Director’s Report from Rome III

For those of us who are involved through support or practice in the revival of the western classical heritage, the importance of Rome cannot be overstated. As a model for collaborations between architecture, image and ornament, no other location holds such variety and quality. Recipients of the Alma Schapiro Prize have a unique opportunity to participate in the tradition of adapting these ancient lessons to contemporary solutions, and as director of an atelier devoted to mural painting, I am especially grateful to the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America for the experience.

The real surprise of my visit came as a direct result of an illustrated history of the American Academy in Rome delivered by its President, Adele Chatfield-Taylor, whose inspiring narrative led to my own research into the original purpose and subsequent development of the institution. Fundamental to establishing an American Academy in Rome was the concept of artist and architect working together on a special Collaborative Problem considered to be the most important creative element to a three year fellowship. Both the Collaborative Problem and the three year fellowship were discontinued after the Second World War, amid larger cultural changes that were occurring at the time.

However, the more recent arrangement with the ICA & CA indicates a positive response to the growing number of artists and scholars interested in the preservation and practice of our classical heritage. In establishing these Affiliated Fellowships, it is my hope that the Academy will help evolve American realism into the more complex and universal traditions of classical design. The potential of what can still happen here, like so much else in the history of this city, is colossal.

~ D. Jeffrey Mims