This Study Day, Food Beyond the Plate: Technology, Art, and Graphic Narratives, marks the first event of the 2026 program connected to the From Page to Plate. Sketching Food Resilience project and exhibition. The initiative is curated by the Department of Art History of The American University of Rome, under the aegis of the Center for Food Studies, in collaboration with Cibo, the food supplement of the national newspaper Domani, and with the support of several cultural partners across Rome, including Industrie Fluviali and Teatro India. After several editions held in Rome, the project now takes on a new format through a collaboration with the Università G. D'Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara, which will host the exhibition in March.
The Study Day will explore food as a field where chemistry and technology meet image and imagination, history and storytelling. It brings together scientists, scholars, journalists and visual practitioners to reflect on how food is produced, represented, and communicated—across laboratories, artworks, media, and graphic narratives.
Program
10:00 – 10:15 | Coffee & Welcome
10:15 – 10:30 | Institutional Greetings: Sabrina Joseph, Provost
10:30 – 11:00 | Opening Remarks: Maria Grazia Quieti & Carlotta Vacchelli
11:00 – 11:45
Visualizing the Future: Cultivated Meat and its Cultural Representations – Part 1
Speaker: Francesco Buscemi: The American University of Rome
How do we picture food that does not yet exist on our plates? This talk explores the visual evolution of cultivated meat, from sterile laboratory imagery to seductive gourmet aesthetics, revealing how media and culture normalize new food technologies through images.
11:45 – 12:30
The Chemistry and Technology of Olive Oil: an Endless Story
Speaker: Angelo Cichelli: Università G. d’Annunzio Chieti–Pescara
An engaging journey into the science of virgin olive oil. From cultivation and processing technologies to sensory quality and authenticity, the lecture highlights how chemistry, innovation, and tradition shape one of the most iconic foods of the Mediterranean.
12:30 – 14:00 | Break
14:00 – 15:30 | Workshop
Drawing Food for Newspapers: Cibo by Domani
Led by: Michela Rossi Sonno: Art Director - Cibo by Domani
A hands-on workshop dedicated to food illustration for journalism. Starting from articles published in Cibo, participants will learn how to transform written content into original images, avoid visual clichés, and develop clear, surprising, and effective visual metaphors.
15:30 – 16:00 | Coffee Break
16:00 – 16:45
From Nature to Table: The Visual Culture of Food in Rubens and Brueghel the Elder
Speaker: Cecilia Paolini: Università di Teramo
A fascinating exploration of food imagery in Flemish Baroque painting. Through works by Rubens and Brueghel the Elder, the lecture examines food as a symbol of abundance, sensory pleasure, and the human relationship with nature in early modern Europe.
16:45 – 17:00 | Final Discussion & Closing