SACI MFA 1st Year Virtual Exhibition Catalog 2020

STUDIO ARTS COLLEGE INTERNATIONAL MFA First Year Virtual Exhibition Catalog

April 2020

Lindsey Campbell, Joseph Cimino, Eric Frey, Bridget Hannah, Arais Meteyard, Melissa Morris, Rudransh Nagi, David Neal, Alexander Peters, Marie-France Robichaud, Emily Wisniewski

Introduction

At the beginning of the academic year, none of us could have anticipated the challenges we would all face with the COVID-19 and the global pandemic. These 11 graduate students were new to Italy, having just moved here 8 months prior when this crisis hit in the middle of their second semester. It has been singularly impressive to watch how this group has faced the situation with resilience, openness, creativity, and integrity. They took what could have been a disheartening loss of their studios and nimbly refocused their artistic research into their homes under quarantine, both refining their core conceptual concerns as well as exploring new ways and approaches to manifesting them. What could have been a closure, became an opening. It is this spirit that is fundamental for artists, photographers, and designers and their creative practice today.

Due to COVID-19, these students were unable to install their group exhibition on-site in Florence in March. This online catalog is a testament to what they have done this year for the world to see.

Kirsten Stromberg MFA in Studio Art Program Director

Romeo Di Loreto MFA in Photography Program Co- Director

Jacopo Santini MFA in Photography Program Co- Director

Camilla Torna MFA in Communication Design Program Director

Regan Wheat Graduate Program Coordinator

Studio Arts College International

Master of Fine Art Programs

SACI’s community of MFA students works in a creative environment of rigorous critical and technical inquiry utilizing the unique artistic and cultural resources of Florence, Italy to prepare students for careers as artists and college instructors. For a duration of two years, students live and work in the city that, during the Renaissance, revolutionized art and has since served as an inspiration and catalyst for generations of artists.

By exploiting fully the advantages available to emerging artists through advanced study in Florence, SACI MFA students can become highly competitive when seeking an artistic professional career and university level teaching positions. Throughout their lives, they will be able to realize work reflecting their unique experience and deep understanding of Italian art and the nature of the artist’s role in society.

VIRTUAL EXHIBITION This catalog is digitally published as an end of first year selection of student work at the graduate level. Although the physical exhibition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 global health crisis, this online catalog features the current projects of graduate students in the MFA in Studio Art, MFA in Photography, and MFA in Communication Design programs at Studio Arts College International (SACI) in Florence, Italy.

Studio Arts College International - Palazzo dei Cartelloni, Via Sant’Antonino, 11 50123 Florence, Italy info@saci-florence.edu www.saci-florence.edu

Copyright © 2020 Studio Arts College International, SACI Press. All rights reserved.