American Academy in Rome

OPEN STUDIOS 2026
May 28
6:00 – 10:00 pm
Via Angelo Masina, 5

Garden Live Acts
7:30 – 9:15 pm

Meet the Fellows (Part 2)

From 7:30 pm, the evening moves through music, literature, performance, and sound experiments on stage waiting for the sun to set in our back garden.

Oswald Huỳnh opens with Memory revises me, a new chamber work inspired by Ovid, Frank Ocean, and Li-Young Lee, performed by Trio Sheliak. Through shifting textures and fragmented melodies, the piece reflects on exile, longing, and the strange feeling of watching home from afar.

Poet David Keplinger reads from ‘Great Pond’, a manuscript completed during his time in Rome, followed by Chuna McIntyre , whose performance draws from Yup’ik cultural traditions, storytelling, and dance practices carried across generations.

Maya Binyam shares excerpts from ‘Holy Fool’, her new novel about exile, secrecy, and the uneasy ways the past resurfaces.

Composer Lembit Beecher presents a program shaped by family stories, immigration narratives, and childhood memory, accompanied by Enzo Filippetti (alto sax), Susanna Pagano (piano) and Fellow Traveler Karen Ouzounian (cello).

The evening closes with Marta De Pascalis .depas , whose new work for synthesizer and magnetic tape explores analogue sound as something physical, immersive, and constantly shifting.

Join us for this special and extended version of our annual Open Studios!

Photos by
Last photo by Flavio Scollo

OPEN STUDIOS 2026
MAY 28, 2026
6 - 10 PM
Garden Live Acts
7:30 - 9:15 PM

Wander through the Academy for an evening of open studios, installations, performances, readings, and music unfolding across the building, gardens, and historic spaces of the American Academy in Rome.

Begin in the front pavilions with studios by Liz Glynn , Jefferson Pinder , Heather Scott Peterson , and Heather Hart , some activated throughout the evening with live performative works. In the courtyard, encounter Andrea Fraser’s take-away poster project alongside installations from ‘Flight Paths’, on view across the gallery and surrounding spaces during Open Studios.

Continue through the Library and gardens with projects and conversations by Fellows Sean Mooney , Chuna McIntyre, Claudia Chemello, and Paul Mardikian before descending into the Cryptoporticus, transformed for the evening by Architecture Fellow Akima Brackeen .
Studios continue upstairs with works by Sean Burkholder & Karen Lutsky , Katharine Ogle & Adam Summers , Ginny Sims-Burchard , T.J. Dedeaux-Norris , Tameka Baba .baba , Mirko Andolina .andolina , and Cory Henry .

As the sun sets, gather in the garden from 7:30pm for live performances and readings featuring Oswald Huỳnh , Lembit Beecher , Marta de Pascalis .depas , David Keplinger , Maya Binyam , Trio Sheliak , Enzo Filippetti , Susanna Pagano, and Karen Ouzounian .

Food and drinks available throughout the evening:
• Pizzicarola —
• Hummustown —
• Pizza Baar — .roma
• Punto Mobile Agency —

OPEN STUDIOS 2026
MAY 28
6:00 – 10:00 pm
Via Angelo Masina, 5

Meet the Fellows (part 1)

Step inside the studios and see installations of the Rome Prize and Italian Fellows during Open Studios 2026.

From volcanic shores and submerged vessels to marble quarries, ancient soundscapes, public space, diaspora, and the search for shade, this year’s projects move across disciplines, materials, and geographies — tracing the many ways artists, architects, writers, composers, and researchers are reimagining the world around us.

Join us for an evening of Open Studios, performances, conversation, and discovery throughout the McKim, Mead & White Building and Academy grounds for an event that celebrates a year of experimentation, exchange, and creative work in progress.

Architecture
Mirko Andolina .andolina
Akima Brackeen
Cory Henry

Design
Heather Scott Peterson
Ginny Sims-Burchard

Environmental Arts and Humanities
Chuna McIntyre and Sean Mooney
Katharine Ogle and Adam Summers

Historic Preservation and Conservation
Claudia Chemello and Paul Mardikian

Landscape Architecture
Tameka Baba .baba
Sean Burkholder and Karen Lutsky

Visual Arts
Jennifer Bornstein
T.J. Dedeaux-Norris
Andrea Fraser
Liz Glynn
Heather Hart
Jefferson Pinder

OPEN STACKS
May 27
10:00 am–1:00 pm

This year’s program brings together a wide range of research organized around three thematic threads shaping the Fellows’ work: ‘Race Across Time’, ‘Bodies and the Work They Do’, and ‘Knowledge Across Geographies’. Moving between ancient Rome and the twentieth century, from medieval translation networks to early modern global trade routes, the presentations highlight how ideas, bodies, and systems of knowledge circulate across time and space.

Together, the talks emphasize research as an evolving process, opening up the questions, methods, and experiments that shape each Fellow’s work.

Ancient Studies
Cynthia Liu
Katherine Dennis
Paula Gaither
William Pedrick
Darcy Tuttle

East–West Intersection
Daniel J. Sheridan

Medieval Studies
John Mulhall
Nastasya Kosygina
Stefano Milonia

Modern Italian Studies
Charles Leavitt
Kevin Martín

Renaissance & Early Modern Studies
Eva Del Soldato
Margo H. Weitzman .6

OPEN ACADEMY
MAY 27 & 28
Via Angelo Masina, 5

Join us for two events celebrating the work of the 2026 Fellows of the American Academy in Rome.

May 27 | 10:00 am–1:00 pm
Open Stacks 2026: Scholars’ Presentations

Short presentations by Fellows in the humanities sharing research developed during their residency in Rome.

Scholars:
Eva del Soldato , Katherine Dennis , Cynthia Liu , Paula Gaither, Nastasya Kosygina, Charles Leavitt, Kevin Martín , Stefano Milonia , John Mulhall, William Pedrick, Daniel J. Sheridan , Darcy Tuttle , Margo H. Weitzman .6 .

May 28 | 6:00–10:00 pm
Open Studios 2026: Artists’ Showcase

Open studios, performances, readings, concerts, and live acts throughout the McKim, Mead & White Building and Bass Garden.

Artists:
Mirko Andolina .andolina , Tameka Baba .baba , Lembit Beecher , Maya Binyam , Jennifer Bornstein , Akima Brackeen , Sean Burkholder & Karen Lutsky , Claudia Chemello & Paul Mardikian , Marta de Pascalis .depas , T.J. Dedeaux-Norris , Andrea Fraser , Liz Glynn , Heather Hart udio , Cory Henry , Oswald Huỳnh , David Keplinger , Chuna McIntyre, Sean Mooney , Katharine Ogle & Adam Summers , Jefferson Pinder , Heather Scott Peterson , Ginny Sims-Burchard .

OPEN ACADEMY
MAY 27 & 28
Via Angelo Masina, 5

Join us for two events celebrating the work of the 2026 Fellows of the American Academy in Rome.

May 27 | 10:00 am–1:00 pm
Open Stacks 2026: Scholars’ Presentations

Short presentations by Fellows in the humanities sharing research developed during their residency in Rome.

Scholars:
Eva del Soldato ( ), Katherine Dennis, Cynthia Liu ( ), Paula Gaither, Nastasya Kosygina, Charles Leavitt, Kevin Martín, Stefano Milonia ( ), John Mulhall, William Pedrick, Daniel J. Sheridan ( ), Darcy Tuttle ( ), Margo H. Weitzman (.6 ).

May 28 | 6:00–10:00 pm
Open Studios 2026: Artists’ Showcase

Open studios, performances, readings, concerts, and live acts throughout the McKim, Mead & White Building and Bass Garden.

Artists:
Mirko Andolina (.andolina ), Tameka Baba (.baba ), Lembit Beecher ( ), Maya Binyam ( ), Jennifer Bornstein ( ), Akima Brackeen ( ), Sean Burkholder ( ) & Karen Lutsky ( ), Claudia Chemello (.claudia ) & Paul Mardikian( ), Marta de Pascalis (.depas ), T.J. Dedeaux-Norris ( ), Andrea Fraser ( ), Liz Glynn ( ), Heather Hart ( ), Cory Henry ( ), Oswald Huỳnh ( ), David Keplinger ( ), Chuna McIntyre, Sean Mooney ( ), Katharine Ogle ( ) & Adam Summers ( ), Jefferson Pinder ( ), Heather Scott Peterson ( ), Ginny Sims-Burchard ( )

OPEN ACADEMY
MAY 27 & 28
Via Angelo Masina, 5

Join us for two events celebrating the work of the 2026 Fellows of the American Academy in Rome.

May 27 | 10:00 am–1:00 pm
Open Stacks 2026: Scholars’ Presentations

Short presentations by Fellows in the humanities sharing research developed during their residency in Rome.

Scholars:
Eva del Soldato ( ), Katherine Dennis, Cynthia Liu ( ), Paula Gaither, Nastasya Kosygina, Charles Leavitt, Kevin Martín, Stefano Milonia, John Mulhall, William Pedrick, Daniel J. Sheridan ( ), Darcy Tuttle ( ), Margo H. Weitzman (.6 ).

May 28 | 6:00–10:00 pm
Open Studios 2026: Artists’ Showcase

Open studios, performances, readings, concerts, and live acts throughout the McKim, Mead & White Building and Bass Garden.

Artists:
Mirko Andolina (.andolina ), Tameka Baba (.baba ), Lembit Beecher ( ), Maya Binyam ( ), Jennifer Bornstein ( ), Akima Brackeen ( ), Sean Burkholder ( ) & Karen Lutsky ( ), Claudia Chemello (.claudia ) & Paul Mardikian( ), Marta de Pascalis (.depas ), T.J. Dedeaux-Norris ( ), Andrea Fraser ( ), Liz Glynn ( ), Heather Hart ( ), Cory Henry ( ), Oswald Huỳnh ( ), David Keplinger ( ), Chuna McIntyre, Sean Mooney ( ), Katharine Ogle ( ) & Adam Summers (), Jefferson Pinder ( ), Heather Scott Peterson ( ), Ginny Sims-Burchard ( ).

TOMORROW, MAY 13
MATERIAL ENVIRONMENTS
Michael McCormick – New Evidence for Roman History and Archaeology from the Science of the Human Past
Wednesday, May 13
6:00 pm
Via Angelo Masina, 5

Free and open to the public.

This lecture is part of a series of five talks on ‘Material Environments’, hosted jointly by the American Academy in Rome and the British School at Rome during the 2025–26 academic year. Through these lectures, speakers present new research on the environments of ancient and post-Classical Rome and Italy, exploring how changing technologies of research provide new answers to questions about landscape, climate, and the past.

In this lecture, Michael McCormick will examine how environmental, digital, and genetic investigations are reshaping our understanding of the Roman Empire. Drawing on advances in archaeology, epigraphy, papyrology, and numismatics, the talk considers how the emerging “Science of the Human Past” is generating new knowledge about ancient people, their experiences, and their environments.

Michael McCormick is Francis Goelet Professor of Medieval History and Chair of Science of the Human Past at Harvard University. He will deliver the Patricia H. Labalme Friends of the Library Lecture.

TOMORROW, MAY 12
LECTURE/CONVERSATION
Subhankar Banerjee and Cristiana Franco – Birds in Peril Across Centuries

Tuesday, May 12, 6:00 pm
Via Angelo Masina, 5

Free and open to the public.

Birds have long moved between worlds—myth and migration, companionship and extraction, survival and disappearance.

Organized alongside ‘Flight Paths’, this conversation brings together environmental humanist Subhankar Banerjee and classicist Cristiana Franco to reflect on the presence of birds across time, from the ancient Mediterranean to the fragile ecologies of the present.
Beginning in the Faroe Islands and extending across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, Banerjee’s lecture traces histories of ecological destruction alongside forms of resistance, restoration, and cultural renewal shaped by local communities. Franco’s presentation follows the circulation of the Indian parakeet in the ancient world, examining how the movement of species transformed relationships between humans and birds in the Mediterranean.

Together, the talks open a space to think about coexistence, displacement, memory, and the futures of more-than-human worlds.

The exhibition will be open from 5:00-8:00 in this special occasion.

The 61st Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte – La Biennale di Venezia ( ) opens under In Minor Keys, carrying forward the vision of Koyo Kouoh across the Giardini and Arsenale, while collateral events unfold throughout the island.

Through the lens of the Academy, this reveals a constellation of practices connected through shared experiences of residence, research, friendship and international exchange in Italy –simultaneous and across time– generating collaborations and projects, some of them now reappearing in Venice.

In the main exhibition, Laurie Anderson ( ), Wangechi Mutu ( ), Gala Porras-Kim ( ), and Khaled Sabsabi ( ) appear across key sections and national contexts.

National Pavilions include Yto Barrada ( ) for France ( ) and a double appearance of Khaled Sabsabi for Australia ( .australia ), while the Italian Pavilion features Con te con tutto by Chiara Camoni (.camoni ), developed in dialogue with Cecilia Canziani ( ).

Collateral exhibitions extend across the city: Monia Ben Hamouda (.benhamouda.studio ) at Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana with Fondazione Bvlgary ( ), Amy Revier ( ) at CASA YALI ( ), Francesco Urbano Ragazzi ( ) at Ca’ Foscari University ( ), and Ieva Lygnugarytė ( ) with Meral Karacaoğlan ( ) with contributions by Oswald Huýnh ( ) at Oratorio dei Crociferi in collaboration with the Lithuanian Culture Institute ( ).

Special mentions include programs with Jenny Lin ( ) and Claire Dillon ( ), and extended connections such as Walid Raad, Lorna Simpson, Joseph Kosuth, and Michelangelo Pistoletto.

Read the full article at the link in bio and follow our stories throughout the week for coverage of many of the featured events.

Photo captions in comments.