Elsa Peretti Italian Affiliated Fellowship in Design

Project location: ITALY, Rome
Project start date: September 2010 - Project end date: July 2011
Project number: 2010-59
Beneficiary: AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME

The Nando Peretti Foundation awards yearly grants to the American Academy in Rome for a fellowship in design.

The Elsa Peretti Italian Affiliated Fellowship in Design offers an opportunity to an Italian artist working in any area of design, including but not limited to jewelry and fashion design, furniture and product design, set and lighting design, graphic design, typography, publishing, architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, city planning, historic preservation (of buildings, districts and landscapes), and choreography to name just a few areas represented within the Academy community. He or she will live, work, explore at the American Academy in Rome alongside other emerging and more senior artists, designers and scholars - likely forging personal friendships and crucial professional relationships that will last a life time.

The Elsa Peretti Italian Fellowship in Design, awarded to an Italian artist, is modeled on the Rome Prize fellowships. The Peretti Fellow will receive a stipend, living accommodations (a private room with bath), a place to work (a study for the scholar or a studio for the artist), meals on weekdays and mid-day Saturday, 24-hour a day/7 days a week access to the Academy's library, and full participation in a full schedule of programs including concerts, conferences, exhibitions, lectures, readings and symposia as well as the opportunity to participate in travel programs. The most important benefit of the fellowship is one another's company, the mentorship of the more senior artists and scholars in the community during the year as Residents, as well as that of the senior staff: the Director, Andrew Heiskell Arts Director, Andrew W. Mellon Professor-in-Charge, and the Drue Heinz Librarian.

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 the following disciplines: architecture, design, historic preservation and conservation, landscape architecture, literature, musical composition, visual arts, and in humanistic approaches to ancient studies, medieval studies, Renaissance and early modern studies, and modern Italian studies. These Fellows are joined by a select group of Residents, distinguished artists and scholars invited by the Director. Many Fellows and Residents have had a significant influence in the worlds of art, music, culture, literature, scholarship, and education. Founded in 1894, the Academy was chartered as a private institution by an act of Congress in 1905. In 1994, in honor of the Academy's Centennial, the President of the United States signed a joint resolution of Congress in recognition of the Academy's contributions to America's intellectual and cultural life.