The Italian Festival is not the only event in Buffalo that showcases Italian heritage. Either are the numerous Italian restaurants that are found around the city. Buffalo has many more parallels than the obvious ones. Just ask community changemaker Dana Saylor, who just returned from a creative placemaking residency in Tuscany’s Mugello Valley, 35 minutes north of Florence. It was there that she set out to reconnect the people with the place – apparently in recent years there has been a disconnect with the heritage, similar to what Buffalo experienced in years past.
Dana was one of the Buffalo activists who set out to reconnect the people with their grain silo heritage. So it only makes sense that she set out to do something similar in the Mugella Valley. Her role was to document and promote the historic grist mills and heritage grains of the region.
Now Dana is giving her final public talk at the Buffalo History Museum, about her Italian art residency. She will be discussing the parallels that she found between the Mugello Valley and WNY, and her passion for placemaking.
The talk is FREE to History Museum members (museum admission for non-members) and open to the public; Dana will speak and then have a discussion with the audience. It is being held on Wednesday, June 15th from 6-7pm at the Buffalo History Museum.