Kids & adults will have a blast during this presentation by Professor Massimo Della Valle from the Instuito Nationale Astrofisico as he explores the cosmos; from black holes to life beyond Earth. After the talk, head over the LAM Lab to make your very own cosmic masterpiece.

Astronomy and art are often thought of as two different disciplines with little to no overlap, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. From Galileo’s early drawings of the Moon’s surface to Van Gogh’s Stary Night, to the recent images from the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomy and art have been inseparable for centuries.

Advance tickets recommended.

Youth 12 & under: FREE*

Museum members: $7

Non-members: $14

*Children must be accompanied by at least one paying adult.

Professor Massimo Della Valle

After attending the Calini Scientific High School in Brescia, he graduated in Astronomy at the University of Padua , under the guidance of Leonida Rosino . He then began his PhD in the USSR , at the Byurakan Observatory in Armenia , completed in 1988. He worked at SISSA in Trieste (1989), at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile (1990-1994) and in Munich of Bavaria (2007-2008). He was a visiting scientist at Hubble Space Telescope Institute in Baltimore (1995-2000) and at the KAVLI Institute in Santa Barbara (2005-2006). In Italy he became a researcher at the Astronomy Department of the University of Padua, subsequently Associate Astronomer at the Astrophysical Observatory of Arcetri . Since 2008 he is Research Director of the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF). In 2010 he was appointed director of the Capodimonte Astronomical Observatory, INAF-Naples (2010-2017).

He is the author of about six hundred scientific articles and deals with scientific dissemination with writings that have appeared in the main scientific dissemination magazines, national newspapers and some books. He is a member of the Italian Astronomical Society, of the International Astronomical Union and of the University of Sciences, Letters and Arts of Brescia. Knight of the Republic in 2013, in 2018 he was awarded the Brescia prize for scientific research by the University of Brescia. The International Astronomical Union has dedicated the asteroid 325455. In 2022 he was appointed corresponding member of the Accademia dei Lincei.