The American Academy in Rome has announced the winners of the 2018–19 Rome Prize and Italian Fellowships. These highly competitive fellowships support advanced independent work and research in the arts and humanities. This year, 29 Rome Prizes were awarded to 29 artists and scholars, who will receive a stipend, workspace, and room and board for a period of five months to two years at the Academy’s eleven-acre campus in Rome. The Rome Prize and Italian Fellowship winners were presented on April 12, 2018, during the Arthur and Janet C. Ross Rome Prize Ceremony in the Frederick P. Rose Auditorium at Cooper Union in New York.
After an introduction by Mark Robbins, the Academy’s President and CEO and a 1997 Fellow, the winners of the 2018–19 Rome Prize and Italian Fellowships were presented by Mary Margaret Jones, Chair of the Board of Trustees and a 1998 Fellow. The ceremony also featured a dialogue between Robbins and the visual artist Ann Hamilton, a 2017 Resident, about process, productivity, and the way in which artists work, particularly in a community like the Academy. The discussion was part of the programming series Conversations/Conversazioni: From the American Academy in Rome, sponsored by the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation.
Rome Prize winners are selected annually by independent juries of distinguished artists and scholars through a national competition. The eleven disciplines supported by the Academy are: Literature, Music Composition, Visual Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Design, and Historic Preservation and Conservation, as well as Ancient Studies, Medieval Studies, Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, and Modern Italian Studies. Nationwide, 928 applications were received from 44 US states and Washington, DC. The ages of the winners range from 27 to 56.
In addition to the Rome Prize winners, the Academy announced eight winners of seven Italian Fellowships, through which Italian artists and scholars live and work in the Academy community, pursuing their own projects in a collaborative, interdisciplinary environment with their American counterparts. The Italian Fellows are also selected through a national jury process.
A list of the 2018–19 Rome Prize winners and Italian Fellows is below. For the full list of Fellows’ names, instititional affiliations, and project titles, as well as the names and institutional affiliations of the jury members, please download the PDF press release of this announcement.
Ancient Studies
Liana Brent*
Allison L. C. Emmerson
Eric J. Kondratieff
Mark Letteney
Victoria C. Moses**
Sean Tandy
Architecture
Erin Besler
Marcel Sanchez Prieto
Design
Dylan Fracareta
Amy Franceschini
Historic Preservation and Conservation
Joannie Bottkol
Lori Wong
Landscape Architecture
Zaneta Hong
Michael James Saltarella
Literature
Kirstin Valdez Quade
Bennett Sims
Medieval Studies
Anna Majeski*
Austin Powell
John F. Romano
Modern Italian Studies
Franco Baldasso
Jim Carter
Alessandra Ciucci
Musical Composition
Michelle Lou
Jessie Marino
Renaissance and Early Modern Studies
Talia Di Manno
Denis J.-J. Robichaud
Visual Arts
Michael Ray Charles
Sze Tsung Nicolás Leong
Helen O’Leary
Karyn Olivier
Basil Twist
Italian Fellows
Ila Bêka
Carmen Belmonte
Invernomuto (Simone Bertuzzi and Simone Trabucchi)
Renato Leotta
Francesco Lovino
Virginia Virilli
Francesco Zorzi
* year two of two-year fellowship
** year one of two-year fellowship
American Academy in Rome
Founded in 1894, the American Academy in Rome is the oldest American overseas center for independent study and advanced research in the arts and humanities. It is the only privately funded not-for-profit institution among the national academies. In addition to the Rome Prize and Italian Fellowships, the Academy invites a select group of Residents, Affiliated Fellows, and Visiting Artists and Scholars to work together within this exceptional community in Rome. To learn more about the American Academy in Rome, please visit aarome.org.
Media Inquiries
Marques McClary, Director of Communications, 212-751-7200, ext. 342, m.mcclary [at] aarome.org (m[dot]mcclary[at]aarome[dot]org)
Christopher Howard, Communications Manager, 212-751-7200, ext. 340, c.howard [at] aarome.org (c[dot]howard[at]aarome[dot]org)