Casa Mahler Spoleto is a cultural centre in central Italy celebrating the memories of Gustav, Alma and Anna Mahler. It is dedicated to inspiring new creative work in all the arts. Key partners contributing to the program at Casa Mahler Spoleto include the Mahler & LeWitt Studios, Mahler Foundation, Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi, the Comune di Spoleto and the Anna Mahler Association. 

From 1967–1987 the house was the home and studio of stone sculptor Anna Mahler (1904-1988), daughter of Gustav and Alma, and it has remained in the family. Large scale works by Anna, plasters and stones, are found across the four floors of the house. Anna brought Alma’s piano to Spoleto which, along with a family music collection, is a feature of the music room, used by our composers in residence. The piano is surrounded by Anna’s busts of Schoenberg, Klemperer, and other luminaries, made from life.

Since the 1960s the house has been a meeting point for artists, often attending the Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi. Established artists who have lived and worked in the house recently include Barbara Hannigan, Salvatore Sciarrino, Amitav Gosh, Lonnie Holley, Duval Timothy and Rachael Allen.  

“Casa Mahler is integral to the cultural life of Spoleto and the community of international artists who assemble for its dynamic program of residencies, workshops and events. As a residential facility intended to house artists, it is a cultural centre like no other: in Casa Mahler, replete with historic artworks, libraries, studios and a music room – re-designed with great sensitivity by Marina Mahler and celebrating her ancestors Gustav, Alma and Anna – the boundaries between art and life merge.

In Spoleto the legacies of the Mahler family brush against deep histories: the house is in the heart of the medieval town, which itself stands on Etruscan land. Working within these rich historical contexts, the Mahler & LeWitt Studios uses the house as a research and development residential centre, inviting individuals, as well as collectives and ensembles, to make work. We also host gatherings and events – networking opportunities, workshops, concerts, dinners, talks and performances.  

Now more than ever arts organisations must use their unique position to foster a shared sense of humanity and inspire responsibility to our planet and each other. Casa Mahler Spoleto and its affiliated projects spark this communal spirit by bringing together artists of all disciplines from different cultures, generations and backgrounds. In Spoleto, we create opportunities for talented individuals to share and discuss their unique experiences and expertise, whilst developing radical ways of thinking and new work.”

Guy Robertson, Artistic Director, Mahler & LeWitt Studios

Anna Mahler In the courtyard of Casa Mahler, Anna chipped rhythmically away at massive stones, revealing striking and mysterious figures in undulating forms reminiscent of landscapes. Anna had begun her career as a painter tutored by Giorgio de Chirico in Rome. Encouraged by the artist Fritz Wotruba, however, she soon discovered her métier sculpting stone. She also worked in clay and used her kiln for portrait busts and smaller figures. Ernst Gombrich wrote how the value of her art, “...is not determined by superficial characteristics but by the ability to reach and touch our innermost feelings”. She first arrived in Spoleto in 1968 inspired to buy a home in Italy by a trip she made to Cortona a year earlier with her daughter Marina, who had suggested Italy rather than the English countryside as a place to live and work. Today, the house has been transformed from a working studio into an elegant villa and a number of her artworks stand close to the places where they were made. A vaulted room holds the Anna Mahler Archive, including correspondence and photography relating to her own and her families lives, as well as her tools and workbenches.

Casa Mahler Spoleto Casa Mahler has an ambience, a personality of its own. As you enter you are in an open courtyard with an enormous magnolia tree greeting you with open arms; reclining stone figures by Anna Mahler adorn the patio. To the left, a small pool in Italian marble surrounded by flowers, to the right the door to the house itself. The house is large and intimate at the same time. Each floor has self-contained apartments with studios and communal spaces. There is a cinema room and a library. At the bottom is a Roman well dating back centuries. It is a place of quiet and repose, yet brimming with deep creative energy.

Click on "Projects" in the menu bar to learn about the work the Mahler family promotes through Casa Mahler Spoleto, including the Mahler & LeWitt Studios, Mahler Foundation, the Anna Mahler Association and the Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi.