The First World War broke upon the world without precedent. The tragedy involved not only human casualties but also the damage and destruction of cultural heritage, including works of art and architecture. This photographic exhibition illustrates the Italian people's struggle to protect their cultural patrimony from the ravages of war. Poignant images display efforts to sandbag and board up architectural and artistic treasures. Prompted by the destruction of World War I, the League of Nations created the International Museum Office to oversee the protection of material culture in the global community.

DATE: on view from April 10 to August 5, 2015
LOCATION: The President Woodrow Wilson House
MORE INFO & RSVP: click here 

LECTURE  - Fruit of the Ancient Vine - Evening Lecture by Piero Mastroberardino with Wine Tasting

Since Pompeii was the go-to vacation spot for the ancient Romans, you can be sure there were plenty of opportunities for imbibing some of the ancient varietals. Several millennia have passed since then, but a little bit of the world's cultural heritage has been reclaimed, through the careful, diligent research of Piero Mastroberardino, head of the Mastroberardino winery in Campania, Italy.

DATE: April 13, 2015 at 6:45PM
LOCATION: S. Dillon Ripley Center, Smithsonian Associates
MORE INFO & TICKETS: click here 

THEATER  - The Dante Session - A performance by KIT - Kairos Italy Theater

Dante Alighieri was a writer, a poet, a political figure and an innovative artist. During his time, he was famous, yet his true and wide fame came after his death. If you google his name, it is surprising how much you find and of what nature. Dante and the Divine Comedy has inspired the most different and sometime weird kind of things over the centuries. 

CELEBRATING THE 750TH ANNIVERSARY OF DANTE ALIGHIERI'S BIRTH

DATE: April 21, 2015 at 6:30PM
LOCATION: Embassy of Italy
MORE INFO & RSVP: click here 

OPERA - CINDERELLA IN WASHINGTON,DC (La Cenerentola)

Professor Barry Goldsmith - the architectural-travel historian whose specialty is recommending sites around the world missed by most tourists (and even missed by many natives) - will reveal his favorite seldom-visited sites in Italy's most popular tourist destinations. Sites you've probably walked right by many times without even knowing they're there.

Part of a series of events linked to Milan's EXPO 2015 "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life" [May - October 2015]

DATE: April 24, 2015 at 6:30PM
LOCATION: Embassy of Italy
MORE INFO & RSVP: click here 

LECTURE  - A Sustainable & Healthy Lifestyle: from Challenges to Innovations

To coincide with the 2015 Milano EXPO, "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life," the Georgetown University Italian Research Institute, in collaboration with the Embassy of Italy in Washington, D.C., is sponsoring a symposium addressing critical global and human issues from climate changes, population growth, health, and food production.

The speakers will discuss from historical, bio-medical, and socio-political perspectives the challenges inherent in sustaining a healthy lifestyle. Topics include climate changes, agricultural systems, energy resources, population growth, policies and innovative strategies that will require international and local support.

Part of a series of events linked to Milan's EXPO 2015 "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life" [May - October 2015]

DATE: April 27, 2015 at 5:30PM
LOCATION: Georgetown University
MORE INFO & RSVP: click here 

LECTURE  - Food | Art | Architecture: New Research on the Ancient Roman Symposium

Organized by the Muscarelle Museum of Art, this unprecedented selection of more than twenty-five masterpiece drawings by Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo from Italian museums is the first exhibition to explore Leonardo's philosophy of beauty as contrasted with his rival Michelangelo. Also featured will be Leonardo's renowned Codex on the Flight of Birds, containing a hidden self-portrait at age fifty-three, which has never previously been exhibited. 

DATE: on view until April 5, 2015
LOCATION: Muscarelle Museum of Art - Williamsburg, VA
MORE INFO & TICKETS: click here 

EXHIBITION - Picturing Mary: Woman, Mother, Idea

Picturing Mary: Woman, Mother, Idea explores the concept of womanhood represented by the Virgin Mary as well as the social and sacred functions her image has served through time. This landmark exhibition organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts brings together more than 60 Renaissance- and Baroque-era masterworks from the Vatican Museums, Uffizi Gallery, and other museums, churches, and private collections in Europe and the United States. 

DATE: on view until April 12, 2015
LOCATION: National Museum of Women in the Arts
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EXHIBITION - Tuscan Countess: Matilda of Canossa and the Medieval Origins of the Renaissance

The exhibition will highlight the legacy of Matilda of Canossa, which directly laid the economic, religious, legal and cultural foundations for the Renaissance in art and architecture that occurred in the centuries after her death.
Matilda's enduring place in history occurs in 1077 beside her ally Pope Gregory VII during the humiliation of the German king Henry IV at her castle of Canossa. 

DATE: on view until April 19, 2015
LOCATION: Muscarelle Museum of Art - Williamsburg, VA
MORE INFO & TICKETS: click here 

EXHIBITION - Piero di Cosimo: The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florence

The first major retrospective exhibition ever presented on the imaginative Italian Renaissance master Piero di Cosimo's paintings will premiere at the Gallery. Some 40 of the artist's most compelling paintings will be on view, including beguiling mythologies and religious works (some on loan from churches in Italy), as well as one of his greatest works, the Madonna and Child with Saints Elizabeth of Hungary, Catherine of Alexandria, Peter, and John the Evangelist with Angels from the Museo degli Innocenti, Florence.

DATE: on view until May 3, 2015
LOCATION: National Gallery of Art
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EXHIBITION - THE SYMPOSIUM: Artifacts Recovered by Guardia di Finanza

The wealth and quality of the cultural heritage that makes Italy an "Open Museum" comes with a grave responsibility to constantly defend and guard them. Old treasures, smuggled from Italy and recently recovered by Guardia di Finanza (a special police corps that reports directly to the Ministry of Economic and Financial Affairs), will be on display at the Embassy of Italy.

DATE: on view until May 15, 2015
LOCATION: Embassy of Italy
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PHOTOGRAPHY - Francesco Nonino: Selected Works

Francesco Nonino is one of few Italian photographers who was acquired both from the Library of Congress and from the Phillips Collection. He is proud to show, at the Embassy of Italy, some recent works from the two series: Come La Vergogna e Atmospheres. In this show he also includes some photos of his mom's hands making Italian pasta. It is an Homage to his Mom, to the old Italian tradition and to the upcoming EXPO 2015. This exhibit is presented by Susan Behrends Frank, Ph.D., Associate Curator for Research, Phillips Collection.

Part of a series of events linked to Milan's EXPO 2015 "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life" [May - October 2015]

DATE: on view until May 15, 2015
LOCATION: Embassy of Italy
MORE INFO: click here