American Academy in Rome

The American Academy in Rome

The American Academy in Rome is the foremost American overseas center for independent study and advanced research in the arts and the humanities.

At its principal campus in Rome, the Academy operates programs to develop gifted American artists and scholars in context of an international audience. From its New York City office, the Academy administers the annual Rome Prize competition to select the Fellows, who are joined in Rome by other distinguished artists and scholars, to form a community of approximately seventy-five residents.

The Academy sponsors exhibitions, concerts, lectures, and symposia that draw audiences to the Rome campus and to the New York headquarters. A first-class research library, a series of summer programs, and projects in archaeology and in publishing complement these activities, enabling the Academy to serve more than three thousand people each year.

History

Originally modeled on the 200-year-old French Academy at the Villa Medici, the American Academy in Rome sprang from the vision of American architect Charles Follen McKim, abetted by the artists with whom he had collaborated at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. When the Academy opened the following year it concentrated on exposing American students of architecture to the classical archetypes of Roman civilization. Its activities rapidly swelled to encompass the gamut of the arts and humanities, as well as classical scholarship.

Though chartered by Congress in 1905, the American Academy is the only foreign academy among twenty-four in Rome not directly government-supported. It relies completely on the financial support of foundations, corporations, other American academic institutions, and individuals, as well as the National Endowments for the Art and the Humanities, to cover its annual program budget. Gifts to the American Academy in Rome are deductible for income- and estate-tax purposes to the extent permitted by law.

Programs

The Rome Prize Fellowship

Each year, the Rome Prize is awarded to thirty emerging artists and scholars in the early or middle stages of their careers who represent the highest standard of excellence in the arts and humanities. For periods that range from six months to two years, recipients are provided with stipends, residential accommodation, meals, studies or studios, and travel allowances to pursue their work. Since the founding of the Academy, over a thousand Rome Prize fellowships have been awarded.

Fellows are selected by juries of prominent artists and scholars in the Academy’s disciplines, and the juries change annually. Widely advertised, the competitions attract applications from approximately a thousand candidates from throughout the United States. November 15th is the annual deadline for submissions.

Site

The Academy is housed in several buildings. The main building was designed by the firm of McKim, Mead, and White and opened in 1914. The courtyard has a fountain designed by sculptor Paul Manship. Architect Michael Graves designed the rare books library in 1996.

The Academy also owns the Villa Aurelia, a country estate built for Cardinal Girolamo Farnese in 1650. The building served as Giuseppe Garibaldi's headquarters during the French siege of Rome in 1849. The villa was heavily damaged during the assault, but it was restored. It was then purchased by Philadelphia heiress Clara Jessup Heyland. Heyland died in 1909, bequeathing the villa to the Academy in her will.

See also

• American Academy in Berlin
• American School of Classical Studies at Athens
• American Schools of Oriental Research
• British School at Rome
• Académie de France Rome
• Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Rom
• Villa Massimo
• John Russell Pope

External links

• American Academy in Rome
• American Academy in Rome records at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art