century between the end of the Cold War and today’s global world, has reflected a habit of contemporary art collection which is widespread in Prato. This is fueled by the nearby auction house of the Farsetti brothers and inspired by reference figures like Giuliano Gori, the creator and owner of an extensive collection of land art in the manor house of Celle at Santomato di Pistoia. The museum’s over 25 years of activity have built up a permanent collection which is a lasting trace of the past temporary exhibitions held at the Centro Pecci. These have mostly focused on Italian and international artistic developments, first concentrating strictly on the 1980s and early nineties, then over the years gradually expanding to include retrospectives of artistic experimentations from the second half of the 20th century.

The exhibitions organized at the Centro Pecci and the permanent collection are the fruit of the critical inclinations, the artistic interests and the actual concrete opportunities of the successive directors and curators who have worked there: Amnon Barzel, Ida Panicelli, Antonella Soldaini, Bruno Corà, Daniel Soutif, Samuel Fuyumi Namioka (Collection Department, 2003-2005), Marco Bazzini and Stefano Pezzato, Fabio Cavallucci and Cristiana Perrella flanked over the years by external collaborators who have included Jean-François Chevrier e James Lingwood, Claudia Jolles, Elio Grazioli, Octavio Zaya, Germano Celant, Samuele Mazza, Giuliano Serafini, Filippo Maggia, Raffaele Gavarro, Marco Meneguzzo, Jean-Christophe Ammann, Jean-Pierre Criqui, Viktor Misiano, Achille Bonito Oliva, Marco Senaldi, Luca Beatrice, Davide Ferri.

In its first 25 years of activity, the Centro Pecci has exchanged works and collaborated on exhibitions with numerous international, national and territorial museums, in the following order: Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris; capc – Musée d'Art Contemporain, Bordeaux; Museo d'Arte Contemporanea – Castello di Rivoli; Museum Moderner Kunst – Stftung Ludwig, Vienna; Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria; Centre National d'Art Contemporain, Grenoble; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach; Atelierhaus der Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna; Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze; Palazzo Fabroni – Arti Visive Contemporanee, Pistoia; Fondazione Piaggio, Pontedera; Centre National de la Photographie, Parigi; Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain, Nice; Le Consortium Centre d'Art Contemporain, Dijon; Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz; Musée de Grenoble; Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai; Museum of Fine Arts, Hanoi; Korean Design Center, Seoul; Macro Future, Rome; Fondación Proa, Buenos Aires; Polo Museale Fiorentino, Florence; Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid; Padiglione Italia, Expo Universale, Shanghai; Museum of Art, Tel Aviv; Museo Civico Giovanni Fattori, Leghorn; Taichung Creative and Cultural Park, Taiwan; Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires; Santander Cultural, Porto Alegre; Villa Medicea di Poggio a Caiano; Museo di Palazzo Pretorio, Prato.

After 25 years of activity and over 250 exhibitions and exhibition projects organized mostly in Prato and the province of Prato, 20 in Tuscany, 25 in Milan and 18 abroad, the Centro Pecci can now propose itself as a cultural laboratory, a vehicle of information and knowledge, investigating the relationships among varying types of work, project, place and public, developing of artistic research, and creating “critical spaces” to be assigned to the production and interpretation of contemporary arts, as well as to the practice and cultural growth of the territory of Prato and Tuscany.

From the Associazione to the Fondazione

The Associazione Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci was the first Italian museum to have a building built from scratch especially for the presentation, collection, documentation and promotion of the most recent developments in art. Situated on the main route between Florence and Pistoia near the Prato Est freeway exit, for a quarter of a centrury it has expressed the enterprising, dynamic character of this industrial town which has always been interested in both industrial and cultural research and innovation. The Centro was built in the 1980s at the behest of Enrico Pecci, Cavaliere del Lavoro (Italian knighthood for services to industry), who donated it to the town of Prato in memory of his son Luigi, who had died an early death.  It was founded as a cultural Association thanks to the support of various partners, including the Borough of Prato, the Unione Industriale Pratese (Prato industrial union) and the  Cassa di Risparmio di Prato bank, as well as of numerous private companies and individual citizens.Among the founders there are: Albini e Pitigliani S.p.A., Arpel – Manifattura Pellicce artificiali S.p.A., Bartolomei e Manetti S.p.A., Promotrade, E.T.S. S.p.A. Fibretex S.a.S di O. De Renzis Sonnino & C., Galleria d’Arte Moderna Farsetti S.N.C., Galli S.p.A., Geas Assicurazioni S.p.A., Gommatex Jersey S.p.A., Imex Lane S.p.A., Lanificio Mario Bellucci S.p.A., Lanificio Cangioli di Carlo Cangioli & C. s.a.s, Lanificio Ciatti e Baroncelli S.p.A., Lanificio Martin S.p.A., Lanificio T.O. Nesi & Figli S.p.A., Lavatura e Pettinatura Lane S.p.A., Lineapiù S.p.A., Mariplast S.p.A., E. Pecci & C. S.a.s., Snia Fibre s.p.a., Società Tessilfibre s.p.a., Associazione ARCI – Comitato Territoriale di Prato – Settore Turismo e Pubblicità,  Stefano Balestri, Luigia Benelli (and sons, in memory of Alpo Benelli), Loriano Bertini, Arnolfo Biagioli, Bruno Bigagli, Marco Bigagli, Gianna Briganti, Edo Cafissi, Pier Giuseppe Carini, Sergio Chiostri, Luciana Chiostri Corsi, Ornella Dolci Franchi, Elda Franchi Pecci, Mauro Giovannelli, Alessandro Gori, Claudio Gori, Giuliano Gori: collezione spazi d’Arte Fattoria di Celle, Foresto Guarducci, Giannetto Guarducci, Nicoletta Kellner Ongaro Pecci, Romano Lenzi, Antonio Lucchesi, Giuliano Magni, Franco Mantellassi, Massimo Marchi, Anna Marchi Mazzini, Alessandro Pandolfini Marchi, Alberto Pecci, Elena Pecci, Enrico Pecci, Giovanna Pecci, Laura Pecci, Adriana Pecci Querci, Margherita Pecci Querci, Piero Picchi, Enrica Pieri Querci, Anna Querci, Maurizio Querci, Sergio Querci, Tebaldo Raffaelli (and his family), Anna Rasponi dalle Teste, Giuseppe Risaliti, Fosco Rosi, Daniela Salvadori Guidi, Roberto Sarti, Riccardo Tempestini, Luciano Toti The museum building was designed by the Florentine architect Italo Gamberini (1907-1990), an important exponent of the Tuscan rationalist movement, whose drawings and architectural designs for the Centro Pecci, dating from 1978 to 1989, are kept in the State Archives in Florence.

The cultural project for the Center for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci started out with the CID/Arti Visive, the Centre of Information and Documentation created by Egidio Mucci (then professor of Visual Communication Tools and Techniques at the Faculty of Architecture of Florence), with the critics Enzo Bargiacchi and Pier Luigi Tazzi.  This project was presented at the international conference on the documentation of contemporary art Progetti di archivio (Archive projects, Hotel Palace, Prato 6-7-8 April, 1984, published in the periodical bulletin of CID / Arti Visive, "Archivio", 0 Issue, June 1985),  then at international conferences dedicated to Il museo d'arte contemporanea oggi  (The museum of contemporary art today) and La rivista d'arte contemporanea (The contemporary art publication, Palazzo Novellucci, Prato 10-11 July 1985);  also Il museo d'arte contemporanea: struttura e funzioni (The museum of contemporary art: structure and functions, Palazzo Novellucci, Prato 2-3 October 1986). These are all documented in the periodical bulletin of the CID/Arti Visive, “Archivio”, No. 1, 1987. In the 0 issue of the bulletin “Archivio” of June 1985, the Center for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci was introduced by Prof. Giampiero Nigro (Professor of Economic History at the University of Florence, at that time Vice Mayor and Councillor for Culture on the Prato Town Council) and presented through the architectural project of the “museum” designed by Italo Gamberini.  In issue No. 1 of 1987 of the bulletin “Archivio”, the foreword The museum – art and society by Massimo Bellandi (then Councillor for Culture on the Prato town council and later first president of the Centro Pecci up to May 1993) was followed by contributions on the contemporary art museum by Italo Gamberini (the architect commissioned by Enrico Pecci in 1980) and Amnon Barzel (first artistic director of the Centro Pecci).

The original structure of the Centro Pecci was inaugurated on 25 June 1988. It was based on the multifunctional model of the Centre Georges Pompidou of Paris and included the museum exhibition area, which was initially dedicated to panoramic geographical or themed exhibitions, investigations of various contemporary  languages and media (painting, sculpture, installations, architecture, design, fashion, photography, videos, cinema, books, graphic art), as well as to single protagonists of the national and international art scene. The exhibitions were backed up and integrated by the activity of the CID/Arti Visive, with the specialized library of contemporary art and architecture which had been set up by the Borough of Prato (initially in the 18th-century Palazzo Novellucci), and transferred to the Centro Pecci in 1989; also by the Department of Education inaugurated in June 1988 with the experimental didactics of Bruno Munari; and of the Sezione Avvenimenti (Events Section) directed by Mario Bufano between 1989 and 2000 (later organizational director from 2001 to 2005), which organized cinema, video and music events in the auditorium, in the open-air theatre, or at different locations in the province of Prato. All the activities were also accompanied by publications, cycles of discussions and various related initiatives.

The Fondazione per le Arti Contemporanee in Toscana was officially constituted on 30 July 2015 to manage and relaunch the cultural heritage of the Center for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci of Prato, whose public function and juridical identity as a regional contemporary art hub were officially recognized. The promoters of the new Fondazione are the Borough of Prato and  the Associazione Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci which, under a convention with the Region of Tuscany, have been managing the renewed, extended structure of the Centro Pecci since 2016. The accountant and cultural economics expert Irene Sanesi has been appointed as first president of the Foundation.

The artistic directions

With the first artistic direction of Amnon Barzel (1986-1992, who had previously been the consultant for the Gori collection in the nearby manor house of Celle), the cultural proposals of the Centro Pecci immediately acquired a multi-disciplinary character, the premises being inaugurated with the performance of the opera Ofanίm, written and conducted for the occasion by Luciano Berio. There was also a marked international dimension, with wide-ranging overviews of western European contemporary art (Europa Oggi, Europe Today, 1988), of Artisti russi contemporanei (Contemporary Russian Artists, 1990, the first exhibition outside the USSR just a few months after the fall of the Berlin wall), and selections dedicated to Una scena emergente (An emerging Italian scene) and Artisti olandesi contemporanei (Contemporary Dutch artists, 1991). These alternated with collectives on the genres of installation (Spazi ’88, Spaces ‘88, 1988) and contemporary photography (Un'altra obiettività, Another objectivity, 1989) and on the theme of contemporary identity (Altrove, Elsewhere, 1991-1992); and large solo shows by Enzo Cucchi (1989), Julian Schnabel (1989-1990), Mario Merz (in conjunction with the Castle of Rivoli, 1990), Vito Acconci (1992), Gilberto Zorio (1992). In 1991, the Center presented a homage to Enrico Coveri, the enfant prodige of Italian fashion, who was born in Prato in 1952 and died an early death in Florence in 1990. Between 1990-1991 and 1992-1993, Barzel also presented the first acquisitions of works in two specific exhibitions on the Collection. One of the important works purchased on the occasion of these exhibitions was by the emerging artist Anish Kapoor. While it gave young curators free rein to propose a series of young artists, between 1991-1992 the Centro Pecci also instituted the first example in Italy of a “School for contemporary art curators”, promoted with special European funds. Figures of international importance such as Hou Hanru emerged from that first experimental course. Some of the most important Events were “An Experimental Rock Festival” (17-30 September 1988) and Improvvisazione libera: esperienza musicale per 70 solisti (Free improvisation: musical experience for 70 soloists), conceived by Giuseppe Chiari (29 September 1990). Another historic occasion was the first foundation concert of the Consorzio Suonatori Independenti (Independent Players’ Consortium: Maciste Contro Tutti, Maciste Versus Everyone Else, Prato 18 Sept 1992). From 1990 on the Centro Pecci organized the Festival delle Colline (Festival of the Hills), promoted with others by the Borough of Poggio a Caiano, in which important  musicians such as Robert Fripp (1990) and John Cale (1991) took part.

The brief but intense artistic direction of Ida Panicelli (1993-1994, former director of the international review “Art Forum”) set up new socio-cultural relations to connect the international art scene to the specific features of the territory, in the multi-location exhibition Inside Out (1993) and the exhibition/event Fellini: i costumi e le mode (Fellini: the costumes and the fashions; produced with the PratoTrade industrial consortium, 1994 and exported until 1996 in itinerant  mode, including the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam).

She organized exhibitions of young artists such as In Forma (On Form, 1993), and started a new cycle of artists’ projects in the basement, emblematically entitled Sosta Vietata (No Parking, 1994-1995). Above all, she extended research within the Centro Pecci, promoting the Wall Drawing#736 by Sol LeWitt (1993), jewelry by Giorgio Vigna (Sasseto, CID/Arti Visive, 1993), Artist’s books (Di carta e d’altro, Of paper and other things, CID/Arti Visive, 1994), together with the annual celebration of the world fight against AIDS and the institution of the international festival Videominuto (1993, Events Section), the setting up of a laboratory of expressive activities in a convention with the Italian national mental health services, and one of the first national conventions on Arte contemporanea: conservazione e restauro (Contemporary art: conservation and restoration, Centro Pecci, Prato 4-5 November 1994). The solo shows dedicated to Robert Mapplethorpe (1993-1994) and Gli ultimi sogni di Joan Mirò (The last dreams of Joan Mirò, 1994), as well as the first museum exhibition of the TV program Cinico TV: Cipri & Maresco (September 1994), have all lingered in the collective memory because of the uproar they provoked.

Despite the growing financial difficulties, the transitory direction of the curator Antonella Soldaini (1994-1995, formerly assistant to Ida Panicelli) was able to produce the first Italian exhibition of Jan Fabre (1994), and significant solo shows by Angeli Savelli (1995) and Marco Bagnoli (1995-1996), as well as an exceptional selection of contemporary photography from the Swiss collection LAC (L’immagine riflessa, The reflected image, 1995). Some of the most important Events were the national convention organized by Strano Network (19 February 1995) on Diritto alla comunicazione nello scenario di fine millennio, in difesa della telematica amatoriale (Right to communicate in the millennium scenario, in defense of amateur telematics), with the BBS system, alongside hypermedia installations and virtual realities; and the exhibition Videos & Installation by Bill Viola (November 1995). The position of president of the Centro Pecci was covered from September 1995 to July 1998 by the architect Paolo Paoletti. For the first time the Mayor’s representative for this role was no longer the Councilor for Culture of the Comune di Prato.

With the subsequent, stable artistic direction of Bruno Corà (1995-2002, a continuation of his position as curator for the nearby Palazzo Fabroni in Pistoia), the Centro Pecci revised and relaunched its exhibition strategy, starting from the large parallel exhibition of Burri and Fontana (1996), and followed by the international project ARS AEVI for the Contemporary Art Museum of Sarajevo (1996), and the exhibition/laboratory Habitus, abito, abitare: progetto arte (Habitus, I live, to live: art project) by Michelangelo Pistoletto (1996-1997), within the context of the 1^ Biennale di Firenze: Il tempo e la moda (1st Florence Biennale: time and fashion) directed by Germano Celant. The next solo show of Antoni Tàpies (1997) started a period of large solo and retrospective shows dedicated to: Remo Salvadori (1997-1998), Ettore Sottsass and Associates (1999), Gerhard Richter (1999-2000), Costas Tsoclis (2000), Nobuyoshi Araki (2000), Yves Klein (2000-2001), Jannis Kounellis (2001), Mimmo Paladino (2002-2003), supported by a special management committee which was formed together with Prato industrialists and entrepreneurs.  The collective shows included the exhibition/symposium Au rendez-vous des amis (1998), focusing on three generations of Italian artists; after this, Corà celebrated the 10th  birthday of the Centro Pecci with a new overview of European artists (10 intensità in Europa, 10 intensities in Europe, 1998) and strengthened the Permanent collection, inaugurating a specific separate exhibition space next to the Art Hotel (1998-2002) and welcoming the newly-constituted Association Amici del Museo Pecci (Friends of the Pecci Museum), which concerned itself with acquiring works for the collection of the Centro (acquisitions effected between 2001 and 2013). Other overviews were proposed for the young Art in Italy (Futurama, 2000), concerning developments of the relationship between Photography and metropolis (Instant City, 2001), and for The Art of today in Japan (Senritsumirai, 2001). Besides collateral research, like the seminal research of Emilio Villa (1996), Corà also concentrated his attention on the territory, with the cycle of Irradiazioni (Irradiations, Prato, 1997-1998; Volterra, 1997), and an exhibition dedicated to Arte contemporanea nella Toscana industriale (Contemporary Art in industrial Tuscany, Entr’acte, Fondazione Piaggio, Pontedera, 1998). The latter was intended as an introduction to the experimental constitution of a Metropolitan Contemporary Art System to operate between Florence-Prato-Pistoia-Celle under the aegis of the Region of Tuscany. This produced exhibitions and events dedicated to Daniele Lombardi (1998) and Dani Karavan (1999), also the imposing historical exhibition Continuità: Arte in Toscana 1945-2000 (Continuity: Art in Tuscany 1945-2000,  2002). To celebrate the first ten years of activity of the Centro Pecci, the Events Section directed by Bufano organized an extraordinary program of happenings which concentrated, as indicated by its title, on Memoria di Ram – Tutto in una notte (Ram memory – All in one night, 28 February 1998). Under the artistic direction of Corà and the presidency of the writer and film director Italo Moscati (from July 1998 to November 2001), the periodical “Exercise book” was published in 4 issues (1999-2001). The issues were dedicated to (1) the didactic activity developed in Prato starting with Bruno Munari; (2) art therapy and the laboratory of expressive activities for national mental health patients, activated in 1993; (3) the state of Italian museums, galleries and contemporary art  as compared to the European situation; (4) the theme of Art in context/environmental (land?) art in the metropolitan territory of Florence-Prato-Pistoia-Celle. The latter two chapters documented meetings organized by the Centro Pecci (Prato, 19 June 2000) and the S.M.A.C. (Prato-Pistoia-Florence-Celle, March-May 2000). In 2002, the experimental activity of the training centre “Pratomedialab” was begun at the Centro Pecci, in collaboration with the Association T.P.O. This led to the setting up of the course Techne for the restoration and conservation of contemporary art (2002-2003). In the meantime the Centro Pecci became one of the founders of AMACI (Associazione Musei d'Arte Contemporanea Italiani, Association of Italian Contemporary Art Museums), today officially recognized by the Ministry of Heritage, Cultural Activities and Tourism)

The incisive artistic direction of Daniel Soutif (2003-2005, first director of the cultural development department of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris), resulting from an international selection of 8 candidates and linked to the regional project of Continuità: Arte in Toscana 1945-2000 (Continuity: Art in Tuscany 1945-200) of which Soutif was one of the curators, brought about a mini-revolution in the Centro Pecci, under the direct presidency of the mayor of Prato, Fabrizio Mattei (November 2001-October 2004): re-arrangement of the museum exhibition spaces; creation of a second collection space under the seating tiers of the open-air theatre;  a Lounge/Project Room on the ground floor; the setting up of three distinct Departments dedicated respectively to: exhibitions; cultural activity with the library of CID/Arte Visive and educational activities; and the collection, for which a special electronic database was adopted. In 2003, the museum exhibition rooms designed by Gamberini, already about to be restored by the Borough of Prato, were submitted to a radical, functional technical transformation. Parallel to the CID/Arti Visive, the transition Towards a new centre: from history to the planning of a future museum was envisaged for the first time. Exhibitions were mainly dedicated to single artists such as Wim Delvoye (2003-2004), Domenico Gnoli / Francesco Lo Savio (2004), Massimo Vitali (2004), Bertrand Lavier (2004-2005), Robert Morris (2005). Some of the most important artists’ projects produced at the Centro Pecci were those of Massimo Bartolini (2003-2004), Letizia Cariello (2003), Kinkaleri (2004), Luca Vitone (2004-2005), Flavio Favelli (2005). The CID/Arti visive presented a series of films on Cinema d'artista in Toscana: 1964-1980 (Artist’s cinema in Tuscany. 1964-1980, 2004). At the end of Soutif’s directorship, in conjunction with the ever-worsening financial situation and with the appointment to the presidency of the Prato entrepreneur Valdemaro Beccaglia (in office from July 2005 up to his early death in January 2012), the multi-location exhibition Territoria: Arte dall'Olanda a Prato e Val di Bisenzio (Territory: Art from Holland in Prato and Val di Bisenzio, 2005) was held. It was curated by the artist Phom Puckey and shared with the Province of Prato. For the occasion, an agreement was set up with the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Prato bank for the purchase of works to be left on loan to the Centro Pecci; this was profitably developed, with acquisitions up to 2011.

The interim artistic directorship (2006-2007) of Stefano Pezzato, first assistant to Corà, then curator with Soutif) coincided with financial recovery and the consequent reorganization of the various Departments which were combined into a single artistic and cultural area. This, with the Administrative area and the Area of services on the territory, set up in 2009, formed the managerial structure of the Centro Pecci up to 2013.

As a natural development of the process of refunctionalization started in the previous years with Soutif, in 2006 under the active presidency of Valdemaro Beccaglia a project was conceived for relaunching the Centro Pecci. This led to the extension of the museum premises, commissioned by the Pecci family from Maurice Nio (Indonesia, 1959), one of the most interesting figures on the innovative Dutch architectural scene. The Pecci family hoped thus to relaunch the cultural challenge which had been offered to the town over 20 years previously, and indeed the challenge was favorably received by the Borough of Prato, which promoted and supported the realization of the project, together with the Region of Tuscany (beginning of the works: 2010).  The exhibition activity continued with the geographical overview Opera Austria (Austrian artwork, 2006), and the collective exhibition Primo Piano  (Closeup, 2006), dedicated to the collection of the Prato merchant Carlo Palli, who for the occasion donated 200 works of Visual Poetry and similar, there was also an unprecedented comparative co-exhibition of the collections of the Centro Pecci and  the Museo Civico of Prato (Corrispondenze, Correspondances, 2006-2007). Two large retrospectives, of David Tremlett (2006-2007) and Daniel Spoerri (2007), were also organized, together with new artist’s projects, a retrospective of Alberto Moretti in nearby Carmignano (2006), and a collective exhibition of works from the Centro Pecci collection at the MoCA of Shanghai (The time of metamorphoses, Il tempo delle metamorfosi, 2006).

The artistic direction of Marco Bazzini (2007-2013), who had first been in charge of the Culture Department and then external curator for the Centro Pecci, produced an intense period of exhibitions: new overviews on Arte contemporanea dall'ex URSS (Contemporary Art from the ex-USSR, Progressive Nostalgia,2007); Arte dall'Italia dopo il 2000 :Nessuna Paura (Art from Italy after 2000 : Have no Fear, 2007-2008); La collezione : Fatto bene! (The collection. Well done! , 2008); contemporary Brazilian art (After Utopia, 2009-2010); contemporary Chinese video art (Moving Image in China, 2012); new art and architecture in Holland (Triggering Reality, 2012-2013); significant solo shows of Emilio Isgrò (2008), Loris Cecchini (2009), Paolo Canevari (2010), Michael Lin (2010-2011), Athos Ongaro (2011), Nicola De Maria (2011-2012), Massimo Barzagli (2012); a collective exhibition inspired by the 20 years of the Centro Pecci 1988: vent'anni prima, vent'anni dopo (1988: twenty years before, twenty years after, 2008); other exhibitions dedicated to the Premio Maretti (Maretti Award) – Valerio Riva Memorial (2011), to the meeting between art and rock music (Live!, 2011) and to the current practice of painting ( La figurazione inevitabile, The inevitable figuration, 2013). In these years, various artist’s projects were produced, including those by Botto&Bruno (2007), Paolo Parisi (2008), Bert Theis (2009), Lena Liv (2009-2010), Thom Puckey and Jan Van der Ploeg (2010-2011) and retrospective projects on the experimentations of Mauro Staccioli (2008), Luciano Ori (2009), Gianni Pettena (2010), Mario Mariotti (2011-2012), Superstudio (2011-2012), UFO (2012-2013), Paolo Scheggi (2013). Under Bazzini’s direction, dozens of parallel artistic and exhibition initiatives took place alongside these internal activities of the Centro Pecci,  over the whole territory of the Province of Prato and Tuscany, with the Centro’s officially recognized role as “subject having the task of coordinating the system” of regional contemporary art (Law No.21, 25.2.2010, Art. 48). Simultaneously, the Centro Pecci produced the contemporary art and design project Italian Genius Now and exported it around the world (Hanoi, Singapore, 2007; Seul, Tokyo, Taipei, New Delhi, 2008; Roma, 2009; Expo Shanghai, 2010; Taichung, 2010-2011; Porto Alegre, 2012). With the support of the regional agency Toscana Promozione it activated, then supported autonomously, the project for the detached exhibition area of Museo Pecci Milano (2010-2015); with the Region of Tuscany it created the project Alla maniera d'oggi: Base a Firenze, In today’s fashion: Base in Florence in collaboration with the Polo Museale Fiorentino (Florentine Museum Hub, 2010) and the project Padiglione Toscana (Tuscan Pavilion), a territorial extension of the Italian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Art Biennale, invented by Vittorio Sgarbi (2011). From autumn 2008 to autumn 2010, the Centro Pecci hosted experimental two-year courses of the Accademia di Belle Arte (Fine Arts Academy of Florence). In 2010 it signed an important agreement for the donation of the archive of the Florentine art historian and critic Lara Vinca Masini, in order to ensure its future conservation and public access, through the CID/Arti Visive. Since 2011, the Centro Pecci has also received the archive of the Florentine artist and cultural animator Mario Mariotti, donated by his heirs,  and the trust fund of works and projects of the Florentine modernist architect Leonardo Savioli and his wife, the artist Flora Wiechmann, who had donated it to the Region of Tuscany with the architect’s studio at Florence/Galluzzo.  The presence over the last few years of works from the Centro Pecci collection in Prato and around Tuscany has contributed to the appreciation of its many years of activity: in the renewed Lazzerini borough library, inside the former Campolmi factory;  in the 18th-century Palazzo Banci Buonamici, the headquarters of the Province of Prato (2011, 2013); in the 19th -century Villa Fabbricotti in Florence, the headquarters of the regional agency Toscana Promozione (2011); in Palazzo della Carovana (designed by Vasari) in Pisa, the headquarters of the prestigious Scuola Normale Superiore (Higher learning institute, 2012, 2014); in the new museum of the 20th  century in Florence, in Piazza Santa Maria Novella (2014). Under Bazzini’s artistic directorship, the Centro Pecci also organized an important international symposium on Arte e neuroscienze (Art and neurosciences: Always on my mind, Prato 10-11 November 2012). The end of Bazzini’s term of office coincided with the 25th  anniversary of the opening of the Centro Pecci; it was celebrated with a live musical event conceived and organized by Daniele Lombardi in homage to Luciano Berio (Glitch, 25 June 2013).

After the closure of the museum in Prato to complete the architectural extension, since summer 2013 the activities coordinated by Stefano Pezzato have continued in the detached exhibition area of the Museo Pecci Milano, and on the provincial territory of Prato through the multi-location projects of Prato-Sarajevo and Prato contemporanea (Contemporary Prato, 2014), with the exhibition Contrappunti (Counterpoints) in the Medici Villa of Poggio a Caiano, a UNESCO world heritage site, and with the multifaceted project "Maledetti toscani, benedetti italiani"  (“Cursed Tuscans, blessed Italians”) by Emilio Isgrò for the town of Prato (2014). 

In December 2014, the Centro Pecci became one of the founders of theAssociazione Italiana Archivi d'Artista (AitArt, Italian Association of Artist Archives). In summer 2015, Silvia Bacci ended her term of office with the direction of the 10th edition of the Festival delle Colline (Festival of the Hills, 2006-2015). The death of Elena Pecci who had sat on the executive committee of the Centro Pecci since its inauguration in 1988, occurred just a few days before the opening of the "Forum dell'arte contemporanea italiana" (Italian contemporary art forum, dedicated in fact to Elena Pecci). For three days from 25 to 27 September 2015, over 400 speakers and a thousand participants from all over Italy, in some cases also from abroad, gathered in Prato to take part in the discussions of the 42 round tables on problems and proposals for the development of Italian contemporary art.

In March 2018 Fabio Cavallucci has ended his role of Centro Pecci's chief.