Associazione Culturale Spiritree

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Spiritree

The Bottega of Spiritree is situated in the historic Garbatella district of Rome.

 Marco Giammetti and Carol Hendrickson founded Spiritree to weave together two of their passions: gestural theatre and visual arts.

Why the name Spiritree? The artists created their first processional puppets, The Terrestrial and The Ethereal, and suspended sculptures inspired by the spirit of trees for an installation/performance which was part of Roccansemble, the 1988 event at the Rocca Paolina in Perugia, Italy. The tree is a symbol of the union between the earth and the sky. It is like a mysterious whisper where the roots move imperceptibly to embrace each other in the darkness below the earth’s surface, while the trunks and branches stretch upward toward the light of the sky. This vital energy has always accompanied Marco and Carol in their artistic endeavors.

Spiritree creates masks, props, processional puppets and papier mâché sculptures for use in their own performances as well as on commission for theatre companies.

Spiritree has performed in street theatre events such as the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival in NYC, First Night Morris County, Urban Theatre Festival in Rome. Since 1994, as as the conclusion of annual Summer Art and Creativity Workshops, Spiritree has presented out-of-doors performances in various Italian locations.   

In Italy, Spiritree holds both experiential and training workshops at community centers and cultural institutions: Centro di Solidarietà Calabrese; Scuola di Specializzazione in Psicologia della Salute presso l’Università La Sapienza Roma; UOC salute mentale XI municipio, Roma.

Since 2018, Spiritree collaborates with the IPAZIA Immaginepensiero Odv.

In the USA, Spiritree conducts theatre and visual arts residencies in numerous schools, offering an innovative approach to the learning/teaching process. Since 1989, the Spiritree artists have worked as teaching artists through the Arts-in-Education programs of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Morris Arts.

The Bottega of Spiritree

Spiritree is located in the historic Garbatella district and promotes artistic activities to diffuse diverse artistic forms: expressive movement and gesture, visual arts in particular sculpture and the creative use of paper. The “Bottega” is home to a permanent papier mâché workshop.

The “Bottega” is engaged in an on-going exploration of artistic activities focused on facilitating personal expression, interpersonal communication and the development of each person’s creative potential.

Exhibit - The artists' café
Exhibit - Spiritree: yesterday, today and...
Spiritree Bottega
Exhibit - Whimsical Bestiary
Papier mâché workshop
Suspended sculpture mobile
Performance - Guernica
Exhibit - Limestone (papier mâché installation)
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