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The BSR continues to strengthen its Second Century Campaign and garner awards for its recent activity. We are thrilled to announce that our
Sustainable Building Project won the inaugural
Premio Hassan Fathy, which celebrates the sensitive use of technological improvements in buildings of cultural significance. The achievement of our team is made all the more remarkable when one realises that other shortlisted projects included the recently reopened House of Augustus on the Palatine!
Applications for new awards are open for next year thanks to generous donors and supporters, including the Isaac Newton Trust and the James Wallace Arts Trust of New Zealand. We acknowledge with gratitude their support, and the advocacy of friends in Cambridge, especially John Robertson, Caroline Vout, Simon Goldhill, and in New Zealand Enrica Sciarrino, Simon Ogden and Andrew Drummond.
Two further important projects involve external partners. We are working with Gifted Philanthropy to develop a legacy campaign, and are undertaking a major review of our research activity, supported by independent co-ordinator, Suzanne Truss, which will give us a richer sense of how our resources and facilities are supporting research in the UK and beyond.
Christopher Smith
Director
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| Rome welcomes The Prince of Wales |
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The BSR is proud to have supported the visit of Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall in no fewer than three of their engagements in Italy. Director Christopher Smith and Hannah Malone (Rome Fellow 2013-14) met The Prince of Wales on
his visit to Pasubio, where the BSR's photographic exhibition of
Thomas Ashby and the First World War was on display.
The Duchess of Cornwall visited the Herculaneum Conservation Project, with which the BSR was associated from 2004 to 2014.
We were delighted to welcome Their Royal Highnesses to the BSR , together with UK Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Alan Duncan, and Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs Angelino Alfano, to meet representatives from
INTBAU, and some of our award-holders, to help us celebrate our Second Century Campaign.
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Humanities award-holder successes
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We have always known that our dedicated Faculty members and supporters do an outstanding job at choosing our award-holders, so it is no surprise that they go on to great success. A recent survey of our humanities award-holders over recent years has shown that almost all in the last decade (around 100) have gone on to academic or museum and gallery positions, joining our many illustrious alumni.
This year alone, our BSR humanities award-holders have had many striking successes. Mark Somos has become co-editor in chief of
Grotiana, and will take up the position of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg next year. Annalisa Marzano, James Norrie and Zoe Cormack have won awards from the Leverhulme Trust, and Zoe has additionally won a Junior Research Fellowship at Linacre College, Oxford. Tim Nicholas-Twining has a JRF at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Serena Alessi, fresh from her regular appearances on Rai Uno's
Milleeunlibro Scrittori in TV will spend next year at the Center for Italian Modern Art in New York, whilst Stefano Bragato has begun a three-year postdoctoral award at the University of Zürich.
This is testimony to the extraordinary quality of the research community at the BSR, and we will shortly be announcing the brilliant scholars and artists who will join us in 2017-18.
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From Tarquin the Proud to Luigi Ghirri
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The breadth of research at the BSR has perhaps never been so evident as it was last month with the publication of two significant books taking us from the sixth century BC to the twentieth century AD. You can read more about the publications, co-edited by BSR Director Christopher Smith and Senior Research Fellow in Modern Studies and Contemporary Visual Culture Jacopo Benci respectively, on our blog.
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BSR artists waving the flag in Italy and beyond
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Sinta Tantra chosen to design the
drappellone for the Palio di Siena
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Sinta Tantra (The Bridget Riley Fellow 2016-17) has been chosen to design this year's drappellone - the winning flag for the Palio di Siena horse race!
Sinta has been carrying out some on-site research in Siena, where she has been welcomed by the town's Palio community and introduced to the traditions and the history behind the event.
Mayor of Siena Bruno Valentini said that he was pleased to be fostering ties between Siena and the UK through this unique collaboration.
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Vivien Zhang named in Forbes Asia's
list of '30 Under 30'
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Since her residency started at the BSR, Vivien has been exhibiting internationally, including most recently at Milan's miart in which Sainsbury Scholar in Painting and Sculpture Catherine Parsonage was also participating.
There was further BSR presence in Milan with former Rome Prize-winner in Architecture Adam Nathaniel Furman, who exhibited his first solo show Four Characters in the First Act at Camp Design Gallery, as part of Milan Design Week.
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URBiS Library Network Catalogue and Digital Humanities Survey
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The URBiS Library Network Catalogue is an extraordinary resource providing coordinated resources in the social sciences and the humanities through an international library network based in Rome.
The catalogue contains over 2.5 million records, and we are pleased to announce that URBiS now includes the catalogue of the renowned art historical Library in Rome, the Bibliotheca Hertziana. If you are planning a research visit to Rome please visit www.urbis-libnet.org/vufind/ for further information.
Help us to set up our Digital Humanities Portal - take our 10-minute survey and let us know what you think!
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BSR photographic prints feature in collaborative exhibition in Rome
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The BSR Photographic Archive will be contributing to the exhibition
Alfabeto Fotografico Romano which opens on 16 May at the Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Palazzo Poli, Rome.
The exhibition will show photographs from various institutions across Rome including Soprintendenze, libraries, museums, Italian and foreign institutions, the Museo di Roma and the Musei Vaticani.
The BSR will contribute with original photographic prints from the John Henry Parker collection and the John Bryan Ward-Perkins collection.
Digital prints from the Thomas Ashby collection and Dora and Agnes Bulwer collection will be also exhibited.
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Inspiring visual art: views from three former award-holders
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On 13 March, BSR Members, former award-holders and others gathered at the British Academy for a panel discussion chaired by the distinguished art historian, writer and curator Dawn Ades. Inspiring visual art: a view from Rome saw three former award-holders reflect on their time at the BSR and the effect on their personal trajectory, using the AHRC Cultural Value project as a touchstone.
Artists Cornelia Parker and Adam Chodzko, along with Curator and Head of the RA Schools Eliza Bonham Carter (stepping in at the last minute to replace Bob and Roberta Smith), shared with us how their time at the BSR had an impact on their practice or subsequent careers, the importance of international engagement in their work and their personal views on the value of culture. For those unable to attend the event, a podcast is available.
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Celebrating the Abbey awards
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Every four years The Incorporated Edwin Austin Abbey Memorial Scholarships organise an exhibition of works by former Abbey Fellows and Scholars at the BSR.
Ex Roma IV opened at APT Gallery in February, with work by Abbey awardees resident at the BSR from October 2012 to June 2016.
For the show's
finissage, previous Abbey award-holders Gill Ord, Anne Ryan, Daniel Sinsel and Ross Taylor were in conversation with Faculty of Fine Arts members Sacha Craddock and Vanessa Jackson. More photos from the event can be found on
APT Gallery's Instagram profile.
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Geophysics and photography in the catacombs
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Geophysical survey at Lucus Feroniae
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This spring has seen the completion of a large-scale geophysical survey of the site of Lucus Feroniae, 30km to the north of Rome. Working with the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio per l'Area Metropolitana di Roma, la Provincia di Viterbo e l'Etruria Meridionale (with special thanks to Dott.ssa Alfonsina Russo and Dott. Gianfranco Gazzetti) the BSR and the University of Southampton has investigated the important sanctuary and town with both magnetometry and ground-penetrating radar.
The results will be published in PBSR later this year. |
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Early photography in the catacombs
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It was a delight to have John Osborne of Carleton University visit us earlier this year and give his
lecture on early photography in the catacombs.
John's research looks at the work of his fellow Canadian Charles Smeaton, who, 150 years ago in January 1867, pioneered the use of magnesium wire to take photographs underground without natural light.
Some of these photographs became part of the BSR Photographic Archive in 1926 and have recently been digitised - they can be found on our online catalogue URBiS
www.urbis-libnet.org/vufind/.
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Image acknowledgements
Christopher Smith: Chris Warde-Jones.
TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall: Chris Warde-Jones. Some of our current award-holders with Assistant Director Tom True: Chris Warde-Jones. Sinta Tantra: Antonio Palmieri. Vivien Zhang: Antonio Palmieri. BSR Library: Alberto Muciaccia. Image of Pompei: courtesy of the BSR Photographic Archive. Cornelia Parker One More Time, 2015, aluminium, steel and jesmonite, 5.44 m (diameter): courtesy of the artist. Installation view of Ex Roma IV: Liz May, APT Gallery. Former Geophysics Research Assistant Matt Berry on site at Lucus Feroniae: Sophie Hay. Early photography in the catacombs: courtesy of John Osborne. Catherine Parsonage, A portrait of friends, 2017, 55cm x 45cm
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