In Rome, A Day-long Exploration of Luigi Moretti’s Architecture

Moretti’s Girasole (1949) at Viale B. Buozzi 64. Photo: Michael Waters

Luigi Moretti (1907-1973) is widely considered the most important Italian architect of the 20th century. He produced a massive body of work in the years 1930-1973 in Italy and further afield. Best known to Americans is surely his 1961 Watergate Complex in Washington DC.

On Friday 26 November, a group of more than 20 Academy Fellows and visitors grouped together for a nine hour quest to examine some of Moretti’s most significant pre-war and post-war constructions in Rome. The day concluded with a visit to “Luigi Moretti architetto: Dal razionalismo all’informale”, the inaugural exhibition of MAXXI Architectura, a show which closed 28 November.

At the AAR, RISD Celebrates 50 Years in Rome with Author David Macaulay, Artist Anna Schuleit

At left, Heiskell Arts Director Karl Kirchwey with David Macaulay

The Rhode Island School of Design European Honors Program (EHP) celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with two lectures co-presented with the American Academy in Rome on November 23 and 24, featuring writer David Macaulay and artist Anna Schuleit.

The EHP was established by RISD faculty members Gilbert Franklin (FAAR ’49) and Jack Massey (FAAR ’61), who wished to make available to undergraduate students the unique cultural and creative experience provided by the Rome Prize fellowships. Since the inception of the program, any number of EHP faculty and students have also been Rome Prize Fellows, and FAARs have been regular visitors at the RISD program in the Palazzo Cenci to participate in student reviews, lectures, or shows.

Remembering Christina G. Huemer (1947-2010), AAR Drue Heinz Librarian Emerita

The Trustees, Fellows and Staff of the American Academy in Rome mourn the loss of Christina G. Huemer, beloved Drue Heinz Librarian Emerita, and spirited leader of the Arthur and Janet C. Ross Library for fifteen years (1993-2008).

Chris Huemer died November 12 at her home in Amagansett NY after a long illness. The thousands of artists and scholars touched by her learning, creativity and curiosity will remember her forever. A memorial service will be held in in New York City in early 2011.

At the AAR, Reflecting on the Nuova Consonanza and Nuovi Spazi Musicali Concert Series

Sunday 7 November, behind the board at the Sala Aurelia

For a full six weeks and in eight major events—from 5 November through 21 December 2010—Rome is enjoying the 47th iteration of the Nuova Consonanza music festival. The unifying theme of this year’s program is “Romantik”. Says Nuova Consonanza president Fausto Sebastiani, here “we will try to enhance the richness and multiplicity’of contemporary music, tracking ideas, experiences, influences and links inherited from the nineteenth century.”

It all started at the AAR’s Villa Aurelia the evening of Friday 5 November, when pianist Emanuele Arciuli set out the landscape in an innovative program that joined the music of Elliot Carter (FAAR’53, RAAR’63, ’69, ’80), Béla Bartók, Francesco Antonioni (the world premiere of his 3 Preludi Diatonici), Frederic Rzewski, and Robert Schumann.

Inaugurating ‘AAAR’: the Arts and Humanities Advisors to the American Academy in Rome

Roman Forum: Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, from within S. Lorenzo in Miranda

The American Academy in Rome is one of the leading American overseas centers for independent study and advanced research in the arts and humanities. Each year, through a national juried competition, the Academy offers up to thirty Rome Prize fellowships in eleven arts and humanities fields. These Fellows (designated on the completion of their term as FAAR) are joined by a select group of senior scholars and artists as Residents (RAAR) invited by the Academy. Also working in the community on academic and artistic projects are US and international affiliate program members (Affiliated Fellows), and a number of Visiting Artists and Scholars.

In an initiative spearheaded by AAR Director Christopher S. Celenza FAAR’94, the American Academy is working to revise the system by which Fellows, Residents and affiliates in the scholarly and artistic disciplines gain access to local expertise while they are in Rome. That has led to the creation of the new designation AAAR—Advisors of the American Academy in Rome.