Crowdfunding campaign to buy Isola delle Femmine, an island off Palermo, launched by four artists

Four artists—Stefania Galegati, Valentina Greco, Claudia Gangemi, and Marcela Caldas—have launched a crowdfunding campaign to purchase Isola delle Femmine, a small island off the coast of Palermo, Sicily. The island, owned by the aristocratic Capaci family for two centuries, has been for sale since 2017 for €3.5 million. It has been a nature reserve since 1997, managed by LIPU (Italian League for Bird Protection). The campaign, run through the Femminote association, aims to raise €3.5 million by collecting €10 donations from 350,000 women. The fundraising opened on February 15, 2020, on the website isoladellefemmine.net. An in-person donation event and exhibition opening titled "She is-land" by Stefania Galegati will take place on February 29, 2020, at 12:00 at Galleria Pantaleone in Palermo. The artists describe the project as a symbolic gesture of resistance and an "heterotopia," reflecting on common goods, private property, environmental protection, feminism, and the acceptance of failure and weakness. If successful, the island will be collectively owned by the artists and donors, with the intention to leave it undisturbed and possibly use it as an artistic outpost. The island's name and history are steeped in legends, including tales of exiled Turkish women and a count's imprisoned lover who committed suicide.