Each semester students and faculty collaborate in the curriculum to produce works of art and poetry that cross verbal and visual territories to reflect their encounter with this place.
Fitted into the surrounding landscape and perfectly located in Umbria on the central axis between Rome and Florence, Orvieto is an ideal location to quietly consider the significance of the past without being burdened by the weight of its influence.
It is customary for our vision to be heightened in the presence of the new and unfamiliar.
It is an invitation to participate.
What may be unfamiliar can become a threshold and convert heightened awareness into genuine insight.
In addition to our being rooted in Orvieto, our lecture halls are the piazzas of Rome, our auditoriums are the perfect geometric spaces of Florence and our devotional life is formed in places such as the olive groves of Assisi and beneath brilliant mosaics which shine no less today than a thousand years before.
Everyone is encouraged to respond to their surroundings as the context for making new work.
Everyone is equally encouraged to balance the silence and solitude of the semester with the rich possibilities of deep care and celebration in community.
Acknowledging the fact that Italy is layered with history is sufficient only if we take time to begin reading it. Therefore we make the effort to engage it through various means of understanding and interpretation.
Each course that is taught has to consider its reason for being here. Class is often outside in the spaces of the city, in the landscape or in the chapels decorated with frescoes. They are texts to be read and every time we explore these spaces we can see something new.
When we go out from Orvieto, our excursions must be specific to the subjects we are focused upon and must further the discussions that are at the heart of our intentions. They also allow us to see works of art from every period, from ancient murals to the recent Biennale exhibitions in Venice.
We come here to to slow down and focus,
to be together in a sustained dialogue,
to see, listen, and respond.
In everything that we hope to accomplish, it is essential that we give back and share our observations which come directly as a result of our having chosen to be fully present here.
At the conclusion of each semester we host an exhibition - a Mostra - of the artwork that was produced over the four months of the semester. It is our way to express gratitude and serves as a gesture of hospitality.