Our latest newsletter
Siena Art Institute Newsletter:
This past year has been very busy at the Siena Art Institute, with exciting initiatives ahead as well! Here's our latest newsletter to keep you updated:
Online Broadcast with Brandeis University
On January 11th we held an online event with our partners at Brandeis University, The Evolution of Space in Masterpieces of Sienese Painting:A Virtual Visit to Siena’s Pinacoteca Nazionale, offering a sneak peak inside Siena, Italy and the Brandeis in Siena summer study abroad program through this virtual visit to Siena’s primary national art museum. We explored Renaissance painting by Guido di Graziano, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Domenico Beccafumi, and others and participate in a discussion with contributions from Brandeis professors Joe Wardwell and Jonathan Unglaub and SART faculty Lisa Nonken and Roberto Fineschi.
A recording of the broadcast can be viewed on our YouTube channel:
Art Cloud Greece Project
Launched in May 2021 by the Siena Art Institute with support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Art Cloud Greece (ACG) is a collaborative initiative committed to creating participatory art projects in dialogue with diverse audiences.
ACG has worked with a group of Greek alumni of the Siena Art Institute, with our international network of alumni, faculty, and resident artists offering an expansive resource for global collaborations. As a culminating end-of-year event for this launch phase of Art Cloud Greece, four collaborative projects were presented in Athens in December:
- Bizarre Phainomena (Fivos Chalkiopoulos & Antonis Douroudis);
- Stories of the Athenian Stay (Apostolis Tsamertzis & Spiros Anemoyiannis)
- If you were a food what would you be? (Angelos Sotiriou & Myrto Patramani)
- Guide to Hive (Iris Bournazou & Kyriakos Papadopoulos)
The aim of the four projects was to activate participatory processes through an ongoing series of cultural events and projects during the autumn of 2021, engaging with local and international art communities while developing cultural awareness and social responsibility. Find out more on artcloudgreece.com
Recent Resident Artists and Writers
Navigating pandemic limitations, our resident artists and writers have still found ways to explore the resources of Siena and create their own artistic responses.
We were delighted to host an exciting array of residents in recent months including :
- Mashuq Mushtaq Deen, playwright, USA, Sept 13-Oct 16
- Kostis Velonis, visual artist, Greece, Sept 17-Oct 10
- Tania Saleh, musician and visual artist, Lebanon, Oct 18-Nov 13
- Nina Papaconstantinou, visual artist, Greece, Oct 18-Nov 13
- Mykola Ribchuk, writer, Ukraine, Nov 15-Dec 11
- Natalia Bilotserkivets, poet and translator, Ukraine, Nov 15-Dec 11
September 30 will be the application deadline for our 2023 residencies at the Siena Art Institute. Further information can be found on our website regarding the application process for our Summer Residency Program, Studio/Casa Residency Program, and Studio Residency Program.
Exhibit of Fall 2021 Students' Work
Our Fall 2021 students, hailing from the US and Greece, shared their projects both online and in person at the Siena Art Institute for our end-of semester exhibition, with work in ceramics, photography, silversmithing, and interdisciplinary projects.
The recording of our students' live broadcast can be viewed below and the online exhibiton of our students' work can be viewed on our blog: sienaart.blog/fall-2021
Looking forward to the Spring 2022 Semester
Spring 2022 has students joining us from a variety of our partner institutions for our semester program at the Siena Art Institute and Siena School for Liberal Arts, including the College of the Holy Cross, Oberlin College, Brandeis University, Swarthmore College, Williams College, and more! April 30 will be the application deadline for our upcoming Fall 2023 semester.
We remain careful about upholding covid protocol as specified by the Italian Ministry of Health. Working within these parameters, our incoming students are looking forward to a semester of exploring the wealth of resources in Siena, our surrounding Tuscan territory, and responding through their own individualized projects. Click here for more information about our covid prevention protocol.
Collaborative European Projects
This autumn has been the final stage of the EU project CErTiFY (Crisis and Employment: Tools and methodologies for Your Future), an innovative project promoted by the Loughborough University in partnership with Atit Bvba (Belgium), De Montfort University (UK), Spes GMBH (Austria), Istituto Luigi Sturzo (Italy), Research Paths Etaireia Ereynas (Greece) and VSL "Lyderystes ir verslo akademija" (Lithuania) together with the Siena Art Institute. The CErTiFY project, began in 2019, is funded by the European Erasmus+ Program, seeks to help individuals wanting to work in the cultural and creative sectors, that are characterised by less-structured recruitment processes and key competences often acquired over longer periods of time and outside the formal education system. As such, finding a way to recognise these skills becomes a compelling necessity for candidates. SART's involvement has included attending meetings and training sessions, conducting surveys, writing reports, and contrubuting to the co-creation of an online platform to share the survey results and best practices compiled during the project. As finalized outputs, CErTiFY is developing digital tools: a smartphone app to create digital "curricular" stories and an e-learning platform to support and guide job-seekers in applying for jobs.
The Siena Art Institute is also part of a new EU project currently in its launch phase: The CREATIVITY Project (Creative Resilience: Enhancing Active Tools, Innovation and Vision in the Young). This is a 24-month education innovation project funded by Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships led by De Montfort University in Leicester, UK in partnership with the Siena Art Institute and other collaborating European institutions. This project seeks to utilise the skills of young people to rebuild and nurture the resilience of the creative and cultural sectors in the future. By responding to the need to bridge the gap between further education and employment in the Creative and Cultural sectors and the harsh reality of employment in the sectors where low wages, insecure contracts, and skill deficit that have been compounded by the devastating effects of Covid-19, the project seeks to aid the reopening and rebuilding of these sectors by assessing their future skills need. Through a series of interactive education sessions we aim to upskill young people to be the creative and cultural sector innovators and entrepreneurs of the future. The Europe-wide aspect of this project additionally creates an intercultural dialogue on the issues which will develop a robust understanding of the sectors and their future needs. We look forward to bringing you further updates about this exciting new project in the months ahead!
Community Initiatives
During the last year, after going through a selection process we participated in a series of training sessions and meetings for two distinct projects promoted by the Fondazione Monte dei Paschi Siena. One is the RESET project that is aimed at helping local organizations - big and small - that work in the context of Culture and the Arts to acquire new skills that will help their long term sustainability. The second project is the COMMUNITY HUB ,which has allowed us to take part in a series of extremely interesting conversations with organizations all over Italy that work in the realm of Cultural Welfare. The Fondazione MPS will be providing the group of organizations that took part with a fantastic space in the centre of Siena, currently managed by the University for Foreigners. The idea is to take part in a shared cultural programming and organize some pilot programs hopefully in collaboration with the Municipality of Siena. 
Facing challenges together
Navigating this challenging era, we remain hopeful for the year ahead, and are grateful for the support of our local and international networks. As a non-profit organization, the Siena Art Institute appreciates the support of our program partners and sponsors in making it possible for us to continue in our mission to encourage creativity, ingenuity and resourcefulness as active tools that can have a practical and meaningful impact on society, combining high-level training with many opportunities for dialogue with the most interesting voices of the international art scene.
We welcome the support of individual donors as "Friends of SART."
To contribute, please visit our webpage.
Siena Art Institute Onlus
Via Enea Silvio Piccolomini 2 - 53100 Siena (Italy) -(+39) 0577 573086
