Features

In 2010 Academy Director Christopher S. Celenza, FAAR’94, began the “Conversations That Matter” series with the aim of fostering discussions on mainstream issues in the public eye that affect society as whole, both inside and outside academia.

“On behalf of the Board of Trustees and the Presidential Search Committee I am enormously pleased to announce the selection of Mark Robbins, FAAR’97, as the President and CEO-elect of the American Academy in Rome,” said Mary Margaret Jones, FAAR’97, Chairman of the Academy, in a statement released today.

Dan Hurlin is the winner of the Jesse Howard Jr. Rome Prize in Visual Arts, the director of the graduate program in theater and a professor of theater and dance at Sarah Lawrence College, and an artist based in New York.

Patricia Cronin, FAAR’07, was back in Rome this month for the opening of her new exhibition, Machines, Gods and Ghosts, at the Centrale Montemartini Museum on via Ostiense. 

Hamlett Dobbins is the winner of the Jules Guerin Rome Prize in Visual Arts, the Director of the Clough-Hanson Gallery at Rhodes College, and an artist in Memphis, Tennessee.

A new exhibition presented in collaboration with the Depart Foundation and curated by Vincenzo de Bellis opened last Thursday at the Academy. 

Oxford University’s Chichele Professor of Medieval History Christopher Wickham delivered the final lecture of a three-part series entitled “The Origin of Italian City Communes 1050–1150” to eager audiences at the Villa Aurelia last Wednesday.

The Academy community and its friends gathered in the twilight hours of a beautiful autumn evening at the Villa Aurelia to ring in the academic year, introduce new Fellows and present the program of public events to Trustees, Advisors, Friends, and many Roman guests.

Millicent Mercer Johnsen and I became fast friends the minute we met, which was in the fall of 1988, just as I was starting out as the new president of the American Academy in Rome.

“Who Owns Antiquity? Museums, Repatriation, and Armed Conflict”, was the question C. Brian Rose, FAAR’92, RAAR’12, posed at the inaugural Home from Rome lecture. 

Seamus Heaney, who died in Dublin on Friday at the age of 74, was the William B. Hart Poet-in-Residence at the American Academy in Rome for three weeks in May of this year.

After a year-long strategic planning process, the American Academy has launched important changes to the format and content of its public programming in the humanities.

Peter Benson Miller began his three-year tenure as the Andrew Heiskell Arts Director on August 1.

This spring, the American Academy began a new chapter in its contribution to advanced studies in the humanities.

Glenn Murcutt is the William A. Bernoudy Architect in Residence and works as a sole practitioner producing residential and institutional buildings throughout Australia from his home in Sydney. He is an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects and has been the recipient of the Alvar Aalto Medal, the Pritzker Prize, and the AIA Gold Medal.

Paul Moravec, FAAR’85, is the current Paul Fromm Composer in Residence, a prolific composer and University Professor of Music at Adelphi University.

Administration, staff, Fellows and friends gathered on the beautiful backyard terrace of the Villa Chiaraviglio last week to raise a glass and bid the fondest of farewells to Andrew Heiskell Arts Director Karl Kirchwey, FAAR’95.

The 2012–13 Walks and Talks at the American Academy are one of the moments of the Academy experience that not only set it apart from its peer institutions, but also form the intellectual basis for shared discussions between artists and scholars.

During the final week of May, the American Academy in Rome celebrated its 2013 Rome Prize Fellows with three consecutive public events.

Karen M'Closkey is the winner of the Garden Club of America Rome Prize in Landscape Architecture and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.