After a five-year hiatus, the Newport Symposium returns this year – not once, but twice.
The one-day “Newport ‘Piccolo Simposio’: Italian Influence in Newport” will be held on Thursday, April 3, at Rosecliff. A second 2025 Newport Symposium, “The French Influence in Newport,” will take place Nov. 6-8 at Rosecliff and Marble House.
“Ever since the Symposium had to be canceled in 2020 because of the COVID pandemic, we have been looking forward to bringing it back,” said Trudy Coxe, CEO and Executive Director of The Preservation Society of Newport County, which organizes and hosts the Newport Symposium. “This is a tradition that goes back more than 30 years, and we are committed to keeping it going.”
“Piccolo Simposio” (Italian for “little symposium”) on April 3 will be a daylong immersion into Italian art and design in Gilded Age Newport, and their continuing influence today. From Chateau-sur-Mer to The Elms to The Breakers and beyond, the Gilded Age elite were enamored with Italian or Italian-inspired architecture, interiors, landscapes and art. A lineup of experts will examine this many-faceted topic, including:
• Keynote Speaker Nathaniel Silver, Associate Director and Chief Curator at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
• Catherine Hess, Former Curator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Getty Museum and former Chief Curator of European Art at The Huntington Museum.
• Sarah Cartwright, Chief Curator and Ulla R. Searing Curator of Collections at The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art.
• Charles Birnbaum, President + CEO, The Cultural Landscape Foundation.
• Remy Renzullo, Interior Decorator and Antiques Adviser.
“Piccolo Simposio” also will include tours of The Breakers, Chateau-sur-Mer and The Elms.
The event will be from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., followed by a reception at Rosecliff from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
Scholarships are available, with an application deadline of Feb. 28. Go to www.newportmansions.org/events/piccolo-simposio to learn more and register.
Details of the November Newport Symposium will be released at a future date.
The Newport Symposium was initiated in 1993 as a forum for the study and discussion of a diverse range of arts and historical issues. The last Newport Symposium, the 27th annual, was in 2019: “Travels Across America: Art, Nature, and the Pursuit of Beauty.”
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