Students studying Veneto-Byzantine architecture with Visiting Assistant Professor Joseph Kopta at the Basilica of Santa Fosca on the island of Torcello (photo by Jill Brandwein)
After being postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, Pratt in Venice is again underway this summer. From June 8 to July 20, undergraduate and graduate students are studying art and its history in the famed Italian cultural destination. The program, which celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2019, is one of Pratt’s longest-running summer programs, which include studies abroad in locations ranging from Rome to Scandinavia.
Pratt in Venice classes including painting, drawing and printmaking, Materials and Techniques of Venetian Art, and Art History of Venice engage students with the practice of art through the area’s heritage, from historic sites to the current Venice Biennale exhibition. For instance, students in the Materials and Techniques of Venetian Art class led by Professor of History of Art and Design Diana Gisolfi visited the basilica of SS. Maria e Donato on the island of Murano to learn how the nonprofit Save Venice Inc. is supporting a conservation campaign, even climbing scaffolding with conservators to examine the frescoes and mosaics up close.
Students in a painting class led by Michael Brennan, adjunct associate professor-CCE of fine arts, have experimented with color studies in response to light around the city and its canals, while Joseph Kopta, visiting assistant professor for Pratt in Venice, introduced students to the late antique and Byzantine monuments of Ravenna, where they discussed the influence of the ancient city on Venetian art.
See some of the photographs from this summer’s Pratt in Venice below, such as Pratt President Frances Bronet’s visit to the program’s sites. This included the main site at the Università Internazionale dell’Arte and the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica print workshop by the Grand Canal where Fay Ku, visiting assistant professor of fine arts, is working with students on a variety of printmaking techniques. Follow @prattinvenice for ongoing updates from this summer’s program.
Pratt in Venice student Ian Koopman glassmaking on the island of Murano (photo courtesy Ian Koopman); Pratt in Venice with Visiting Assistant Professor Joseph Kopta at the Byzantine church of San Vitale, Ravenna (photo by Jon Day, Jr.)
Joseph Kopta teaches about the mosaic of Emperor Justinian (546–48 CE) to Pratt in Venice students in the Byzantine church of San Vitale in Ravenna (photo by Jon Day, Jr.)
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)
Pratt in Venice students at work in the painting studio at the Università Internazionale dell’Arte, where the Painting in Venice class takes place, taught by Michael Brennan, adjunct associate professor-CCE of fine arts (photo by Amy Ungricht)
Michael Brennan, adjunct associate professor-CCE of fine arts, teaching at the Università Internazionale dell’Arte (photo by Amy Ungricht)
From L to R at the Università Internazionale dell’Arte: Joseph Kopta, visiting assistant professor for Pratt in Venice; Vice President for Student Affairs Delmy Lendof; Vice President for Institutional Advancement Daphne Halpern; UIA Secretary Massimo Angeletti (in background); Dean of the School of Art Jorge Oliver; Professor of History of Art and Design Diana Gisolfi; Pratt President Frances Bronet; Trustee Joan Fallon; Pratt Associate Vice President for Institutional Advancement Jessica Tallman; and Michael Brennan, adjunct associate professor-CCE of fine arts (photo by Jill Brandwein)
Visiting Assistant Professor Fay Ku works with Printmaking and Drawing students at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica (photo by Taylor Bielecki); Printmaking and Drawing students at work at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica (photo by Michael Brennan); Giavanna Mattera pulls a print with the assistance of Alessia De Bortoli at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica (photo by Taylor Bielecki)
Pratt President Frances Bronet and School of Art Dean Jorge Oliver listen to Visiting Assistant Professor Fay Ku discuss the printmaking students’ projects at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica (photo by Joseph Kopta)
Professor of History of Art and Design Diana Gisolfi’s graduate Materials and Techniques of Venetian Art seminar learns from a master mosaicist about the ongoing conservation of floor and wall mosaics at the Basilica di San Marco (photo by Kate McElhiney)
Students in the Materials and Techniques of Venetian Art graduate seminar climb scaffolding at SS. Maria e Donato in Murano to learn from conservators about the fresco restoration underway under the sponsorship of Save Venice, Inc.; Melissa Conn of Save Venice, Inc. speaking with Pratt in Venice students about the conservation efforts at SS. Maria e Donato (photos by Joseph Kopta)
Mosaic restorer Giovanni Cucco explains his work at SS. Maria e Donato to graduate student Amy Ungricht (photograph by Kate McElhiney)
Professor of History of Art and Design 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.)
Pratt in Venice student Taylor Bielecki’s “Sound of Silence All Around” (2022), acrylic
