Eighteen students from some of the most troubled schools in New York, Los Angeles and Detroit will come to Florence for a study holiday.
Organized by the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation USA, the Palazzo Strozzi High School Renaissance Award, now in its fifth year, will bring students to Florence for four weeks. They will study at Villa La Pietra, the New York University campus in the Florentine hills, and visit places linked to the Renaissance in Tuscany, Venice, Milan and Rome.
The New York-based winners were announced during an event at Giovanni Rana Pastificio & Cucina at Manhattan’s Chelsea Market. At the event, chancellor of New York City education, Carmen Fariña, commented, ‘What Palazzo Strozzi does for these kids, the opportunity to study humanism and the Renaissance in Italy becomes an occasion that may change the lives of these students.’
Consul general of Italy in New York, Natalia Quintavalle, who is nearing the end of her mandate, added, ‘Palazzo Strozzi reminds us about an important part of our cultural heritage, which is also a fundamental tool in inspiring and inviting Americans to study the Italian language, to travel to Italy and to invest in our country.’
To win the award, students wrote essays in partnership with the education departments of New York, Los Angeles and Detroit. Topics were chosen with the help of a committee formed, among others, by David Freedberg, director of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University, and Stefano Albertini, Italian professor at NYU and director of Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò.
