06/27/2026
The first Italy Summer Program in Arezzo: Explorations in Art History and Historic Preservation is a success!
According to program faculty leader Dr. Ricardo De Mambro Santos: "Everything regarding the Summer Arezzo Program went beyond my highest expectations from an academic, scholarly, and experiential standpoint.
Along with daily lessons in Art History and Cultural Heritage, associated with a class of conversational Italian language brilliantly led by Prof. Alessandra Baroni, students had the unique opportunity to visit important art collections in Arezzo, Camaldoli, La Verna, Pisa, Florence, Monterchi, Sansepolcro, and Naples.
In many of those visits, students were welcomed and even guided by the very directors of those prestigious institutions. Additionally, thanks to our connections in those cities, students had access to facilities and areas of services which are usually not open to public audiences. This was the case of the Archives of Casa Vasari, in which we could see original letters by Michelangelo and Giorgio Vasari, with breathtaking drawings, or the visit at the historical library at the monastery of Camaldoli and the Chapel of the Artists at the Church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence, where are buried masters of the caliber of Benvenuto Cellini and Jacopo Pontormo.
From a scholarly standpoint, students were exposed to constant conversations on relevant art historical discourses and offered first-hand workshops, during which they were introduced to state-of-the-art methods of restoration, including a very stimulating laboratory of fresco making procedures, with each student undertaking all different stages related to 15th- and 16th-century practices of pictorial production. Not only had students gone through those complex creative processes, but also became increasingly familiar with concepts and theories connected with those productive endeavors.
Unforgettable and extremely enriching, the Arezzo Summer Program has reached all expected academic points and gone far beyond."
Thank you,Ricardo. Congratulations to this group on a successful summer program!
