A fountain of creativity for Americans in Rome

At the next stop, at the American Academy in Rome, we have a postcard from Italy by our own Seth Doane under a large portico right next to a courtyard. Normally about 40 people gather for lunch. It's a group of mostly Americans in a distinctly Italian setting, framed by jasmine and shards. of Roman antiquities on the wall is more notable than the place, although it is the mix of people sitting at that lunch table, oh it's incredible, there are architects, there are designers, we found a musicologist, an antiquities curator and an artist of visual performance chatting in this unique place. academic institution with an opera composer and Elena, an Italian teacher in Detroit, we saw the chef here in the garden picking up your lunch, I mean, lunch is more than eating, here they are very nice to eat, it's about creating a community among the Companions, it's about giving them the opportunity to talk about their work in progress to solve problems, but also just to deepen the relationships they have with the people around them.

Elena from the past is a fellow here at the American Academy. She is writing a book and came to study. film material from italian cinema i'm thinking about analog technology the materials that make the 20th century readable for us memorable for us she is one of the 35 people who received the

rome

prize a 10 month scholarship to come to

rome

and join to other artists and academics here for a self-directed study program, but the word academy can be misleading, how do you explain this place to someone who has never been here? It's hard to explain because it's very, very, very unique.

Marla Stone has been here nine times in various roles, first as a Fellow, now as a consulting teacher, I see it as a kind of Noah's Ark of creative people who are given room and board and time and space to think and work and also to learn from each other and then throw all that into the mix of Rome, the The American Academy has evolved since its founding in 1894 as a school for architects and then archaeologists, first located in the Palazzo Torlonia. It is financed with private funds, but follows the spirit of the academies created by European governments.

The French at Villa Medici were the first in 1677 with the idea of ​​sending promising artists and thinkers to Rome to receive an education in the classics and having time to browse gives you time to find the unexpected. Joining her at lunch were composer Igor Santos and artist William Villalongo. My overall project here has been to come and find images of the black presence in ancient times found similarities in their work and began to collaborate with saints composing a musical element for the villalango sculpture both were projects that had the element of water included and specifically

fountain

s true I want people to recognize that there is a

fountain

in music Santos has recorded some of the fountains in Rome as inspiration listening to the vibrations of the water along with the score his compositions may involve a digital component I did some light programming let's say the sound of the piano controls the movement of the water wow then As you play harder, although the waves rise correctly, we hear Santos' music reaching the garden, not far from where Villalongo, who normally works in Brooklyn, settled in This large studio full of light is like some kind of large and majestic mansion, the taxis go down.

We stand at the front door and they say: Do you know who this person is? It's a great property, yes, it's a really beautiful place with deep history. Galileo showed his telescope to the Pope in our backyard. Elizabeth Rodini is the interim director. The American academy is truly a place to foster new work, new collaborations, new ideas, and bring them back to the United States refreshed and inspired by what they find here in Rome. Thornton Wilder wrote the Kabbalah when he was here in the 1920s, in the 1950s, the composer Aaron Copeland and the writer Ralph Ellison were companions and in this century Anthony Doerr worked in all the light that we cannot see that he won a Pulitzer is a place to choose a project to explore and then share and not just around that table how are you going to get back to Your real life, well it will be difficult to leave Rome and it will be difficult to leave this beautiful space, but I really feel that an important part of everything What has happened here is to recover it and share it.