See photos below for a demonstration of the students’ creative talent in painting, print-making, ceramics and photography.
For the students, it was not only a chance to experience Fine Arts for the first time, but also Rome.
“I took Painting 1 and Sketchbook of Rome and we were sketching every week in a different place and it was a great way to get to know Rome,” said study abroad student Madison H. from the University of California, Berkeley. “I had never painted before and I was really intimidated at first. I spent four hours a week painting. I found myself sweating over my work!”
Alison W., a study abroad student from the University of Colorado, added, “It’s been amazing! I didn’t know what printmaking was and Professor Buening was a really amazing instructor. I can fully appreciate now how much skill, work and time goes into making a print now.”
Celebrating AUR's new studio space
The university opened its new art studio & classrooms in March on via Angelo Mesina, a short walk from the main entrance to the campus on Rome’s beautiful Gianicolo Hill. The studio shares a garden space with the American Academy of Rome, one of the most prestigious art and research institutions in the world.
“This generous new space affords the art program the opportunity to grow in enrollment and quality,” said Acting Program Director and Fine Arts Professor Mary Beth Looney. “It also allows enhanced access to the programming offered at the world-class American Academy, which hosts renowned artists and art historians for guest residencies and research.”
AUR’s visual arts and media degree program offers bachelor’s degrees and minors in Fine Art, Art History, Film and Digital Media, and Arts Management. The new studio hosts courses in 2D and 3D arts, with beginner-to-advanced levels of drawing, painting and printmaking. The work of students, faculty, and guest artists will be featured in the exhibition space, which can also serve as a practical laboratory for graduate students in the Master’s in Arts Management.
"AUR students now enjoy greater freedom to move about and create on a larger scale and see their work displayed in a space dedicated for exhibitions'" Professor Looney added. “It’s important for the art studio to feel like a separate place, dedicated to contemplative and, at times, collaborative work. There’s also an outdoor space for enjoying the lovely Roman weather. I’m excited for this to become a creative haven and a destination for the AUR community.”
The painting and drawing studio is outfitted with easels, taborets, and adjustable can lights. The print-making room is equipped with tools, a press, an oversized flat file and work tables. The total space, including a classroom, office, and kitchen, is 1,900 square feet (178 square meters) with a downstairs exhibit space of 300 square feet (52 square meters).
Why study Fine Arts in Rome?
“It’s wonderful that our students have such a privileged location,” said Professor Looney. “Not only this studio, but also Rome itself. We can spend the day exploring the city’s great museums and churches, seeing works of art by all the great masters -- Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Titian, Bernini, -- the list is truly endless. And Rome is also at the forefront of contemporary art. We have some of the top collections in contemporary art in the world, as well as a thriving gallery scene, which makes Rome a really cool place to study art in all its forms.”
Rome, for centuries, has drawn artists who are not only inspired by its sense of history but also by its sense of identity and intimate scale, which you don’t get in London or New York, noted Looney.
“What makes Rome unique is its ability to inform the identity of the artist,” she said. The city has adapted through 2,500+ years of history. Experiencing that ingenuity, persistence, recycling and re-purposing -- putting different things together in a new way – continually inspires artists here.
Still time to apply!
This coming Fall, 2018, you could be exploring Italy and Europe with art classes and field trips like:
- Italian Sketchbook: Images of Rome
- Arts of Renaissance & Baroque
- Van Gogh to Warhol
- Caravaggio
- Venice in the Renaissance
- Berlin Museums and Cultural Dilemma
- Photography in Rome: The Eternal City
Gallery
Use the left and right arrows or the thumbnails to navigate through the images.
