The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University continues to offer enlightening conversations and seminars designed to engage community members and avid lifelong learners. Their new virtual series, FESTA ITALIANA, was created in collaboration with the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, and the Italian Studies program, as a way to showcase the richness of Italian culture in literature, art, history, and food — from Renaissance to present day.

Community members are cordially invited to join in these free events, alongside students at all level of competency in Italian who will participate as part of the University’s language curriculum. As noted by Mary Ann Carolan, PhD, professor of modern languages and literature, and director of the Italian Studies program, “The varied offerings and topics in the FESTA ITALIANA offer us a unique opportunity to bring together the Italophiles in the greater Fairfield community with our undergraduates who are eager to explore the wealth of Italian culture. We encourage you to share with us the abundance of Italianità as we anticipate Italian American Heritage Month this October!”

All virtual events below are open to the public, free, and conducted in English! Registration is required at quickcenter.com.

“Forgotten Figures: Examining the African Presence in the Golden Age of Venetian Art”
Tuesday, Sept. 28 | 12 p.m.
In this Open MINDS Institute seminar, instructor Fiona Garland will take participants back to the Venice of 1500 — a dynamic, wealthy city at the crossroads of Europe and the Middle East.  Focusing on this era’s representations of Black Africans in a range of paintings, sculptures, drawings, books, and prints, she will introduce these forgotten figures and reveal how they impacted the visual landscape of the Golden Age of Venetian Art.

“The Renaissance of Italian Food”
Tuesday, Oct. 5 | 12:30 p.m.
Italy is defined by — and celebrated around the world — for its food. But what does food mean to Italians and how does it reflect, magnify, and shape their collective identity as italianità? In this Open MINDS Institute seminar, Sara Diaz, PhD, will explore references in Italian literature to spotlight some of the historical forces that have influenced Italy’s evolving culinary traditions.

“The Other Dome: Jewish Culture of the Italian Renaissance Between Paradigms and Paradoxes”
Wednesday, Oct. 13  | 7:30 p.m.
From music to architecture, Gabriel Mancuso, PhD, will visit and explore some of the most significant chapters in the history of the Jews in Renaissance Italy, from the time of Brunelleschi’s masterpiece to the Jewish “other dome.” This Open VISIONS Forum (OVF): Espresso lecture is presented in affiliation with the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies and the Judaic Studies Program.

“The Art of Translation”
Wednesday, Oct. 27 | 7:30 p.m.
In this OVF: Espresso lecture, renowned translator and Italophile Ann Goldstein will speak about her translations into English of important Italian works by Elena Ferrante (including the Neapolitan quartet and The Lying Life of Adults, Ferrante’s latest work), Primo Levi, Elsa Morante, Giacomo Leopardi, and Pier Paolo Pasolini.

“Fascist Style – Arts, Politics & Propaganda: From Italy 1922 to Global Dictatorships Today”
Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021 | 7:30 p.m.
With particular attention to the portraits of the Duce and the Führer that played a major part in the cult of their charismatic leaderships, in this OVF: Espresso lecture Luciano Cheles, PhD, will look at the visual propaganda of the Fascist and Nazi regimes, covering nearly 100 years since Benito Mussolini’s ‘Black Shirt March on Rome’ in October of 1922.

All FESTA ITALIANA events are free and require registration. For complete information about these and other programs at the Quick Center and Fairfield University, please visit quickcenter.com.