ABOUT THE FOUNDER

The founder of ICBIE, Pietro Gallina (Rome 1948 – Rome 2022), was an idealist who fought for and succeeded in realizing his ideas. It is difficult to summarize in a few lines the life of a person so passionate about art, education, and culture, who lived his passion with such intensity. Among many other things, Pietro was a musicologist and music critic who studied at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome. He contributed to many magazines and newspapers, writing articles on topics related to art, music, and theater. He was much loved by his students and taught music and theater at the National Academy of Dance (Italy) and at the Liceo “Socrate” in Rome.

In 2005, Pietro’s story merged with that of ICBIE in Salvador de Bahia, a non-profit association that was born through the Ele D’Artagnan International School of Arts Project, conceived and designed by him.
Pietro taught by example the value of friendship and that life is the art of encountering others. It was his experience with Michele Lombardi, known as Ele D’Artagnan, that inspired an autobiographical book dedicated to this encounter: “Un clandestino nella Dolce Vita – Storia di Ele d’Artagnan pittore e del bambino a cui ha cambiato la vita” (An illegal immigrant in La Dolce Vita – The story of Ele d’Artagnan, painter, and the child whose life he changed). This posthumous work was published in 2025 and, as we can read on its back cover: “the extravagant Ele d’Artagnan accompanied Pietro for a long time on his path of cultural growth, and this passionate story seems to repay a debt of gratitude to this precious master.”

November 26, the anniversary of the death of our maestro Pietro Gallina, has become for ICBIE and for the entire network of people and places he created a day not only to honor his memory, but above all a day to celebrate life, celebrate art, culture, friendship, and beauty.

Starting in 2023, the first anniversary of Pietro’s death, ICBIE will organize a special event lasting one or more days, filled with music, theater, dance, and various artistic expressions. The goal is to revive what Pietro loved: cultural events, gatherings of people who share the same passion for art, culture, and education, and to showcase, in a new light, some of the ideas, passions, and activities he promoted and carried out.

Thus, the event has already promoted theatrical performances, outdoor graffiti, singing and capoeira games, dance, poetry recitals, musical performances (opera, MPB, samba), and gastronomic culture.
The entire first year (2023) of the event was masterfully recorded by videographer Fabrício Seixas and is available on our YouTube channel (link). The photos below also show a little of what the events held so far have been like.

“People don’t die, they become enchanted…
we die to prove that we lived.”
(Guimarães Rosa)