Pratt in Venice Scholarship Fund

Dear Friends of Pratt in Venice, 

Pratt in Venice is in serious need of scholarship monies. Our fall auction of student work  yielded $1,295 and we are grateful for this. Our appeal letter sent in November brought in another $700 so far. The cost for a student to participate is now (due to increases in tuition) circa $12,000. Some student loans cannot be used for summer programs. We dearly wish to be able to fund gifted and deserving students and allow them the opportunity to participate. 

It is our experience that in recent years the one or two students whom we have been able to fund for about half of the cost have been among the students who derived the fullest benefit from the program.

Please contribute whatever you can to the Pratt in Venice Scholarship Fund. Your gift will be tremendously appreciated, and it is tax deductible!

With all good wishes and a presto,

Diana Gisolfi, Director of Pratt in Venice

A Special Message From the Director

Dear Friends of Pratt in Venice,

I am writing to ask your help for the Pratt in Venice Scholarship Fund. There are always well-qualified students who are eager to participate, but need a hand. Your contributions really make the difference, and they are tax deductible!

I hope you are checking the latest news here on our website. The most recent post shows the 2015 exhibition, which some of you attended. Our 2015 group of painters was highly productive, and the installation curated by Greg Drasler and Grayson Cox was impressive.

The 2015 Venice Biennale was attended, critiqued and enjoyed in its various sites and venues by students and faculty alike. Joe Kopta led the Torcello trip and also the optional Ravenna Saturday trip, both highly appreciated.  Our guest lecture list was particularly rich this year.  Sarah McHam of Rutgers spoke on the exterior sculptures at the Doge’s Palace, Tracy Cooper shared her expertise on Palladio at San Giorgio and the Redentore. Antonio Stevan again hosted our group on the early morning visit to the Giotto Chapel in Padua and joined up for a cappuccino, and then Joe and I brought the group to the Eremitani, and the various venues at the Santo.  Paolo Spezzani revealed the changes and underdrawings in Venetian painting via his trove of infrared, ultraviolet, and X-ray images. Our colleague Frima Hofrichter joined us and lectured at the Salute.

Materials and Techniques students learned about mosaic techniques from maestro Baggio at San Marco and from Luca Chiesura at the Orsoni factory. We mounted the scaffold surrounding the organ in the church of San Sebastiano and learned from Egidio Arlango about what the conservation team was discovering, including changes to the pipes, the decorations, and the painted surface over centuries.

Of course our traditional villa trip took place: Castelfranco, Villa Emo, Villa Barbaro at Maser, rustic midday meal with Gigi and Luisa in the hills above Bassano, and finally our walk across the Brenta River on Palladio's bridge. This time our rustic meal concluded with singing and guitars, and Greg's and Nancy's little dog Chips and Grayson's and Hollis's little daughter Winnie won everyone's heart.

As I write this, I realize how rich the program is and how much it can mean to a student. What scholarship funds we have go to students who could not otherwise enjoy this opportunity, and they are always grateful.

Please contribute any amount you can to helping a student participate.

With all good wishes and a presto,

Diana Gisolfi, Director of Pratt in Venice

Director's Report, 2013

Diana Gisolfi, Director

Participants in the 2013 Pratt in Venice program were both thoroughly engaged in the experience and seriously productive in their work. Again a congenial mix of graduate and undergraduate students from various departments and programs at Pratt took part. Art History, Fine Arts, Library Science, Communication Design, Art Education, and Art Therapy were represented. Alumnus Joe Kopta (PiV '07, BFA/MS '10) again joined the team as program coordinator. Early in the program he organized a new, optional, Sunday trip – to Ravenna – to study mosaics earlier than any on the islands of Venice. Chris Wright’s painting class often brought easels outside – to investigate and depict in varied ways the light and reflections in Venice. Jennifer Melby’s printmakers explored etching, aquatint and other techniques. The joint final critique showed abundant, diverse and high quality works of art.

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Painting Junior Luke Watson at work (photo: Chris Wright).

In Art History all enjoyed the boat trip to Torcello, where Dorothy Shepard invited Joe Kopta to lecture on the mosaics. Materials and Techniques students were able to mount to the monks’ loft in San Sebastiano and hear from conservators and Amalia Basso of the Soprintendenza about the last phase in the conservation of Veronese’s frescoes.

Special lectures included Stefania Sartori, wood conservationist, Paolo Spezzani in a lecture open to all on non destructive investigation of materials and techniques, and Robert Morgan on the Biennale. The Biennale itself was all over town, not only in the main sites at the Arsenale and the Giardini. What distinguished the Biennale of 2013 was, in fact, its installation in many private palaces around the city. This opened such palazzi to visitors and challenged 21st century artists to create installations that might interact with spaces built in the 15th, 16th or 17th century.

On trips to Padua trip and the villa Barbaro there were innovations. After the visit to the Giotto chapel and the area of the Santo, a few faculty and students went to Sta. Giustina, a 16th century Benedictine church with early Christian remains, recently unearthed. On the villa trip, after Castelfranco and Giorgione we visited Palladio’s Villa Emo decorated by Zelotti before continuing to Palladio’s Villa Barbaro at Maser and to our rustic meal and art-making on the hills outside Bassano. This addition brought universal approval and will be repeated.

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Students Lilian Thorpe, Jessie Novik and Anthony Vasquez observing Zelotti's frescoes in Palladio's Villa Emo (photo: Diana Gisolfi).

29th Annual Pratt in Venice Exhibition, 11/4–8

We are very excited to invite you to the 29th annual exhibition. As in past years, the exhibition showcases the work of this summer’s Pratt in Venice program, featuring works in painting and printmaking as well as research projects done by current Pratt students.

The exhibition opens Monday, November 4th, and runs all week until November 8th in East Hall’s Second Floor Gallery on the Pratt Brooklyn campus. We will be having an opening party November 4th from 5-7 pm with refreshments, a slideshow of photos from this year’s program, a silent auction for the works to benefit the scholarship fund, and a chance to meet and mingle with alumni.

Looking forward to seeing you there!