Marca Corona per l'Arte

Marca Corona has started an approach path towards contemporary art, which will lead to new collaborations with young emerging artists. This dialogue with art projects The Gallery towards new and innovative artistic paths, as the holder of a great historical and cultural heritage marked by the origins of the Sassuolo area.

As of 2021, Galleria Marca Corona becomes a member of Museimpresa, the Associazione Italiana Archivi e Musei d'Impresa, an Italian organisation that brings together the corporate museums of large, small and medium-sized enterprises and promotes them throughout Italy, to safeguard the memory of Italian industry and favour the testimonies of an extraordinary manufacturing capability, a driver of sustainable development and cornerstone of a widespread economic, social and civil culture.

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Galleria Marca Corona

The long and fascinating story of Marca Corona is told inside the Galleria Marca Corona, the company museum opened in 2010 to tell the tale of the evolution of the company from 1741 until today and to transmit the values of the ceramics district of which the company is the proud standard bearer.

The Galleria contains the exhibits of what was the “Museo della Fabbrica Rubbiani” museum, which was set up in the nineteenth century alongside the Contrada del Borgo facility. It aims to show the entrepreneurial and artistic continuity between past and present, between passion for craftsmanship and contemporary production.

The collection encapsulates the genetic inheritance of Marca Corona and bears witness to the many technical and stylistic changes over the last three centuries: starting with tableware and the first decorative items, going on to plates with street names and house numbers and then finally decorated floor and wall tiles, the precursors of today’s high quality industrial products.

This space has been conceived by the Progettisti Associati design studio as a multimedia museum where the visitor is not only able to admire the fine exhibits but also place them in their historical and cultural context owing to exhaustive video, photographic and text documentation, thus experiencing an intense and interactive emotional experience. The visit is divided into 6 rooms that each tell the story of a different historical period.

Our story

A gripping video tells the entire Marca Corona story, which in fact coincides with the evolution of the Sassuolo district and the birth of tiles.

1741-1835

Exhibits and paper documentation tell the story of growing success of majolica tableware, which was used daily in the eighteenth century by all classes. In Sassuolo, the site of the summer palace of the Duchy of Modena, various workshops had already grown up along Contrada del Borgo.

1836-1854

Company fortunes, the arrival of skilled workers from abroad and the introduction of earthenware enable the Majolica Factory to distinguish itself through its productivity and stylistic excellence during the Restoration period.

1854-1910

Sassuolo is now the cradle of national ceramic production. Giovanni Maria Rubbiani, the new owner of the company, who is sensitive to innovation and international trends, starts manufacturing dry-pressed tiles.

1910-1990s

The international exhibitions and the new law on house numbers and road names oriented production strategies in the early twentieth century: the “Carlo Rubbiani” factory in fact devoted itself to producing small decorated tiles and road names made of majolica. The two world wars upset the soul and business of Marca Corona, but it was able to pick itself up after the second world war. Constant growth and innovation culminated with joining the Concorde Group in 1982.

Marca Corona today

From 1741 to today, professionalism, passion and research have formed this special company that has known how to adapt to the evolution of fashions and to social and economic transformations. Care for the environment, links to the area, respect for people, technological innovation and international innovation are just some of the values that still drive Marca Corona…

Room 1

Entrance

The Galleria is dedicated to the late Chairman of Concorde Group, Professor Cirillo Mussini. It can be visited freely by private individuals, customers and school parties. Those who are curious or passionate about art can also download the detailed museum guide and the book “Duecentocinquant’anni di Ceramica a Sassuolo” (Two hundred and fifty years of Ceramics in Sassuolo) that traces the fascinating story of the Sassuolo tile-making district.