Garden of Culture: Calvino's Memos for the New Millennium.

Florence University of The Arts-The American University of Florence and SUNY Stony Brook 12^th  Annual Academic Conference program with speaker and panel lineups is now available.

The Conference will be held on December 1 and 2, 2023, from 9:30 am to 6:00 pm, in Florence, Italy.

Inaugural activities will take place at the Gabinetto Vieusseux, in the Sala Ferri at Palazzo Strozzi, at 9:30am (registration from 9:00-9:30am) on December 1. Featured speakers at the inauguration include:

• Franco Zabagli, Gabinetto Vieusseux
• Representative of the Regional Council of Tuscany
• Representative of the Florence City Council
• Carl W. Lejuez, Stony Brook University Executive Vice President and Provost

The Conference will carry on at Corso dei Tintori 21, starting with tlunch on December 1 and continue at this location until its end on December 2. Service, food and beverage for the entire conference will be provided in collaboration with students and faculty from the FUA-AUF Hospitality Department, Apicius International School of Hospitality.

2023 marks the centenary of the birth of Italo Calvino (1923-1985), and in commemoration, Florence University of The Arts-The American University of Florence will explore his personal, artistic, and cultural heritage, adopting, as always, an interdisciplinary academic approach.

Italo Calvino's perspective on literature and the role of intellectuals owes much to the writer's early connections with nature as a place of study and pleasure. Images of a devoted gardener and playful child come to mind immediately when exploring Calvino's attitude towards his own books, the books of others, and cultures as territories to observe, understand, enjoy, care for, and cultivate, so as to reap their fruits.

Our imaginary world has been shaped by Calvino's unforgettable characters, interacting with nature in surprising ways: Marcovaldo, searching for nature in the insidious contemporary city; the Baron in the Trees, with his carefree and revolutionary ecological battle; Pin, whose secret place in the woods is where spiders build their nests; Palomar's scientific standards through compulsive observation of nature...

Focusing on Calvino's literary legacy, particularly addressing the Six Memos for the Next Millennium (lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility, multiplicity, and consistency), "Gardens of Culture" will encourage participants to reflect on the various aspects of the word "culture" – from the Latin verb colere, meaning "to work, cultivate" – in cultivating human beings and the natural spaces that host them.

FUA- AUF  students will present a special panel as well as an art exhibit.

We are excited for the conference and hope to meet many of you there to experience it together!

To attend please contact conferences@fua-auf.it.

Download the complete program for detailed information.