Director's Report, 2022
DIANA GISOLFI, Director
Having been obliged to cancel our program for summer 2020 and summer 2021, Pratt in Venice returned to our fragile and beautiful site in 2022. And both the miraculous site and our wonderful hosts and collaborators were there to welcome and instruct us.
Painting in Venice with MFA student Nikki Terry (photo by Michael Brennan); BFA student Beilin Xu (photo by Taylor Bielecki); and MFA student Kate McElhiney (photo by Michael Brennan)
We followed the protocols, wore our masks in museums, and cheered for any vaporetto conductor who banished a maskless would-be rider. We tested, and a few of us isolated for a period, just as in Brooklyn. These requirements demanded extra efforts by all, but were worth it! We were in La Serenissima! Massimo welcomed us at the Università Internazionale dell’Arte and Lorenzo greeted us at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica. We found the good art supply shop. We enjoyed pizza in Campo S. Margherita. We wandered the narrow calli, ducked into Chorus-pass churches to see a Bellini or a Tiepolo or just for cool relief from the sun, and stopped at outdoor cafes for refreshment.
Professor and Director Diana Gisolfi teaching with a Tiepolo oil sketch at the Gallerie dell’Academia in Venice (photo by Joseph Kopta); Pratt students viewing Paolo Veronese’s Feast at the House of Levi (1573) at the Gallerie dell’Accademia with Gisolfi’s book, Paolo Veronese and the Practice of Painting in Late Renaissance Venice, providing details of the painting’s pigment analysis (photo by Jon Day, Jr.)
We were 23 students, from a wide range of Pratt’s departments, as well as Sylvia, a conservation student from the University of Delaware, and five staff. Jill Brandwein, our new on-site assistant, was a blessing; her excellent Italian enabled her to, among other matters, check out the best farmacie for tests and masks. Joe Kopta led the group to Torcello and later to Ravenna. Painter Michael Brennan again hosted critic Aruna D’Souza, who led the student discussion at the Biennale. Fay Ku led her students through a demanding series of printing techniques. Diana Gisolfi’s students again benefited from the expertise of local conservators on their sites, from mosaics to wood to fresco and oil. Save Venice director in Venice, Melissa Conn, arranged a novel visit to the basilica of Santi Maria e Donato in Murano where both frescoes and mosaics were under conservation. Conservator Egidio Arlango was most generous with his lesson at San Sebastiano. Paolo Spezzani informed the whole group about techniques for non-destructive analysis of paintings. Preservation architect Antonio Stevan hosted the whole group in our early morning visit at the Cappella Scrovegni in Padua. And we were again able to have our all-day pullman trip in the Veneto, from Castelfranco to Emo and Maser to the hills overlooking Bassano.
Pratt President Frances Bronet and School of Art Dean Jorge Oliver listen to Professor Fay Ku discuss the printmaking students’ projects at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica (photo by Joseph Kopta.)
What was unique was the two-day visit of President Frances Bronet, Vice President Daphne Halpern, associate VP Jessica Tallman, Vice President Delmy Lendof, Dean Jorge Oliver with staff and very special guests, 12 in all. Fine Arts chair Jane South visited both studios and entertained the faculty earlier. With the VIP group, all of Pratt in Venice enjoyed a bragozzo boat trip in the Venetian lagoon with ecologist Jane da Mosto on board who offered information about the flora on islands and the health of the lagoon.
Following our celebratory 35th Anniversary year in 2019, and the two years of shut down, we rejoiced in returning to this ever-rich and extraordinary experience.
Conservator Egidio Arlango (in blue) and Diana Gisolfi with Pratt in Venice students in the monk’s loft, describing the varied techniques used by Veronese and his assistants on the ceiling of the church of San Sebastiano (photo by Jill Brandwein.)