Even as Ravenna, Italy is the eternal steward of mosaic’s Byzantine past, it is also the incubator for the art form’s dynamic future. This is no more evident than in the Young Artists and Mosaic (GAEM) competition, a biennial contest hosted by the Art Museum of the City of Ravenna (MAR) in conjunction with the international mosaic festival, RavennaMosaico. Invited artists under the age of 40 are asked to create works that “should deal with the constitutive, formal & poetic language of mosaic.”

At any gathering of contemporary mosaic artists, the question of “What’s it going to take to advance the art form/genre/medium?” is likely to arise. One of two positions is usually taken: Change the Status Quo or Work Within the Status Quo – the Status Quo being the current hierarchy of the Greater Art World. Last October, during the British Association of Modern Mosaic’s annual Forum at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the question arose briefly during the organization’s General Meeting. The conversation, which focused on the Tate Modern’s continued refusal to show mosaic, was continued in the organization’s newsletter “Grout.” Read these thoughtful “head-to-head” arguments from Paul Bentley, BAMM’s Chairman 1999-2005 and the current Chairman, Gary Drostle.