University of Arkansas Rome Center 30th Anniversary Celebrated With Events Sept. 21

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The University of Arkansas Rome Center is located in the Palazzo Taverna, in the heart of Rome.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design and the Graduate School and International Education at the University of Arkansas will honor 30 years of international programs at the University of Arkansas Rome Center with events from noon to 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21, in Vol Walker Hall.

Davide Vitali, professor and director of the U of A Rome Center, will lead the panel discussion "Rome: Past, Present, Future" at 2:30 p.m. He will offer the context of the Rome Center's history and the prospect of new ideas that it stimulates. Ethel Goodstein-Murphree, associate dean and professor of architecture in the Fay Jones School, will moderate the following panel discussion with students and faculty from all three of the Fay Jones School programs.

This discussion will be organized around topics that both draw from Vitale's remarks and probe the presence of the Roman past and the current state of affairs (architecture, social, political, etc.) in Italy, as a global gateway with regard to their potential influence on contemporary learning, practice and research.

Panelists will include:

• Carl Matthews, head and professor, Department of Interior Design
• Kim Sexton, associate professor, Department of Architecture
• Carl Smith, associate professor, Department of Landscape Architecture
• Erin Cox, fifth-year student, Department of Landscape Architecture
• David Sweere, fifth-year student, Department of Architecture
• Abbey Redmon, fifth-year student, Department of Interior Design

"Not many schools can say their students have been able to trace the paths of ancient Romans as they walk to class each day," said Kim Needy, dean of the Graduate School and International Education. "Ours have been doing it for 30 years at the Rome Center, broadening their cultural competencies and increasing the international footprint of Arkansas."

Other celebratory events planned for Friday include an opening at noon of the exhibition "Travel Sketches of Rome." Laura Terry, associate professor of architecture in the Fay Jones School, has curated selections contributed by faculty, students and alumni.

Andrew Saunders will present the opening lecture, "Baroque Topologies," at 1 p.m. in Ken and Linda Sue Shollmier Hall. Saunders is an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design and an alumnus of the Fay Jones School.

Mark Robbins will present the closing lecture, "An Education in Rome," at 4 p.m., also in Ken and Linda Sue Shollmier Hall. Robbins is president of the American Academy in Rome.

"The Fay Jones School, together with the GSIE, is pleased to organize this superb day of events — celebrating the 30 years that the University of Arkansas has had a presence in the Eternal City," said Peter MacKeith, dean of the Fay Jones School. "The Rome Center, under the direction of professor Davide Vitali — through multiple programs in architecture, landscape architecture, interior design and now other disciplines — has had a transformative effect upon a generation of Fay Jones School students and faculty. We're especially pleased to welcome our alumnus Andrew Saunders, now on faculty at PennDesign — whose design work essentially began through his Rome experience — and Mark Robbins, the president of the American Academy in Rome, which is the true model for all American educational enterprises in Rome."

A closing reception will be held at 5 p.m.

All events are free and open to the public.

For more information, contact the Fay Jones School at 479-575-4945.