The Vanessa Somers Art Project was established through a generous donation of the Honorable Frederick Vreeland, John Cabot University Trustee, for the purpose of promoting the arts at, and for, John Cabot University.
The Project is named in honor of Trustee Vreeland’s late wife, Vanessa Somers, a long-standing supporter of John Cabot University and an accomplished artist. The artistic engagement and academic curiosity that characterized Vanessa Somers, and the vivacity and color so integral to her work, will inform and inspire the activities of the Project.
The aim of the Vanessa Somers Art Project is to enable encounters with the arts and the art world for the University community. This may be through commissions, in curated shows, in lectures, and in events, and by establishing links with the international art world. The Project welcomes ideas and donations to sustain and develop ongoing and new projects.
The events of the Vanessa Somers Art Project are invitations to engage, they will foster creative thinking and establish professional relationships with a global arts industry, and they will promote John Cabot University as a community of ideas and excellence, a fitting center for the arts in Rome.
Director: Professor Inge Lyse Hansen
Coordinator: Jacqueline Falk Maggi
Founder: Frederick Vreeland
If you would like to be part of the Vanessa Somers Art Project and help sustain and develop ongoing and new projects, please contact [email protected].
On Reflection is the largest art installation ever shown at John Cabot University. Commissioned by the Vanessa Somers Art Project, the show displays works by the distinguished artist Roberto Caracciolo. These form three distinct artistic statements across the three campuses of Critelli, Tiber and Guarini. The works are not displayed in a traditional gallery format but in a synergetic relationship with the movement of students, faculty, staff, and visitors at each campus. In this way, each enhances the other: the experience of the works is inextricably linked to the experience of the space.
Assisting the student-led 4m2 Gallery to achieve its most ambitious show to date: a solo-show by the renowned British artist Geoff Uglow. The show Era di marzo // It was in March extends beyond the strict confines of the gallery spaces to create a vibrant and powerful visual experience. Specially selected for the 4m2 Gallery, the paintings resonate with the space and their exploration of the creative act, of making and seeing, parallels the academic research of the space.
Generously donated by the Honorable Frederick Vreeland, the work Untitled by Vanessa Somers is now on permanent display in the lobby of the Critelli Campus. The brushed copper frame is designed by Carlo Vigevano.
