Rino Giannini was an organizer of the first symposia in Carrara, in the 1970s, when he was a professor at the Accademia di Belle Arte there. He remembers with awe the crowds that were drawn to those first symposia. Thousands of onlookers attended every day, watching 20 sculptors from around the world carving in Carrara's central piazza, with the quarry-scarred mountain towering overhead. Rino Giannini carving stone at a symposium in Telilada, Sardegna. Many symposia are initiated by sculptors seeking to create cultural activity in their home communities, and are sponsored by the involved communities or stone suppliers.
Communities gain in stature and become a tourist destination by having an ongoing cultural event.
Visitors and locals return to see the sculptures' progress, the media has an ongoing event to record, and local quarries receive publicity about their stone. The community also acquires monumental sculptures at relatively low cost. Much of the organizer's responsibility is in the realm of public relations and funding. Spreading sponsorship out through the community broadens the sense of participation. Having restaurants share responsibility for feeding the hungry sculptors, for example, gives the sculptors a good feeling for the community, and gives the town a broader view of who these strangers are.