Raffaello padovan

Raffaello Padovan is the Chairman of the Venice International Watercolor Festival Organizing Committee and President of the Italian Association for Cultural and Artistic Exchange.

A distinguished Italian art educator, art historian, independent curator, and art critic, he has also served as a member of the jury for every edition of the Venice International Watercolor Festival.

Padovan graduated with distinction from the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice in 1980, earning a Master's degree in Design and Art History. Since 1979, he has been commissioned by the Superintendency for Artistic and Archaeological Heritage of the Veneto and Lazio regions to serve as an expert in the authentication of ancient cultural artifacts, overseeing artwork authentication, oil painting restoration, and archaeological verification — making an outstanding contribution to the preservation of Italy's national artistic heritage.

In the academic and educational sphere, Padovan holds a lifelong professorship at the National Art Foundation of Italy and serves as a professor in the Oil Painting Department at the Treviso Academy of Art. He has been officially designated as an international curatorial advisor by the Municipality of Treviso, and is widely recognized as an authority on European painting techniques and their historical development. On the international cultural exchange front, he was invited by the Qatari Royal Family to conceive and oversee a dedicated art project aimed at establishing friendly relations between Qatar and Italy — a testament to his considerable influence in the field of international art diplomacy.

As President of the Italian Association for Cultural and Artistic Exchange, Padovan is the festival's most important Italian institutional partner. Since the very first edition, he has been deeply involved in the planning, jury process, and exhibition execution of the Venice International Watercolor Festival, and remains a vital guarantor of the festival's academic authority and credibility within the Italian art world.