On my yearly treks to the Salone del Mobile in Milan, I found inspiration while visiting the Achille Castiglioni Foundation. At the Galileo Museum in Florence, the elegant mechanisms to explain gravity and momentum felt like poetry. A simple ramp built with the detail of a violin, with three bells spaced properly apart, ring on cue as the ball picks up speed. While at the Academy, I hope to visit the factories of Riva 1920 in Cantù, Ginori Porcelain near Florence, and Quercetti in Turin, as well as to view the many sculptures across Rome’s museums, monuments, ruins, and streets. As a Fellow I would work to develop a collection of toys and artifacts with the elegance of Galileo’s explanation of gravity. These large-scale sculptures could be incorporated into the historic fabric of Rome in ways that are surprising and humorous, like the disassembled Colossus of Constantine in the Capitoline Museums or the giant foot in an alley off Via del Piè di Marmo.