The following is an April 23 press release from the American Academy in Rome announcing the winners of its 2021–22 Rome Prize and Italian Fellowships. This year, Studio Barnes founder Germane Barnes won the Rome Prize in Architecture, and collaborative design studio Mitnick.Roddier co-founders Mireille Roddier and Keith Mitnick won the Arnold W. Brunner/Frances Barker Tracy/Katherine Edwards Gordon Rome Prize.
The American Academy in Rome has announced the winners of the 2021–22 Rome Prize and Italian Fellowships. These highly competitive fellowships support advanced independent work and research in the arts and humanities. This year, the gift of “time and space to think and work” was awarded to thirty-five American and five Italian artists and scholars. They will each receive a stipend, workspace, and room and board at the Academy’s eleven-acre campus in Rome, starting in September 2021.
The Rome Prize and Italian Fellowship winners were presented virtually during the annual Arthur and Janet C. Ross Rome Prize Ceremony, via Zoom. The event also featured a Conversations/Conversazioni between acclaimed architect Sir David Adjaye OBE (2016 Resident) and AAR Director Avinoam Shalem (2016 Resident), with a special introduction by Andrew Heiskell Arts Director Elizabeth Rodini. The video is available on the Academy’s YouTube channel.
“We welcome these Rome Prize winners and Italian Fellows who enter an increasingly global and diverse residential community, reflecting the complexity of US culture abroad,” said AAR President Mark Robbins (1997 Fellow). “The support for these scholars, artists, writers, composers, and designers strengthens the arts and humanities at a time when this is ever more critical.”
Rome Prize winners are selected annually by independent juries of distinguished artists and scholars through a national competition. The eleven disciplines supported by the Academy include: ancient studies, architecture, design, historic preservation and conservation, landscape architecture, literature, medieval studies, modern Italian studies, music composition, Renaissance and early modern studies, and visual arts.
Nationwide, the Rome Prize Competition received 874 applications, representing 46 US states and 22 different countries. This group of Rome Prize winners is one of the most diverse in the Academy’s history. Approximately 44 percent of the winners identify as BIPOC, and 62.5 percent are women, representing a new high for each demographic, respectively. Ages of the incoming group range from 27 to 74, with an average age of 43.
In addition to the Rome Prize winners, the Academy announced the recipients of five Italian Fellowships, through which Italian artists and scholars live and work in the Academy community, pursuing their own projects in a collaborative, interdisciplinary environment with their American counterparts. The Italian Fellows are also selected through a national jury process.
A full list of the 2021–22 Rome Prize winners and Italian Fellows, as well as the international jurors who selected them, can be downloaded here.
ANCIENT STUDIES
Sasha-Mae Eccleston
National Endowment for the Humanities/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rome Prize
Kevin EnnisSamuel H. Kress Foundation/Helen M. Woodruff-Archaeological Institute of America Rome Prize
Grace FunstenEmeline Hill Richardson/Arthur Ross Rome Prize
John IzzoMillicent Mercer Johnsen Rome Prize
Adriana Maria VazquezAndrew Heiskell/Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Rome Prize
ARCHITECTURE
Germane Barnes
Rome Prize in Architecture
Mireille Roddier and Keith MitnickArnold W. Brunner/Frances Barker Tracy/Katherine Edwards Gordon Rome Prize
DESIGN
Mary Ellen Carroll
Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Rome Prize
Jennifer PastoreMark Hampton/Jesse Howard Jr. Rome Prize
HISTORIC PRESERVATION AND CONSERVATION
Carol Mancusi-Ungaro
Suzanne Deal Booth Rome Prize
Sarah NunbergAdele Chatfield-Taylor Rome Prize
Ellen PearlsteinSuzanne Deal Booth Rome Prize
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Michael Lee
Prince Charitable Trusts/Kate Lancaster Brewster Rome Prize
Phoebe LickwarGarden Club of America Rome Prize
LITERATURE
Jessica Hagedorn
John Guare Writers Fund Rome Prize, a Gift of Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman
Robin Coste LewisJoseph Brodsky Rome Prize, a Gift of the Drue Heinz Trust
Valzhyna MortRome Prize in Literature
MEDIEVAL STUDIES
Erene Rafik Morcos
Samuel H. Kress Foundation/Donald and Maria Cox Rome Prize
Randall Todd PippengerPaul Mellon/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rome Prize
MODERN ITALIAN STUDIES
Mary Jane Dempsey
Rome Prize in Modern Italian Studies
Elena PastRome Prize in Modern Italian Studies
SA SmytheRome Prize in Modern Italian Studies
MUSICAL COMPOSITION
Igor Santos
Samuel Barber Rome Prize
Tina TallonFrederic A. Juilliard/Walter Damrosch Rome Prize
RENAISSANCE AND EARLY MODERN STUDIES
Lillian Datchev
Marian and Andrew Heiskell/Anthony M. Clark Rome Prize
Eugenio RefiniNational Endowment for the Humanities Rome Prize
VISUAL ARTS
Firelei Báez
Phillip Guston Rome Prize
Autumn KnightNancy B. Negley Rome Prize
Eric N. MackPhillip Guston Rome Prize
Daniel Joseph MartinezAbigail Cohen Rome Prize
La Nietas de Nonó (Mapenzi Chibale Nonó and Mulowayi Iyaye Nonó)Rome Prize in Visual Art
William VillalongoJules Guerin/Harold M. English Rome Prize
TERRA FOUNDATION FELLOW
Julia A. Sienkewicz
ITALIAN FELLOWS
Alessio Battistella
Enel Foundation Italian Fellow in Architecture, Urban Design, and Landscape Architecture
Manuele CeruttiFondazione Sviluppo e Crescita CRT Italian Fellow in Visual Arts
Beatrice FalcucciFranco Zeffirelli Italian Fellow in Modern Italian Studies
Valerio MorabitoEnel Foundation Italian Fellow in Architecture, Urban Design, and Landscape Architecture
Rosa SessaItalian Fellow in Modern Italian Studies
