The Italian Cultural Institute in Sydney, an official body of the Italian government, has as its aim the promotion of Italian language and culture in Australia (NSW, Queensland and NT) and New Zealand through the organisation of cultural events fostering the diffusion of ideas in the arts and sciences.
The Italian Cultural Institute in Sydney offers the following services to the Australian public:
- Italian language and culture courses held by suitably qualified, mother-tongue teachers
- a language library which members of the Institute and students enrolled in a language course can use for the consultation and borrowing of books, videos, CDs, DVDs
- Italian newspapers and magazines aand an information and documentation service on Italian cultural life.
For concerts, art exhibitions and larger cultural events, the Institute collaborates with the following:
- local art and museum institutes such as the Art Gallery of NSW, the Powerhouse Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Sydney Biennale
- music bodies such as Musicaviva Australia, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
- cultural organisations such as the British Council, the Goethe Institut, the Alliance Française and the Instituto Cervantes
- Italian university departments located within the jurisdiction and Italian associations such as the Co.As.It., the Dante Alighieri Society and the Italian Forum
and more generally the numerous institutes reliant on the New South Wales Ministry for the Arts and the Sydney City Council.
The Institute actively and regularly collaborates with the following festivals and institutions: the Sydney Festival, the Italian Film Festival, the Sydney Film Festival the ANU School of Science, the Antenna Documentary Film Festival, Cinema Reborn, the Art Gallery of NSW, the international photo festival Head On, Opera Australia, VIVID, Sculpture by the Sea, the Casula Powerhouse Arts Center, the State Library of NSW, the Sydney Writers’ Festival, the Victoria University di Wellington etc.