As our building is closed until April 3 as required by Italy’s stay-at-home mandate to lessen the spread of the coronavirus, it’s a reminder that the Siena Art Institute is not just a place or structure: more than anything it is a community of people brought together by their shared passion for interdisciplinary learning, creativity, and culture.
The Siena Art Institute’s young international artists and our instructors continue working remotely for our various courses: we are “meeting” through video-conferencing to provide feedback on ongoing projects & to provide moral support as well as we all work together to move forward in creative ways amidst these challenging circumstances.

Below is a list of some of the references we’ve been discussing this week in the context of our Art & Society course:

• Dan Chiasson, “The Pandemic is Remaking What Performance Can Be”   https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-pandemic-is-remaking-what-performance-can-be
• Stephen Greenblatt, “Invisible Bullets: What Lucretious Taught Us About Pandemics” https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/invisible-bullets-what-lucretius-taught-us-about-pandemics
• Jody Rosen, “During the Coronavirus Outbreak the Urge to Touch Ones Face is Stronger than Ever” https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/during-the-coronavirus-outbreak-the-urge-to-touch-ones-face-is-stronger-than-ever
• Bill McKibben,”With the Coronavirus Hell is No Other People” https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/with-the-coronavirus-hell-is-no-other-people)
• David Remnick, “The Ripple Effects of a Pandemic” https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/political-scene/the-ripple-effects-of-a-pandemic
• Interview from 2017 with Rebecca Solnit “Falling Together” https://onbeing.org/programs/rebecca-solnit-falling-together-dec2017/?fbclid=IwAR1bXQKLqip91lxKKOjyvtE0FuzTvd25gVocnIpDTQkWvbT_6eFT48DsAE8
• Article from 2016 by Rebecca Solnit for the Guardian “‘Hope is an embrace of the unknown’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jul/15/rebecca-solnit-hope-in-the-dark-new-essay-embrace-unknown
• Excerpts from the 2013 Strozzina exhibition “Unstable Territory” , online exhibition materials an be found at http://www.strozzina.org/en/exhibitions/territori-instabili/
• Online materials from the 2007 Papesse exhibition “System Errors” addressing war conflict but with metaphors that are far-reaching (materials in both English and Italian) https://www.radiopapesse.org/en/audioguides/system-error