LSC 879 Visions of Italy: Culture in Twenty-First Century Rome and Florence
This course is an introduction to the management and operations of religious and other cultural archives, records, manuscripts, objects and collections. Serving as the political center of western civilization for centuries, Rome is home to a plethora of structures, artifacts, texts, and documents illuminative of the rich history of the city as well as the Italian peninsula from classical times to the present. Further north, Florence is home to materials reflective of the city's cultural centrality during the Renaissance. Through readings, site visits, and meetings with professionals, students will gain a basic knowledge of how Italian cultural professionals make museum, archival, and library resources known to various user groups. We will explore religious and other types of public programs, outreach strategies, and digital and physical exhibits, study the principles and practical elements involved in creating each, with site visits and instruction designed to reveal the ways the application of such principles occur in existing institutions and apply learning in their public programming.