- BY ISSIMO
- April 23, 2025
Nestled atop the Janiculum Hill, where the views sweep across Rome’s ochre rooftops, the American Academy in Rome sits like a well-kept secret. In a way, it is: with its quiet courtyards, lush garden where Galileo first publicly demonstrated his telescope in Rome in 1611, and centuries-old trees, the villa exudes a kind of hushed, contemplative atmosphere that feels worlds away from the city’s busy streets below. And yet, it is deeply embedded in the Eternal City’s rhythms – a place where ancient history and contemporary creativity coexist in a rare and beautiful way.
“The American Academy is a super collider,” says Aliza Wong, the Academy’s Director since 2022. “A merger of creativity, of action and intellectualism, all in one beautiful place and grounded within the context of the city of Rome. I like to think of it as a continuation of the Grand Tour of the late 18th and early 19th century.”
Founded in 1894 and chartered by the U.S. Congress, the American Academy in Rome is the oldest American overseas centre for independent scholarly and artistic work. Each year, the Academy awards the prestigious Rome Prize to a select group of exceptional American artists and scholars. Winners are chosen through a highly competitive process and are granted a stipend, a studio or workspace, and full board at the Academy for a period of five to eleven months. It also welcomes non-American artists and scholars through various programs, and offers fellowships for Italian artists and other global creatives.
The roll call of fellows and residents that have been here over the years is awe-inspiring: Composers like Aaron Copland, artists like Cy Twombly, writers like Jhumpa Lahiri and Toni Morrison have called AAR home at some point or another. Today, its fellows are a dazzling mix of early-career prodigies and seasoned thinkers, each one bringing their vision to life in a setting that encourages slow thought and human connection.
“It’s easy to pick someone who’s already won the Pulitzer or Nobel Prize,” Wong says. “The trick is to choose the person before they do that, and somehow our jury has done that over and over again, which is quite the achievement.”
But to call AAR simply an institution is to miss the point. It’s a living, breathing organism – a home, a workshop, a think tank, and a shared experience. “AAR offers a rare gift of time and place, giving fellows the chance to pause, explore new ideas, and create meaningful work in one of the world’s most inspiring cities,” Wong says. At its heart, it’s a place that’s about time – not in the chronological sense, but in the philosophical one. Time to think. Time to create. Time to talk.
For Wong, Rome is very much to thank for that. “This is an extraordinary city, where past and present live side by side,” she says. “Many people think of it as this ancient place of togas and ruins, sun-bleached marble columns and centuries-old landmarks, when in fact it’s this colourful, multicultural, vibrant, vital place.”
“I always think of the concrete that is in the sidewalks of Rome, and how throughout history the roots of the trees have been pushing through it, like living things,” she continues. “That image, to me, captures what Rome is all about. It is the ruins, but it’s also the immigrants, the refugees, the people who have chosen to come here and who continue to build neighbourhoods, museums, to show art, write books, discover. That’s what I try to impart to our fellows. Rome is still living.”
Community, too, is ARR’s secret ingredient, Wong points out. From composers and painters to archaeologists and classicists, the fellows represent a broad cross-section of disciplines. They don’t just coexist – they collaborate. They challenge each other, push each other, and inspire one another in ways that would be impossible in more siloed environments.
The magic happens not just in studios or seminar rooms, but around the table. The Academy maintains a beloved tradition: communal meals twice a day. Those come courtesy of the Rome Sustainable Food Project (RSFP), another one of the Academy’s initiatives. Founded in 2007 by chef and food activist Alice Waters, RSFP provides healthy, seasonal, and locally sourced meals for the Academy’s community of artists and scholars, emphasising sustainability, environmental responsibility, and the cultural richness of Roman and Mediterranean food traditions. Beyond serving daily lunches and dinners – which always change –, RSFP is also a model for integrating food, community, and education, demonstrating how thoughtful cooking can nourish both body and creativity.
“One of AAR’s main missions is to instill and introduce these fellows to the Italian way of life,” Wong says. “Food, as you know, is a fantastic vehicle for that. And so, every day at 1pm and 8pm, we invite our artists to shut down their computers, put down their pens, set aside their paint brushes, and simply sit next to one another and have a conversation.” That, Wong adds, is pivotal to fully immerse oneself in the Academy. “Eating together reminds these brilliant creatives that there is a human being behind the artist or the scholar – and that is the person we’re here to cherish.”
A professor of history and interim dean of the Honors College at Texas Tech University, Wong is the Academy’s twenty-fifth Director. Speaking to her is a treat – deeply passionate and with a contagious sense of optimism, she embodies what the Academy stands for today: openness, fierce intellect, and empathy.
“As a director, it is my philosophy, and it is my firm belief that the world will be saved by the arts and humanities,” she says. And the Academy is a laboratory for what comes next. “We are building something here – something that respects tradition but isn’t afraid to shake it up.”
That push-and-pull – between reverence and reinvention – runs through every corridor of the Academy, from its frescoed courtyards to the library and the garden, where artists can go to sit and think. It’s also what makes it such a vital part of Rome’s cultural fabric. While the city teems with grand museums and ancient ruins, the Academy offers something else: a space for process, for conversation, for work-in-progress.
That spirit is on full display every spring during the Academy’s Open Studios, when the public is invited to roam the grounds and meet the current fellows. Over 2,000 visitors come to explore the studios, watch performances, and view installations. The event, like the Academy itself, is both intimate and expansive. “It’s our way of saying thank you to Rome,” Wong explains. “We’re guests here. But we’re also part of this city. Open Studios is a celebration of that relationship.”
Later in the season comes the McKim Medal Gala – which this year falls on June 4 – a dazzling evening that brings together artists, philanthropists, and cultural leaders from around the world to support the Academy’s mission. It’s the Academy at its most glamorous – but even here, the spirit of shared purpose shines through. “There’s a generosity in this place,” Wong says. “A belief that what we do here matters. That beauty and thought and community are worth investing in.”
And perhaps that is the Academy’s greatest offering: a vision of what the world can be when time, space, and care are given to creativity. In a world that often prizes speed over depth and product over process, the American Academy in Rome is a radical act of faith.
But the really miraculous thing, Wong says, it’s to see what the fellows do after they go home. “People leave changed,” Wong says simply. “What we do is we plant the seed of Rome, but it blooms elsewhere. It blooms back in the United States or in Australia, or with our artist Protection Fund back in Lebanon, or either in Iran or in Yemen, or wherever it is they are coming from, and they take Rome home with them. And this place, too.”
If you’re lucky enough to walk through its gates – whether for a studio visit, a garden concert, or simply to glimpse the city from above – you’ll feel it too: the hum of ideas, the clink of glasses, and the quiet thrill of being somewhere that still believes in the power of art to shape the world.
“I think the Academy promotes what I think of as ‘sustainable humanity,’ ” Wong says. “It reminds us that we need to care not only for what we produce, but for the producer, too.”
