The Actons Going Virtual

In response, our students and our readers are asked to send us a short story plus an image taking inspiration from the week’s feature, in subject-matter, materials, chronology, or free association. The best stories will be selected by the Collection Manager and the Villa La Pietra team and appear weekly on our website and Instagram account. The series of novelle will be our way of keeping in touch, until  the “brigade” scatters and Villa La Pietra re-opens its massive doors (just restored!). The series will also remain on our website as a memory of our resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic, a time when we have used culture and our imagination to feel vital despite forced physical isolation.

Francesca Baldry, Collection Manager for the Acton Collection
with the Team of Villa La Pietra

FOR YOUR STORY USE THIS LINK

WATER

Water is Yin – by Claudia Beyer and Costanza Perrone da Zara, Textile Conservators at Villa La Pietra, NYU Florence

Water is the origin of life. It is energy and strength, and every culture has its own iconography and symbols. In the Chinese culture water is the fifth stage of Wu Xing, the five elements and is the most yin in character. Its motion is downward and inward, and its energy is stillness and conserving. (Continued here)….

HOPE

Hope is Spring – by Maggie Raywood, Associate Arts Professor/Costume Director,
Department of Design for Stage and Film, NYU Tisch School of the Arts

At this uncertain and unprecedented time, it has never been clearer to me why we equate Hope with spring, and how we are all looking to those words for solace right now. Just look at all of the ways we use the very word, spring … (Continued here)….

 

COINS

Keep the Change – by Jean Dommermuth, Consulting Conservator, Villa La Pietra and Lecturer, Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts

Coins are practical things. They were devised to facilitate trade, so that it was no longer necessary to find someone who wanted to trade you shoes for your eggs. But, like many useful objects, they are also art and history. Rulers want their faces on coins to proclaim … (Continued here)….

 

HOPE

How do Two Lines Diverge? Or When do They Convene Again? – by Dawson Batchelder, NYU Florence Student

Fearing a dissonance between memory and experience, I had no choice but to tread forward, unassured yet unlocked, drifting away in a pyre of smoke. How do two lines diverge? I walked down a dirt road long forgotten, aglow in a midsummer’s flare, under the pressure of a lazuli sky, buoyed, and weighted, by a feeling that nothing happens twice, no feeling felt again or again. … (Continued here)….

MEMORY

That Pointed Thing – by Javi Chavez, NYU Florence Student

It is kind of wild how a memory can trigger other memories. This Russian doll of memories that is your head, can lead to feelings of appreciation for what the eyes have been able to see. Looking through old pictures seems to trigger this effect for me almost every time. I was waiting for the rice to cook and I am shuffling through my pictures trying to find a screenshot of a meme. I stumbled upon a series of pictures at Villa la Pietra…. (Continued here)….

RESISTANCE

Let Your Heart be Light – by Jean Dommermuth, Consulting Conservator, Villa La Pietra and Lecturer, Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts

Today as I write this, it is December 13, St. Lucy’s Day and eight months since Francesca posted her story. Eight months and here we are.

Resistance: from the Latin sistere – “to stop,” as Lucy stopped the eight oxen. Sistere is considered a “reduplication” of the Latin stare – “to stand.” The Italian stare can be translated into English as “to stay,” but also – and this can be hard for English speakers – as “to be,” where and how you are. Where do you stand? … (Continued here)….

 

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Villa La Pietra adheres to the #museichiusimuseiaperti campaign with the hashtag #ActonsGoingVirtual. A new story or insights from the collection will appear regularly on our Villa La Pietra website and our Instagram account.