Posts in Art
Art Academies and Art Academy Schemes in Britain and Ireland, 1600-1770

Before (and after) the establishment of the Royal Academy in London in 1768, there were numerous individuals and associations that proposed or implemented plans to create academies for the arts in Britain and Ireland. Examples can be traced to at least the early seventeenth century. To date, there is no publication that pulls together a single list of academies and/or academy schemes in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Britain and Ireland. In the chart below, I bring together the manuscript and secondary literature to offer a timeline of schemes, proposals, recommendations, and attempts to establish academies for the arts in Britain and Ireland between 1600 and 1770.

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Exhibition: (New) Blueprints for Counter Education

I am happy to announce the exhibition (New) Blueprints for Counter Education, which I have curated as part of my work for the IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute. Featuring new work by Artur Silva, Lasana Kazembe, Jason M. Kelly, and Kara Taylor, the exhibition uses virtual reality, poster art, film, and music to consider our current moment—and the ways that the visual arts, philosophy, poetry, performance, and history equip us to both understand and respond to the challenges that we face.

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John Ruskin on the Tomb of Agostino Sanctucio at the Basilica of Santa Croce

These are a couple photos from the Basilica of S. Croce in Florence that I took while I was there in December. In addition to my Blue Guide, I brought along John Ruskin’s Mornings in Florence, which he published in 1875. Here is his description of the tomb of Agostino Sanctucio, which sits quite neatly with his chapter on the nature of the Gothic from Stones of Venice.

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