The American Institute For Roman Culture (AIRC) is a non-profit organization. The AIRC has classrooms in Naples, Florida, United States, and Rome, Italy, providing students education in

Italian history The history of Italy covers the ancient period, the Middle Ages, and the modern era. Since classical antiquity, ancient Etruscans, various Italic peoples (such as the Latins, Samnites, and Umbri), Celts, ''Magna Graecia'' colonists, and other an ...

and contemporary

Italian culture Italy is considered one of the birthplaces of Western civilization and a cultural superpower. Italian culture is the culture of the Italians, a Romance ethnic group, and is incredibly diverse spanning the entirety of the Italian peninsula ...

Organization history

The American Institute for Roman Culture was founded in 2002 by

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

Darius Arya and architect Tom Rankin. The organization is a non-profit

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

founded in Massachusetts. In 2003, AIRC inaugurated its first project, the Post Aedem Castoris

excavation Excavation may refer to: * Excavation (archaeology) * Excavation (medicine) * ''Excavation'' (The Haxan Cloak album), 2013 * ''Excavation'' (Ben Monder album), 2000 * ''Excavation'' (novel), a 2000 novel by James Rollins * '' Excavation: A Memo ...

in the

Roman Forum The Roman Forum, also known by its Latin name Forum Romanum ( it, Foro Romano), is a rectangular forum (plaza) surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient ...

led by Drs. Jennifer Trimble (

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

) and Andrew Wilson ( Oxford University). By its third and final season in 2005, AIRC students counted for 1/3 of the summer field school's participants. The success of the collaboration led to two AIRC-organized, semester-long architecture programs with

California Polytechnic State University California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (California Polytechnic State University, Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata, California or California State Polytechnic Univ ...

and

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

. From 2007 until 2011, AIRC hosted a semester-long

classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

program and "Maymester" program with the

College of the Holy Cross The College of the Holy Cross is a private, Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, about 40 miles (64 km) west of Boston. Founded in 1843, Holy Cross is the oldest Catholic college in New England and one of the oldest ...

. Arya has served as AIRC's

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

/ Executive Director since spring 2008, acting as principal fundraiser and liaison with the

Italian Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture ( it, Ministero della Cultura - MiC) is the ministry of the Government of Italy in charge of national museums and the ''monuments historiques''. MiC's headquarters are located in the historic Collegio Romano Palace (via ...

Ancient Rome Live

Ancient Rome Live (ARL) is AIRC’s documentary film division that showcasing the culture of Ancient Rome. ARL produces original documentary films of cultural heritage sites in English, with the objective of exposing these sites to a wider audience than accessible through only the Italian language. Production experience began after Arya's appearances in several documentaries featured on History Channel and

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

, including 2011 a video documentary course in Rome with Northeastern University students. In 2011, Fasti Online, the main digital database of active archeological excavations in Italy, invited AIRC to produce video documentaries of participating sites. AIRC has filmed six documentaries at sites in Rome, including Palatine,

Oppian Hill The Oppian Hill (Latin, ''Oppius Mons''; it, Colle Oppio) is the southern spur of the Esquiline Hill, one of the Seven hills of Rome, Italy. It is separated from the Cispius on the north by the valley of the Suburra, and from the Caelian Hill ...

Sant'Omobono Sant'Omobono is a church in Rome at the foot of the Capitoline Hill in rione Ripa. It was built in the 15th century and called ''San Salvatore in Portico''. When the church was given to the "Università dei Sarti" (the association of tailors) in ...

, Gabii, San Marco, and

Pompeii Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...

. More than 35 other active projects have since requested documentation by the AIRC.

Study abroad programs

The AIRC offers study abroad programs for university students and scholars. Semester Signature Program - The AIRC offers a semester program that runs for 14 weeks with a one-week break, both in the fall and spring academic semesters. The program, entitled "History, Media, and Cultural Heritage", is open to university students and scholars from all majors, and consists of 3 core courses and a choice of 2 or 3 elective courses. The core courses are Rome: Layers of History, Discovering Italy, and Elementary Italian. *Elective courses offered: Communications and Journalism in Italy; Social Media, Video, and

Cultural Heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by soci ...

; Late Medieval to Baroque Art History; Environmental and Geological Sciences of Rome; The City of Rome in Television and Cinema; as well as Latin and Greek. *Summer Programs: The AIRC conducts a variety of short-term programs in a broad range of topic areas during the summer months: *Archaeology Field School Excavation Program: A six-week intensive program held in June–July with one week of specialized academic instruction by archaeologists and AIRC professors and five weeks of on-site field work. The program includes visits to major Roman museums and open-air sites to augment field studies and provide participants with a broader context of what life was like in ancient Rome. *Documentary Film Program: This program runs for four to five weeks, in which participants learn the basics of shooting, editing, and producing as they document a cultural heritage site in or around Rome, in need of increased awareness and conservation. *Living Latin Program: An intensive program with PhD level professors of Latin who impart grammar, syntax, and vocabulary through related readings of poetry and prose from various moments in Rome's history. Students also engage with Latin as a spoken language. Morning classroom teaching is followed by afternoon walks through the city, where students read ancient authors in the locations where history happened, as well as inscriptions in their original locations.

Special programs with affiliated Universities

*Documentary Film Program with Northeastern University - This program runs each summer for a four or five week session in which students from Northeastern University learn techniques of editing and production as they produce an actual documentary film based on a cultural heritage site of importance in Rome. In 2011, the students produced films on the historical port town of

Ostia Antica Ostia Antica ("Ancient Ostia") is a large archaeological site, close to the modern town of Ostia (Rome), Ostia, that is the location of the harbour city of ancient Rome, 25 kilometres (15 miles) southwest of Rome. "Ostia" (plur. of "ostium") is a ...

Sustainability/conservation projects

Conservation Project * Santa Maria Antiqua in the Forum Romanum *

Villa delle Vignacce Villa delle Vignacce, or the "Villa of the Vineyards", was one of the largest in the southern suburbs of ancient Rome, located on via Lemonia, in the Parco degli Acquedotti, or Aqueduct Park. Constructed in the 2nd century AD, and showing signs ...

excavation of a 2nd century bath house and discovery of statue of Marsyas *Villa Ravennati (2013-2017) excavation of early Christian tombs and discovery of mosaic floor The AIRC has been a participant in the funding of the important conservation of frescoes of the Santa Maria Antiqua Church in the Forum Romanum for the past five years.

Partnership with the Italian Ministry of Culture

The AIRC provides English language content translation for the Italian Ministry of Culture’s General Directorate of Management and Promotion of Cultural Heritage. This includes content for their social media platforms as well as the English-language version of the General Directorates' website. This partnership allows AIRC access to cultural heritage sites under the management and jurisdiction of the Italian Ministry of Culture, which helps AIRC to further its mission.

Annual "Unlisted" Conference

In 2011 the AIRC launched the "Unlisted" Conference. The conference is held each year in the spring, generally in March or April, for two days. Each participant presents and then submits an academic paper for the proceedings.

Sponsorship

The AIRC has been the recipient of numerous grants including an NEH grant, American Express Foundation grant for the

excavation, World Monument Fund (WMF) collaboration for Santa Maria project, anonymous angel grants, numerous donations from supporters in California, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Illinois, Massachusetts,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, Ohio, West Virginia and Georgia.

References

{{reflist, 2 Charities based in Massachusetts Foreign charities operating in Italy Organizations established in 2002 Non-profit organizations based in Florida 501(c)(3) organizations Italian-American culture Ancient Roman buildings and structures in Rome Archaeological sites in Lazio