A new public art project by artist Melissa McGill, Red Regatta celebrates Venice’s maritime culture and calls attention to the fragile balance between the city and the sea. Created in collaboration with Associazione Vela al Terzo Venezia and co-organized by Magazzino Italian Art Foundation, Red Regatta includes a series of choreographed regattas of traditional Venetian sailboats, hoisted with hand-painted red sails, in Venice’s lagoon.

At this special open house, presented at Ocean Space, visitors are invited to learn more about the project through an artist talk with Melissa McGill and opportunity to see several of the vela al terzo sailboats up-close, moored in the canal in front of Campo di San Lorenzo. The public program, including remarks by the Associazione Vela al Terzo President Giorgio Righetti and TBA21–Academy Director Markus Reymann, spurs conversations on the project’s core themes: the environment and maritime traditions that have shaped life in Venice for a millennium.

Photo credit: Melissa McGill, Red Regatta (Coppa del Presidente della Repubblica), 2018