La Romita 2020: Season Cancelled
Due to increasing concerns surrounding the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the World Health Organization and US CDC recommendation to postpone travel to and from Italy, we have had to cancel our 2020 season. La Romita has been a center of creativity, community, and family for centuries. For over 50 years, we have offered that space to students and teachers, friends and families, and the...
La Romita Letters – February 2020
A continuation in our series of Letters from the Board. This month: Mike Wenger who joined the Board in 2014 and is serving his second term.La Romita Letters - February 2020 from Mike WengerHow shall I follow Ben’s lovely, informative reminiscence of La Romita? My experience at La Romita pales in comparison. He’s lived there on and off for over 50 years and has seen the school grow from an...
La Romita 1972 – Photos from CU Denver and K State
We received this fantastic collection of photos from Edward Golberg - some time ago, actually, but we thought they made a great follow-up to last month's newsletter. They're from the 6 week session he attended in the summer of 1972, a joint group from University of Colorado and Kansas State University. Take a quick scroll, see what's different and what's still the same!
La Romita Letters – January 2020
Continuing our "Letters from the Board" series, this month we hear from Ben Benson, husband of founder Enza Quargnali, who is currently serving as President. His letter is a fantastic slice of the early history and origins of La Romita. La Romita Letters - January 2020 from Harold "Ben" Benson As one of the few people who has been connected to La Romita since the school was founded 53 years...
La Romita Letters – December 2019
Many of you reading this have been to La Romita, have met Edmund, Valerio, Ivo, Raniero, Silvana, Egizia and Franca, Tracy, and all the others who make up our staff. We cannot overstate our appreciation for their dedication and commitment to making every student's experience at La Romita special, but you may not be aware of a larger circle of people who donate their time, energy, and expertise...
Scholarship Recipient: Cheri Burke ’19
Cheri Burke 2019 Dolores Levin Memorial Scholarship Cheri was awarded a Delores Levin Memorial Scholarship to attend a workshop with Mark Eanes at La Romita. As a public school art teacher (Clymer Central School) in a rural farming community and a mother of two children in college, this experience was far outside her current financial reach. Since her return, she has been using the techniques...
Support our Scholarships 2019
Support our Scholarships Those of you who have been to La Romita understand that the experience is much more than day-trips and delicious meals - it changes lives. Many of our scholarship winners have used the experience to make noteworthy contributions to La Romita’s own community and the greater creative community. Scholarships are not just a way to change someone else’s life, but a way to...
Giving Thanks to Delores Levin
Giving Thanks to Delores Levin Edmund Zimmerman first met Dee in person in 2003 at the San Rafael studio of artist Kay Russell at an open house for Kay's upcoming La Romita workshop. Edmund recalls Dee as "flamboyant and enthusiastic", and her first visit to La Romita cemented her as a friend. She was warm and kind, and many have shared stories of the ways she gave to those around her, most...
How to Support La Romita and our Community
La Romita School is a 501.c.3 non-profit dedicated to cultural exchange through artistic exploration. Most of our activities are funded through program services, but donations allow us to extend those activities, through scholarships, to some who might otherwise not be able to contribute to our community. Here are the ways you can contribute.
La Romita’s Scholarship Committee
An Introduction to La Romita's Scholarship Committee a letter from Joanna Quargnali-Linsley I remember a gray winter day in Albuquerque, New Mexico sitting with Paola Quargnali. She was telling me about her beloved La Romita. She spoke of lush gardens, and quiet afternoons. She told me of simple, fresh and delicious food. But most of all, she told me about her love for Italy and the...
Scholarship Recipient: Brandy Noody ’18
Brandy Noody 2018 Dolores Levin Memorial Scholarship Brandy Noody was awarded a Delores Levin Memorial Scholarship in 2018 to attend Debra Bonsack’s workshop. After a great experience, Brandy took her new inspiration and knowledge back to her classroom, and also to fellow art teachers in New York State. Brandy was honored with the NYSATA Region 1 Art Educator of the Year Award. In 2020, Brandy...
Elizabeth Agans: The Rhythm of Things
The Rhythm of Things The cypress trees in Italy are slow metronomes keeping time with the wind—reaching for the hand of a new lover, always retreating back to proper posture. Backward steps. Repeat. Two weeks—travelers tattooed by different guns, with the same ink. The decay of life—inverted. Here, flesh comes after bone. The olive trees have started to blossom. The mulberry tree,...
Elizabeth Agans: New Perfume
New Perfume I can feel the pinch of the stiletto patent leather black shining, bouncing the light from streetlamps into shapes— each step melting. Sultry. Cigarette smoke sexy, nobody minds the plume. The tapping of heels on dark, squared sidewalks— Rome at midnight. It feels like rolling a peppermint on my tongue, the soothing of sandpaper. Cool now—painted lips closed, body heat...
Scholarship Recipient: Elizabeth Agans ’18
Elizabeth Agans - 2018 General Scholarship Winner Elizabeth Agans was the recipient of a General Scholarship in 2018. After her workshop, she sent us the following. We are moved by the story not only of how she was able to join us a second time, but how her experiences with us seem to have shaped and helped her. We hope you are too. In her words: I grew up (mostly) in Phoenix, and...
Notes from Edmund: BSU 2019
Notes from Edmund: Ball State University 2019 La Romita has had a collaboration with the Fine Arts department of Ball State University in Indiana for decades. As part of a credit program in painting and art history, the college students visit Venice, Ravenna, Florence, Siena, and Rome. They then spend two weeks at La Romita to visit the central Italian wonders and to take advantage of our...
Notes from Edmund: Ming Franz 2019
Notes from Edmund: Ming Franz' 2019 Workshop On May first La Romita kicked off the season with a group of painters led by Ming Franz. Ming is an expert and experimenter in the field of “splash painting”. The foundation of this method of painting can be found in principles originating in the Tan Dynasty of China with a technique known as Po Mo. Po Mo is a traditional approach to Chinese...
Notes from Edmund: The Freed Angel
La Romita has kicked off its 2018 season with a poetry retreat led by Kim Addonizio. Kim, the author of six poetry collections, two novels and two collections of short fiction, has received numerous awards for her work, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Pushcart Prize, and the John Ciardi Lifetime Achievement Award. Her poetry is...
Notes from Edmund: A Sweet Start to 2018
This year the act of preparing La Romita for the season after a cold, wet winter was smoother than usual. The buildings are nearly 500 years old and post-winter maintenance can be daunting. Before last season began the water pipes connected to our roof-top solar water-heating panels burst in a deep freeze. Unusual seepages and ghost-like power failures are to be expected as we dust off...
Resident: Carlo Matos
This past summer (2016) La Romita piloted its first ever Residency with the willing cooperation of Carlo Matos, writer & poet. Carlo spent a productive week camped out on the veranda overlooking the pass to Spoleto and allowed us to interview him about the experience. You have been to many residencies, what did you like most about your overall experience at La Romita? The grounds...
Daryl Urig – Read his Article in Leisure Painter!
Award-winning artist Daryl Urig’s article “How to Paint with a Knife- A Beginner’s Guide“ was recently published in Painter’s Online, the website for Leisure Painter and The Artist magazines. This step-by-step guide to applying oil paint to canvas and manipulating it with a knife includes many pictures and practical tips – for example, Daryl doesn’t just show you how to do this, he explains...
