Features

Today—the first of July—formally starts the term of the new Director of the American Academy in Rome, Christopher Celenza (1994 Fellow), as well as the new Andrew Heiskell Arts Director Karl Kirchwey (1995 Fellow). Each arrives at AAR early next week.

It is difficult for some of us to accept that Carmela Franklin in a very short space of time will step down as Director of the American Academy after serving for five years. I had the good fortune of being present for the greater part of that period, and it is a privilege to write a few words of appreciation, as though my meager prose could do justice to her many and varied accomplishments.

On Wednesday and Thursday June 23–24, the Academy hosted a fast-moving international conference, “Freud’s Rome—Phobia and Phantasy”.

“Make sure you get a red chair. There are only 100 of them. It’s part of the experience.” That was how an American tourist helpfully explained it to new arrivals as they made it down the long set of embankment stairs at Rome’s Ponte Sisto. The experience in question was “Chance Encounter on the Tiber,” an urban revitalization plan combined with a musical performance composed expressly for outdoor public space. It all went down in two performances on the river walkway on the evening of Monday, May 31.

Since the Ides of March, Jessica Helfand and William Drenttel have been Henry Wolf Residents in Graphic Design at the American Academy in Rome. But it was just a few short weeks ago that Helfand—an author, columnist and lecturer on graphic design—took on the enormous task of commemorating in gouache on paper the entire AAR Fellows class of  2010, as well as more than a few members of the staff.

Over 360 guests attended the American Academy in Rome’s McKim Medal Gala, which honored fashion and art powerhouse, Miuccia Prada.

Visiting Scholar Nancy Austin spent February 2010 at AAR researching the material traces of the original Academy during its first twenty years.

A little over a year ago, Luca Caminati was awarded the Post-Doctoral Paul Mellon/NEH Rome Prize in modern Italian studies.

The American Academy in Rome and Gagosian Gallery are pleased to present Alec Soth: Portraits, a selected exhibition of photographs spanning the last twelve years.

The historian and Latinist Christopher S. Celenza (1994 Fellow) has been named the twenty-first director of the American Academy in Rome, it was announced today by Academy president Adele Chatfield-Taylor (1984 Fellow).