The American Academy in Rome has announced the winners of the 2020-1 Rome Prize and Italian Fellowships. Selected from a pool of 1,031 applications from 46 US states and territories, including Puerto Rico and the District of Colombia, and 15 different countries, those selected consist of 22 American and two Italian artists and scholars. Each will receive a stipend, workspace, and room and board for four to seven months at the Academy's campus in Rome. 

Due to COVID-19, the residential Fellowships will begin in January 2021 and end in August. The Academy is also welcoming a new director: Avinoam Shalem, who was a 2016 Resident. Shalem will begin a three-year term in January with the Fellows. He is currently the Riggio Professor for the Arts of Islam in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University.

“We look forward to welcoming Avinoam and some of the world’s brightest artists and scholars to the Academy in January,” said Mark Robbins, AAR President and CEO in a statement. “Avinoam’s expansive and global scholarship will bring an exciting aspect to the season’s programming, which will focus thematically on The City.”  

Rome Prize winners represent eleven disciplines. For the area of architecture, Katy Barkan, a Lecturer in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA and David Serlin, an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at UC San Diego were chosen. A full list of 2020-21 Rome Prize winners can be found here.