News - September 4, 2007

SUF Welcomes New Students
The orientation schedule is set, the new semester ready to take off, and the staff and faculty of Syracuse University in Florence are ready and happy to welcome the 321 new students arriving this week to begin the fall semester at the Florence campus. This semester promises to be a special one, filled with new and stimulating initiatives, including exhibits, restoration projects, book presentations, lectures, and special celebrations.

Check the calendar on the SUF homepage www.syr.fi.it for details about these events. If you wish to receive the SUF News as a regular update on your email account, you can subscribe to it by simply clicking on "subscribe" under SUF News on the homepage.

Focusing on Contemporary Visions in Art


Renee Billingslea

Susan Felter

David Pace

Syracuse University in Florence is proud to launch the inaugural exhibit of Contemporary Visions: Encounters with Art, an initiative developed in collaboration with the SUF Studio Arts Department. This exhibit and lecture series engages students and the interested public with the contemporary art world, presenting works by practicing artists and creating a dialogue about artistic issues of the twenty-first century. The inauguration of each exhibit is accompanied by an artist's lecture and discussion which will take place in the gallery space, providing a context for the dialogue.

This new initiative is inaugurated with an exchange exhibit with faculty colleagues at Santa Clara University, an institution that has a long and rich tradition of academic partnership with SUF. In the spring of 2007, SUF Photography Professors Stefania Talini and Francesco Guazzelli, together with their colleague Maurizio Berlincioni, presented their work at the Gallery of the Department of Art and Art History at Santa Clara University. This fall SUF is honored to present an exhibit of the photography faculty from Santa Clara University: Renee Billingslea, Susan Felter, and David Pace.

Italian Renaissance Art: TV and Slaves



This semester’s lecture series looks at Renaissance art from two unique perspectives: the role of television as a tool in studying Renaissance Art, and that of Renaissance Art as a means of discovering more about slavery in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The inaugural lecture, entitled “The Private Life of an Arts Documentary: How art history challenges the BBC and Viewers” will be held by Ian Jones on September 24. Television has struggled over the years to find the best way to relate the history of art.  Focusing on Michelangelo's David, Botticelli's Primavera, and Leonardo's Last Supper, this talk examines how producers have moved from televised lectures, through presenter-led tours of Italy, to drama-based programs in an attempt to find a solution. 

The second lecture of the semester will be given by Carl Brandon Strelke on October 1, and is entitled "Slavery and the Renaissance Art World." African, Greek, and Tartar slaves were a common sight in Renaissance Europe. While scholarship has studied their social status, this lecture will consider their contributions to the societies in which they found themselves, and, in particular, to the arts in Italy and Spain.

Both lecturers are experts in their fields. Ian Jones is a television producer and director, working mainly in the field of arts documentary. After working with The Discovery Channel UK and the BBC, he went freelance and began to concentrate on making visual arts programs. He is currently developing a new arts series for the BBC. Strehlke is adjunct curator of the John G. Johnson Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art where he has worked since 1983. He is now preparing an exhibition on fifteenth century painting in the Kingdom of Aragon.

Speaking of lectures, SUF is pleased to announce that Prof. Natalia Piombino has joined Prof. Jonathan K. Nelson as coordinator of the lecture series for the 2007/08 academic year.

Taking It to the Streets
September 15th will see SUF on the street—literally. Democrats Abroad Florence has organized the first ‘USA Street Fair 2007,’ to be hosted by the United States Consulate and held on the Lungarno, The purpose of the Fair is to highlight—to newcomers, students and old-timers alike—the support services that are available to the English-speaking overseas community in and around Florence.

Syracuse University in Florence is the only individual American University invited to participate in this event, in recognition of a long-standing, on-going commitment to community outreach and engagement.

SUF staff members will be on-hand to answer questions and hand out information about the Syracuse University in Florence program, with an emphasis on our active commitment to engagement with the Florentine community. Though information is the raison d'etre, it's also a party—there will be music, food, and fun, too. See you there!