It is with a mixture of gratitude and sorrow that La Romita announces Edmund Zimmerman’s retirement from his position as Director at the end of this season. For 25 years Edmund has been the face of La Romita – the first person to greet people as they arrived at La Romita, the last face they see as the bus pulls away on the last day, daily briefings, nightly previews, poems, stories – and his two jokes. We are thankful for the incomparable job he’s done, the blood and sweat he’s given, in an utterly unique situation for an utterly unique organization, and while his departure saddens us we rejoice in his opportunity to re-invest himself in his own art, his own study.
Before his joining La Romita, each and every La Romita workshop had been led by one or the other of her founders, Enza and Paola Quargnali. In 2000 Paola decided to step back for health reasons, and it was time to see if their dream could continue with someone else at the helm. When Edmund responded to the call, it seemed like finding a unicorn: an American expat journalist with strong ties to Italy, bilingual, intelligent, charismatic, and conscientious. Little did we know nor could we have anticipated how successfully Edmund would see La Romita through the next crucial decades.
While Enza and Ben continued to be of a constant presence at La Romita, the grand hosts of the school, it was Edmund who single-handedly ran the workshops, organized itineraries, oversaw the staff, and crucially sought the instructors and groups to bring to La Romita for each season.
Since taking the role, he’s run 230 workshops and hosted nearly 2500 participants – visual artists of diverse form and media. Watercolor, oil, acrylic, multimedia, urban sketch, plein air, printmaking, journaling. Poets! Blogging foodies! Photographers! – all coming to La Romita and each leaving their indelible mark on the place and the School.
In the brief pauses between workshops or the rare breaks in the season schedule, he has given rein to his journalistic curiosity, amassing a wealth of knowledge about the region’s art, language and culture, sharing this knowledge freely over dinners and aperitivos, bus-briefings, social media, and newsletters to the enrichment of all our guests.
He has helped La Romita through incredible changes without and within. The rise of technology and social media, changes to Italian systems, two “generations” of staff, the establishment of regular collaboration with Ball State University. He’s seen us through major blows like the loss of our founder Enza Quargnali in 2016 and the Pandemic in 2020, to the relatively small yearly crisis of wild boar incursions and bees in the springtime. All of this while living a split-life between his apartment at La Romita and his home in San Rafael.
We would be saddened if this just marked an end, but are instead happy and proud to see Edmund off to another chapter. He has plans that he will share soon to our alumni and friends, and he will always be welcome at the place that he has given so much to.
What’s next for La Romita?
Around 10 years ago Edmund brought his good friend, Valerio Belloni, into the fold and it is to Valerio we will turn to take on the heavy mantle of responsibilities in Italy. He has been Edmund’s right hand, assisting in the office, directly handling much of the Italian bureaucracy and attendant challenges of our day-to-day operations. Valerio is excited to take on the new role, and we are excited to see what his stewardship will bring.
In the U.S., the work of organizing the coming seasons, handling registrations, the Scholarship Program and our advancement activities will be handled by a mix of Board Members and volunteers, with Faith Humphrey Hill in the crucial administrative role.
