Maria Grazia Mattei
Founder and President of MEET, Digital Culture Center
A journalist, an art critic anda curator, Maria Grazia Mattei has been investigatingdigitalculture since 1982.
In 2005 she designed andlaunchedMeet the Media Guru (MtMG), a platform aimed to promote public dissemination on innovation and digital culturetowards a non-professional audience. In 15 years MtMG has brought to Milan+100 thought leaders including Zygmunt Bauman, Edgar Morin, Manuel Castells, Jane McGonigal,Paola Antonelli, Joi Ito,GiorgiaLupi, Don Norman, John Maeda, Carlo Ratti, Daito Manabe, Lawrence Lessig.
In 2018, Mattei hasfounded MEET, the first Italian center for digital culturewith the support of Fondazione Cariplo, one the largest philanthropic foundation in Europe. MEETdesigns and promotes onlifemeetings, exhibitions, workshops and digital performances with a humanistic perspective on creative technology and emerging digital trends. In October 2020,MEET’s facility building opens its doors up at the heart of Milan.
Matteihas been the Italian curator forPixarretrospectives set up at PAC in Milan in 2011, at Palazzo del Te in Mantua in 2012 and at Palazzo delleEsposizioni in Rome in 2018.
All long her career, Mattei has promoted numerous initiatives dedicated to the awareness and diffusion of digital culture in collaboration with international organizations including Venice Biennale (Italy), Siggraph (USA) and Imagina (France).
Since 2016 Mattei serves on the board of directors for Artemideand she’s been a member of Fondazione Cariplo Steering Board, providing guidance to the foundation from 2013 to 2019.
Mattei designedand curated“A tu per tu con la cultura digitale”, a book series, published by Egea| Università Bocconi Editore. She co-authored Future Ways of Living and Future Ways of Living | Living in a Global Village volumes, both published by 24OreCultura.
Since the late Eighties,Matteichampionscultural and professional exchanges between Italy and North America, especially in relation to creative industries’ innovation. For her commitment, in 2017 Matteiwas honored by the Embassy of Canada to Italy with the Canada-Italy Innovation Award.
Mattei earnedher B.A. in Art Critic from Università degli Studi di Milano.She was born in Pisa and has been living in Milan for forty years.
