2017 Rome Prize Now Accepting Applicants

2017 Rome Prize Now Accepting Applicants

Website: http://www.aarome.org/apply/rome-prize/application

 Rome, Italy, Unknown

Each year, the Rome Prize is awarded to about thirty emerging artists and scholars who represent the highest standard of excellence and who are in the early or middle stages of their working lives.

Fellows are chosen from the following disciplines:

  • Architecture
  • Design
  • Historic Preservation and Conservation
  • Landscape Architecture
  • Literature (awarded only by nomination through the American Academy of Arts and Letters)
  • Music Composition
  • Visual Arts
  • Ancient Studies
  • Medieval Studies
  • Renaissance and Early Modern Studies
  • Modern Italian Studies

Rome Prize recipients are generally invited to Rome for eleven months (some design fellowships are six months and some pre-doctoral art history fellowships are two years).

The Rome Prize consists of room and board, a stipend and separate work space, and privileged access to Rome.  Winners of 6-month and 11-month fellowships receive stipends of $16,000 and $28,000, respectively. Winners of the 2 year fellowships receive $28,000 annually.  Applicants are required to pay for their own travel to Rome.

Rome Prize winners are the core of the Academy’s residential community, which also includes Affiliated Fellows, Residents and Visiting Artists and Visiting Scholars.

Owing to the fluctuating dollar/euro exchange rate and the high cost of living in Rome, the stipends offered may not cover all expenses. This is especially true for Rome Prize winners who come to Rome with families. The American Academy in Rome welcomes spouses/companions and children of Rome Prize winners. However, Fellows with families live in subsidized apartments for which they pay rent, and pay for meals of family members. Thus they often incur expenses that exceed the Fellow’s stipend, so those wishing to bring their families are advised to supplement their stipends with additional funds.

Rome Prize Winners may not hold a full-time job during the fellowship term.  Winners may undertake part-time work commitments (including scholarly or artistic work that is not related to the Rome Prize project), provided that this work does not interfere with the Winner’s full participation in the Academy community.

Eleven-month fellowships generally begin at the Academy in early-September and end at the beginning of August. Winners of six-month fellowships may choose to begin in early-September and end in early-March or begin in January and end in July.

Eligibility:  Applicants for all Rome Prize fellowships, except those applying for the National Endowment for the Humanities post-doctoral fellowship, must be United States citizens at the time of the application.  Previous winners of the Rome Prize are not eligible to re-apply.  Undergraduate students are not eligible for Rome Prize fellowships. Collaborators may submit joint applications provided their work is genuinely collaborative, as demonstrated by the materials submitted. In the case of joint applications, each individual must meet all eligibility requirements. Joint applications must be submitted in one package. Joint applicants selected as winners will share one prize (i.e. room and board, the stipend and work space). Speaking Italian is not required for application to the Rome Prize. However, if you receive the Rome Prize, life in Rome will be much simpler if you come to Italy with at least the basics of the language. The Academy provides a subsidized intensive Italian course to Rome Prize Winners shortly after their arrival.

In order to facilitate cross-disciplinary work and the dissemination of scholarly and artistic production during a fellow’s residency, project funding is available to Rome Prize Winners. Projects will be considered that involve collaborative work between Academy Fellows, members of other national Academies, and/or cultural and academic institutions in Rome. This work should take place during the Fellowship year and may take the form of publications, symposia, exhibitions, site-specific projects or any project with a public component. A limited number of projects will be funded in amounts of up to $5,000 each.

Application Fee:  Applications submitted and/or postmarked on or before 1 November require a $30 application fee. Applications submitted and/or postmarked from 1 November through 15 November require a $60 application fee. Applicants applying in more than one field, whose application is postmarked on or before 1 November, must submit a $40 application fee. Applicants applying in more than one field, whose application is postmarked from 2 November through 15 November, must submit a $75 application fee.

SELECTION PROCESS

Eight juries, representing a broad cross-section of excellence in the various disciplines, are appointed annually to judge the candidate pool. The juries convene from January through March and finalists are expected to come to the Academy office in New York for interviews. The winners are announced by the Academy Board of Trustees in mid April.

The jurors’ primary criterion is excellence. Jurors consider the quality of the applicant’s submission and select candidates who are outstanding in their respective fields, and at a point where the Rome Prize is likely to be crucial to their future growth and development.

In the case of scholars, preference will be given to applicants for whom research time in Italy, and especially in the city of Rome, is essential, and who have not had extensive prior experience there. For artists, a demonstration of a need to be in Rome, or Italy, is NOT necessary. However jurors tend to respond positively to proposals of projects that would clearly benefit from time in Rome, Italy, and/or Europe.

All other factors being equal, preference will be given to those applicants who have not had extensive prior experience living, studying, and/or working in Rome.

Current Rome Prize fellows are listed here:  http://www.aarome.org/people/current/rome-prize-fellows