The Academy awards the prestigious Rome Prize to a selected group of artists and scholars invited to Rome to pursue their creative goals in an atmosphere conducive to artistic innovation and progressive scholarship.
Over the years, the Academy paid tribute to grand ideologies and fostered collaborative relationships which became the legacy of Rome Prize Fellows. Today, the Academy remains a dynamic, inspirational cultural site, a unique intellectual community involved in a complex and changing network of individuals and institutions with similar values.
The Academy provides a multi-disciplinary environment where groups of talented and ambitious artists and scholars come together, influence each other, and contribute to the artistic movements and scholarly culture of their time. Central to its mission are encounters with the Eternal City, deepening and intensifying all the Academy has to offer.
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The Photographic Archive Presents a Virtual Photographic Exhibition of Giuseppe Gatteschi
In this interactive exhibition, created by Alessandra Capodiferro and the staff at the Photographic Archive, ancient Rome is "restored" in Giuseppe Gatteschi's meticulous drawings accompanied by photographs of places that have been destroyed or rendered unrecognizable.
The School of Fine Arts Presents its First Online Index
This year’s edition of the School of Fine Arts Index is the first to be presented on-line. It provides a glimpse at the work of twenty artists holding fellowships at the American Academy in Rome during 2008-9. These are the sixteen recipients of the Rome Prize in the disciplines that comprise the School of Fine Arts (architecture, design, historical preservation and conservation, landscape architecture, literature, musical composition, and visual arts), as well as the Leonore Annenberg Fellow in the Arts, and three Italian Fellows in the Arts.
Exhibit Explores Pre-WWII AAR Architectural Work
An Exhibition of Architectural Drawings by the Fellows of the American Academy in Rome, 1910-1935, is now on display at the Academy's New York offices, 7 East 60th Street as well as online.
The Search Begins for a New Director to Succeed Prof. Carmela Vircillo Franklin
After several generous extensions of her commitment to the Academy, which began in 2005, Director Carmela Vircillo Franklin will step down from her post in the summer of 2010 to return to her teaching at Columbia University where she is Professor of Classics. Carmela's tenure has been a great success, and the Academy is immensely grateful to her and her family for all they have done and for all they will undoubtedly accomplish in 2009-2010. As a result, the search for the next Director to succeed Carmela has been launched. Please support this important search process by nominating qualified candidates (self-nominations are also welcome).
The Academy Honors Thom Mayne, Bruce Nauman and Jessye Norman
On 15 April 2009, more than 250 Trustees, Fellows, and Friends of the American Academy in Rome gathered at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City for the Academy’s Annual Awards Dinner.
Calvin Trillin was Master of Ceremonies for an exceptional evening at which the Academy honored three artists with the Centennial Medal: broadcast journalist Charlie Rose presented the Medal to architect Thom Mayne; Robert Storr, Dean of the Yale School of Art, conferred the medal upon artist Bruce Nauman and soprano Jessye Norman received her Medal from Walter Isaacson, President and CEO of the Aspen Institute.
The 2009–2010 Rome Prize Winners Are Announced
In a ceremony in New York on April 16th, the Trustees of the American Academy in Rome announced the winners of the 113th annual Rome Prize Competition. Awardees are provided with a stipend, a studio or study, and room and board for a period of 6 months to 2 years. The announcement was made by Adele Chatfield-Taylor, FAAR'84, President of the American Academy in Rome, who stated that the Trustees had awarded the fellowships at the board meeting earlier in the day. Twenty-nine individuals will take up residence at the American Academy in Rome in September 2009.
Archive
April 2009September 2007
From LIFE archives, more unpublished glimpses of 1957 American Academy in Rome
New view of writer Ralph Ellison FAAR’57, at the Academy’s Casa Rustica. Credit: James Whitmore/LIFE
Last November, Google Inc. began hosting an online archive of LIFE magazine’s photographs. Many images in this archive—there are reportedly some 10 million in all—never saw print publication. It seems Google is now posting these photos a few million at a time. But many carry no caption, or even date. Plus typos are rampant. So a bit of detective work is often necessary to find what you want and then sort out what you are seeing.
In December the Society of Fellows Weblog reported on the first batch of images that the LIFE/Google partnership produced. That included about 125 largely unpublished photos of the American Academy in Rome in 1947, 1949, and 1957. Now half a year later, a few hundred new photos from the May 1957 LIFE photoshoot have cropped up via Google Images. You can see the full set here (Google search phrase: “American Academy in Home”!).
In Buenos Aires ceremony, architect Peter Zumthor RAAR’08 receives 2009 Pritzker Architecture Prize
Peter Zumthor RAAR’08. Credit: Gary Ebner
Swiss architect Peter Zumthor RAAR’08 received this year’s prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize at a ceremony last Friday (29 May) in Argentina at the Legislative Palace of the City of Buenos Aires.
Zumthor, aged 66, received a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion for what is widely considered as the “Nobel Prize of architecture”. The Pritzker Prize was established in 1979 by the Pritzker family, based in Chicago, to honor a living architect whose works produce “consistent and significant contributions to humanity.”
At Brooklyn Museum, ‘Harriet Hosmer, Lost and Found’, an exhibition of watercolors by Patricia Cronin FAAR’07
Patricia Cronin, The Sleeping Faun by Harriet Hosmer, 1865 (2006)
A group of twenty-eight watercolors by Brooklyn-based conceptual artist Patricia Cronin FAAR’07, inspired by the work of nineteenth-century sculptor Harriet Hosmer (1830-1908), will be on view in the Sackler Wing of the Brooklyn Museum from today (5 June 2009) through 24 January 2010.
In an article for Artnet, Charlie Fitch sketches out the basics of this ambitious and unusually memorable show, entitled Harriet Hosmer: Lost and Found.
Archive
May 2009Celebrating Pina Pasquantonio, for 25 extraordinary years of service on the staff of the AAR
Pina Pasquantonio. Credit: James Bodnar FAAR’80
In Rome, it’s the start of Trustees’ Week at the Academy. And one of the most important items on the AAR community’s agenda is to celebrate Pina Pasquantonio, who now marks her 25th year on the staff of the American Academy.
Pina, who holds the title of Assistant Director of Operations, has had a unique and extraordinary effect on the life of every Fellow and Resident since 1984.
This spring, spotlight on AAR composers: Bermel, Carter, Currier, Makan, Norman, Rohde, Ueno
It’s been quite a season for American Academy in Rome Fellows in Musical Composition. Here are just three snapshots from the last few months…
On 11 March, the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton NJ) announced the appointment of composer and clarinetist Derek Bermel FAAR’02 as its Artist-in-Residence. His term begins on 1 July 2009.
A new SOF President for 2009: painter Drew Beattie FAAR’95
The Council of the AAR Society of Fellows has elected painter Drew Beattie, FAAR’95 in Visual Arts, interim President of the Academy’s alumni organization for the remainder of 2009.
Beattie, who takes office 21 May, replaces T. Corey Brennan FAAR’88, who is stepping down to join the staff of the Academy this July as Mellon Professor-in-Charge for a three year term.
A 2009 C.O.L.A. Visual Art Award (and Individual Artists Exhibit) for Maureen Selwood FAAR’03
Maureen Selwood. Credit: Monica Nouwens
The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs has awarded its peer-reviewed 2009 City of Los Angeles (C.O.L.A.) Individual Artist Fellowships to fifteen exemplary mid-career artists.
Among them – one of nine in the visual arts – is Maureen Selwood FAAR’03.
Los Angeles is one of a handful of municipalities honoring local artists with grant contracts (in this case, worth $10,000) to create and present new works for the public.
NYC photo exhibit explores architectural work at the pre-WWII American Academy in Rome
Piazza del Popolo and the Pincio Gardens, Rome. Aerial Perspective. Ernest F. Lewis FAAR’11
Now on display at the New York offices (7 East 60th Street) of the AAR: "An Exhibition of Architectural Drawings by the Fellows of the American Academy in Rome, 1910-1935".
The show is curated by Fikret K. Yegul, RAAR ’98 (Professor, History of Architecture/Classical Archaeology, University of California, Santa Barbara) and John Pinto, FAAR ’75, RAAR ’06 (The Howard Crosby Butler Professor of Architectural History, Princeton University).
Poet Craig Arnold FAAR’06 missing on Japanese island during volcano hike
Craig Arnold FAAR’06 is currently missing on Kuchinoerabu-jima, a small island in the northern Ryukyu Islands of southern Japan, just west of Yakushima. For more than a week, teams searched on both land and from the air for this award-winning poet and University of Wyoming professor who failed to return from a hike to a volcano on Monday 27 April. Arnold was doing research for a poetry and essay book on volcanoes. Though the search now has been scaled down, a small US-based team was reported to be finding new clues on Wednesday 6 May.
For the details, and how you can help, the Poetry Foundation blog provides the fullest account. The Facebook group "Find Craig Arnold", the only site associated with Arnold’s family, has gathered over 3000 members since its launch, and provides up to the minute news of the rescue mission. Most recently (8 May) it reports "his trail indicates that after sustaining a leg injury, Craig fell from a very high and very dangerous cliff and there is virtually no possibility that Craig could have survived that fall."
AAR ‘ultime notizie’: for late April, a look at what the papers (and e-media) say
Don’t ask why it’s taken so long. But starting now on this Weblog’s sidebar, you can track breaking news about the American Academy in Rome and the members of its Society of Fellows via a Google News feed. (Look to the right and scroll down a bit.)
Of course, there will always be more than a few AAR items that escape Google’s automated news aggregator.
Trustee Thom Mayne, Bruce Nauman RAAR’87, Jessye Norman receive AAR Centennial Medals at 15 April NYC Gala
Soprano Jessye Norman upon her award of the Centennial Medal of the American Academy in Rome
Cipriani 42nd Street, New York, 15 April 2009.
The American Academy in Rome, Adele Chatfield-Taylor, FAAR’84, President, and William B. Hart, Chairman of the Board, hosted the AAR’s annual Gala dinner. This year’s theme was "Celebrating the Arts".
AAR Fellows, Residents for 2009/10 announced at Rome Prize Ceremony in New York
New York’s Metropolitan Club was the setting on 16 April for the announcement of the 2009/10 Fellows and Residents of the American Academy in Rome at the Arthur and Janet C. Ross Rome Prize Ceremony.
Lots to report – including the details of an electrifying performance at that event by the Cassatt String Quartet of pieces by Academy composers Andrew Norman FAAR’07, Ken Ueno FAAR’07 and Sebastian Currier FAAR’94.
Remembering Dorothy Cullman (1918-2009), longtime Trustee and magnificent supporter of the American Academy in Rome
Trustees Chuck Close and Dorothy Cullman at the April 2001 AAR Benefit (Cipriani 42nd St.)
The Trustees, Fellows and staff of the American Academy in Rome mourn the loss of our dear longtime Trustee, Dorothy Cullman. She died peacefully on April 6 at home due to complications from a long illness.
Dorothy Cullman served as an extraordinarily engaged member of the Academy’s Board of Trustees from 1991 to 2004, and after that as a Trustee Emerita.
On a National Day of Mourning in Italy for Abruzzo earthquake victims, ways to help
The terrain of L’Aquila in Abruzzo, from the N by NW as seen by Google Earth
Our Pina Pasquantonio (AAR Assistant Director for Operations, and abruzzese) writes from the American Academy in Rome:
"As many of you may already know the region of Abruzzo and, more specifically, the town of L’Aquila and its immediate surroundings were struck by a terrible earthquake on Monday. The death toll has risen above 280 and over 20,000 people are homeless. L’Aquila is a beautiful medieval town and most of its historic monuments have been very seriously damaged, if not destroyed. The end is not in sight yet as the tremors continue and people are spending nights outside of their homes in cars or in tents."
Academy Benefits for 2009: Looking back at Ojai, and ahead to April and May galas in New York, Rome
Scene from last year’s AAR April gala at Cipriani 42nd Street NYC
The centerpiece of the Academy’s events year comes Wednesday 15 April 2009 at Cipriani 42nd Street NYC, a benefit gala to celebrate the arts that will honor AAR Trustee and architect Thom Mayne, artist Bruce Nauman, and opera singer Jessye Norman.
Co-chairing the event are composer Robert Beaser FAAR’78, architect Wendy Evans Joseph FAAR’84, and visual artist Laurie Simmons RAAR’05. Click here for the Benefit Reply Card and schedule of (tax deductible) ticket prices. Proceeds from the Benefit support the ongoing programs of the American Academy in Rome.