On Wednesday 7 December 2022 at 19:00, the 43rd Nativity Scene Exhibition - "The Nativity Scene in Tradition" was inaugurated in the exhibition hall of the Episcope Castle in Grottaglie.

The Institutions were present, together with the Jury of the exhibition (chaired by lawyer Ciro D'Alò, Mayor of Grottaglie and composed by Prof. Angelo Pio De Siati, artist and nativity scene; Prof. Ezia Mitolo, visual artist; Lucia Patronelli, ceramist bottega Colore & Calore”, Felice Bonfrate, communication expert, creative director of Gir&Grafica), introduced the review and proclaimed the winners of this edition:

Ex-aequo prize to Francesca Lisi (Palo del Colle, Bari) with the work Baby Jesus "because it symbolically and traditionally represents the icon of the Baby Jesus holding his heart in his hand, through a delicate polychrome rendering and fine workmanship" and at Cocci d'Autore by Emanuele Patronelli and Simona Mitrangolo (Grottaglie) with the work Points of view "for the contemporaneity and duality of the message that restores the vision of the Nativity in a symbolic, social interpretation".

The Jury also intended to point out the following work for the timeliness of the message: "Get up, take the Child with you and flee" ... from Kiev by Domenico Pinto (Grottaglie).

The Nativity Scene Exhibition is one of the cultural events organized by the Municipality of Grottaglie. Born in 1980, in addition to focusing attention on the general aesthetic-artistic aspects of Grottaglie crib art, this review created a new cultural appointment that went alongside that of the Contemporary Ceramics Competition.

Over the years, the exhibition has attracted not only local artists but also from other Italian regions, whose award-winning works are now kept in the nativity scene section of the Grottaglie Museum of Ceramics.