Tommaso Musarra was born in S. Salvatore di Fitalia (ME). He attended the school of ceramic art in Santo Stefano di Camastra and the Istituto d'Arte in Caltagirone.
In 1959 he was awarded a scholarship by the Sicilian Region.
His desire to teach would be his passport to a long voyage through Italy: first he went to Sardinia and its difficult landscapes, then Tuscany and the chalky hills of Siena with its tufa shapes modelled by time. Next was Valdarno, enveloped by the almost violent surrounding badlands. From 1972 to 1980, he lived in Prato, where he dedicated himself to civilian and political issues.
He lived through moments of reform, of parents in the schools, institutional committee meetings and the struggle for mixed classrooms and lessons taught amongst the people, including a meeting between students and survivors of the Holocaust. There would, however, also be moments of crisis.
Musarra's determination was of the peaceful, gentle kind that is characteristic of those who succeed in winning without ever really needing to fight.
In Prato, an industrial town, he saw the many faces of changing life and lived through crises of loneliness. Once more he dealt with it all in his own way, without drama but with the serenity of those who firmly believe that problems have an expiry date and will eventually end.
For four years he worked as a decorator in a ceramics factory in Calenzano, decorating lampshades, Madonnas, animal figurines, tigers and lapdogs. It allowed him, however, to use to kilns for his own work. He soon learnt how to produce to order and entered the world of the worker.
In 1976 he bought a house in the countryside outside Castiglione Fiorentino and, little by little, restored it, finally creating his own world.
Riconoscimenti e mostre
- 1971 Exhibition "Agedirio" - Capo D'Orlando (Messina)
- 1972 Exhibition - Loro Ciuffenna (Arezzo)
- 1975 International Exhibition "Premio Artigianelli" - Firenze
- 1981 Personal Exhibition at "La Spirale" Gallery - Prato (Firenze)
- 1982 Personal Exhibition at the "Luca Signorelli" Gallery - Cortona (Arezzo)
- 1985 Personal Exhibition at the Pinacoteca di Castiglion Fiorentino (Arezzo)
- 1987 Exhibition as part of the "Maggio Castiglionese" - Castiglion Fiorentino (Arezzo)
- 1988 Creation of the Stations of the Cross and the Mysteries along the road of the Santuario della Madonna del Bagno - Castiglion Fiorentino (Arezzo)
- 1989 Personal Exhibition at Palazzo Dragonanni - Castiglion Fiorentino (Arezzo)
- 1989 Personal Exhibition at the "Luca Signorelli" Gallery - Cortona (Arezzo)
- 1992 Personal Exhibition at Credera - Cremona
- 1995 Personal Exhibition at the "Gino Severini" Gallery - Cortona (Arezzo)
- 2000 Personal Exhibition at the "Luca Signorelli" Gallery - Cortona (Arezzo)
- 2000 Personal Exhibition on the theme of "Macchia mediterranea" at the Cultural Association "Art Studio EM" in Ravenna
- 2000 1st edition of "Arte e Mercato" at the Palazzo Esposizioni in Civitanova Marche
