This March, five out of six members of the Florence MA Class of 2000 gathered in Florence—many returning for the first time in over 20 years. The motivator for this reunion, originally planned for 2020 but postponed due to the pandemic, was alumna Lia Markey. Lia was inspired to invite her classmates to join her in Florence, where she is spending a few months this spring on research leave from her duties at Director of the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library in Chicago. She didn’t have to twist many arms, and she and the other members of her cohort spent a delightful week together sharing memories, visiting favorite art historical monuments, and reconnecting with former professors and colleagues.
A highlight of their visit was a brindisi at the Villa Rossa hosted by Florence Graduate Program coordinator Molly Bourne, who took the above photograph of the class of 2000 in the garden with their professors Ezio Buzzegoli, Rab Hatfield (retired), Diane Kunzelman, and Jonathan Nelson. Unfortunately, Lia was not able to attend due to the momentary illness of her pre-school daughter, so she, along with classmate Jenny Patten, who couldn’t come to Florence, are not pictured. The current MA class of 2023 also joined the event, and enjoyed hearing their predecessors reflect on how an extended period of immersive learning in Florence has impacted their lives both personally and professionally. We have excerpted some of their words here.
Lia Markey: “The Syracuse M.A. in Italian Renaissance Art in Florence instilled me with a passion for archival research that has inspired years of research. Training in the social history of art, conservation studies, museum studies, and paleography prepared me for a varied career as an interdisciplinary art historian, while the process of writing and presenting the symposium paper provided essential skills for lecturing and for teaching.
Thanks to the Syracuse MA in Florence, not only did I learn skills that would allow me to progress in the field of Renaissance studies, but I also met friends/colleagues that I would treasure throughout my life. Florence will always be a second home for me.”
Melanie Taylor (Director at Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Singapore): “The experience of being a teaching assistant was perhaps the most formative I had in my two years in Florence. Preparing for classes, especially the focus on how to communicate with students, and being able to stand physically in front of masterpieces discussing them, was a gift of time and pure joy. Nothing will replace time spent in the presence of frescoed walls in hidden side chapels or sculptures in the niches of Orsanmichele. The Florence program and professors have always understood how remarkable being in the presence of art and architecture, and all things Italian, is. I don’t think any other program strives in the same way to immerse students (all students, especially the undergrads) in Italian culture.”
Lisa Neal Tice (Instructor of art history at Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA): “The graduate program in Italian Renaissance Art at SU Florence was an invaluable experience, both personally and academically. The courses in conservation and restoration, museum studies, and archival research enriched my understanding of Renaissance art but perhaps most importantly, they were an introduction to diverse fields of study within art history that have impacted how I teach, research and study art history today. The faculty at SU Florence generously established many connections and opportunities for us throughout the city. On a personal note, I am grateful for the students with whom I shared these experiences, who are now both colleagues and friends. We studied and lived together in Florence and experienced academic successes and challenges, many travel adventures, many, many cappuccini, and created enduring friendships. I treasure my time at SU Florence and hope that students will continue to benefit from the incredible education and experiences the program has to offer.”
Julie Zappia McLean (Program Coordinator, Cornell University Society for the Humanities, Ithaca, NY): “The program immersed us in the world of the Renaissance: we learned directly from primary sources, interacted with on-site professionals, explored elective classes, and became residents of the incomparable city of Florence. I would attribute my experience as a TA for Syracuse’s undergrad courses to my successes as a museum educator. I learned to approach looking at original works of art from an interpreter’s perspective, to ask questions of my audience, to facilitate discussion, and to lead large groups of people through a space. I learned how to read my audience, that people have many varied opinions and responses to art, and how to engage almost any type of learner with art. After returning to the U.S., I held several positions in museum education at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Smith College Museum of Art, and the Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, before taking my current job, which welcomes fellows each year to study at our center and produce work in art history, literature, music, cultural studies, and many more humanities topics. The friendships I formed with our cohort have endured, as seen by our recent reunion. We hold each others’ memories of our special time in Florence, and I know we’ll never forget the many profound experiences we shared.”