Wake Forest University Venice: Casa Artom
Discover Venice at WFU Casa Artom
Explore the magnificent sights, narrow streets, canals, and piazzas of Venice, the city surrounded by water. Each semester, Wake students reside at Casa Artom, an historic site once home to the American Consulate located on the Grand Canal and flanked by the Peggy Guggenheim Art Museum and the charming 15th century home Ca'Dario. A WFU faculty member serves as resident professor and lives with the students while teaching and overseeing the academic program in a city that not only captures your attention with its beauty but also provides opportunities to attend cultural activities and festivals including Venice Biennale, Venice Film Festival, Regatta Storica on the Grand Canal, Carnevale, and the Festa della Madonna della Salute.Visit Program Homepage
Dates and Deadlines
| Term | Year | Application Deadline | Decision Date | Start Date | End Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring: WFU House | 2022 | 09/15/2021 | Rolling Admission* | TBD | TBD |
| Fall: WFU House | 2022 | 10/15/2021 | 10/15/2021 | TBD | TBD |
Program Description
Need Help? Get an advisor at 1-336-758-5938
Explore the magnificent sights, narrow streets, canals, and piazzas of Venice, the city surrounded by water. Each semester, Wake students reside at Casa Artom, an historic site once home to the American Consulate located on the Grand Canal and flanked by the Peggy Guggenheim Art Museum and the charming 15th century home Ca'Dario. A WFU faculty member serves as resident professor and lives with the students while teaching and overseeing the academic program in a city that not only captures your attention with its beauty but also provides opportunities to attend cultural activities and festivals including Venice Biennale, Venice Film Festival, Regatta Storica on the Grand Canal, Carnevale, and the Festa della Madonna della Salute.
Surrounded by water, Venice is an enchanting city built on 117 small islands. Its magnificent sights are best seen by walking along the narrow streets, crossing the many canals, and meandering through the piazzas. The Piazza di San Marco, Palazzo Ducale, and the Rialto bridge are three among numerous sites that make Venice an unforgettable city. In addition, Wake Forest students may conveniently explore other parts of Italy including Rome, Florence, Pompeii, and Sicily.
In 1971, the University, with the assistance of Graham Martin, Ambassador to Italy and Wake Forest alumnus, leased the building that formerly housed the American Consulate. In 1974, the building was purchased by Wake Forest and named Casa Artom in honor of Dr. Camillo Artom, a professor at the Baptist Medical Center until 1969. His wife, Bianca Ara Artom, taught Italian at Wake Forest for many years and served as the director of Casa Artom during the summers until her death in 1994.
Casa Artom is a magnificent two-story building facing the Grand Canal. It is flanked by the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, which houses the Peggy Guggenheim art collection, and the magnificent 15th century home Ca'Dario.
Click the following link for pictures of Casa Artom: Casa Artom Photographs.
In 1971, the University, with the assistance of Graham Martin, Ambassador to Italy and Wake Forest alumnus, leased the building that formerly housed the American Consulate. In 1974, the building was purchased by Wake Forest and named Casa Artom in honor of Dr. Camillo Artom, a professor at the Baptist Medical Center until 1969. His wife, Bianca Ara Artom, taught Italian at Wake Forest for many years and served as the director of Casa Artom during the summers until her death in 1994.
Casa Artom is a magnificent two-story building facing the Grand Canal. It is flanked by the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, which houses the Peggy Guggenheim art collection, and the magnificent 15th century home Ca'Dario.
Click the following link for pictures of Casa Artom: Casa Artom Photographs.
Each fall and spring semester, a group of Wake Forest students and a Resident Professor live and study together at Casa Artom. Many returning students cite the close relationships formed not only among students but also between students and the Resident Professor as a highlight of the program. All students take four courses taught in English and an Italian language course. While all classes are held at Casa Artom each professor sees the city of Venice as their classroom and often take the students out exploring. Local Italian professors teach language courses and courses within other disciplines including Art, History, and Literature. Local staff coordinate Venice Today, a 1.5 hour pass/fail course all students take. In addition, the Wake Forest Resident Professor teaches two courses from his/her discipline. Classes are scheduled Monday through Thursday, leaving a three-day weekend to explore Venice or travel to other destinations.
It is the student’s responsibility to speak to their major and minor advisor(s) regarding their abroad coursework and how (or if) it will count towards their degree plan.
Standard Courses
Italian Language (3h or 4h)
Beginning, Intermediate, or Advanced. (Prior study of Italian is not required.)
HMN 160 Venice Today (1.5h) (p/f)
Using Venice as the classroom, students will examine the history of the city, through its buildings, urban planning, arts, and artifacts.
An introduction to art music composed in Italy, with special emphasis on composers associated with Venice. Composers such as Vivaldi and Verdi are studied in light of the social and artistic context of their time. No previous study of music required.
HON 258 Honors Venice in Art and Literature (3h)
An exploration of what Venice has meant to nonnative artists, writers and musicians, and what they have made of it. A wide range of creative artists, including Shakespeare, Byron, Whistler, Sargent, Mendelssohn, Liszt will offer us multiple perspectives on Venice as source of inspiration.
Other possible courses offered will include two electives taught by local professors.
ART 269 Venetian Renaissance Art (3h) (D)
A survey of the art of the Venetian Renaissance, with slide lectures and museum visits.
HST 119 Venice and the World (3h) (CD, D)
Traces the role of Venice as an important cultural, military, and economic power from its founding in the 8th century to today.
Satisfies the Division I requirement or can be taken for History major credit.
Political theory asks: What is a good political community? We will explore and assess answers to this question by reading key texts of Italian political thought. Doing so, we will explore political traditions, including liberalism, realism, and socialism/Marxism. We will ask: According to these traditions, what is human nature and how is it relevant for politics? What reasons do we have for obeying the law? How should we understand liberty? And what kind and degree of equality should we strive for? Thinkers studied will include Niccolò Machiavelli, Antonio Negri, Antonio Gramsci, and Giorgio Agamben.
POL 281: Environmental Political Thought (3h)
Why should we preserve the wilderness, create national parks, concern ourselves with pollution? Answers to these questions depend on how we conceive the human relationship with the wider natural world. Do non-human entities have value in themselves, independent of human beings? Or are they valuable only because they are useful for human beings? Having considered these questions, we will turn to specific issues, in particular those related to Venice, such as sustainable development, consumerism, tourism, social justice, and climate change, asking how we should respond through social and individual action.
Other possible courses offered will include two electives taught by local professors.
ART 269 Venetian Renaissance Art (3h) (D)
A survey of the art of the Venetian Renaissance, with slide lectures and museum visits.
HST 119 Venice and the World (3h) (CD, D)
Traces the role of Venice as an important cultural, military, and economic power from its founding in the 8th century to today.
Satisfies the Division I requirement or can be taken for History major credit.
America in Italy: Art, Revolution, Modernity
For Nathaniel Hawthorne’s American artists in The Marble Faun, Italy promised a world of exquisite objects which seemed to stare back at their living viewers from the ancient past. For Margaret Fuller, the Italy of the Risorgimento promised a revolutionary future of radical equality and liberty unseen anywhere else in the 19th century. And for American writers of the early and high eras of Modernism, Italy promised privileged access to both the past and the future at once. In this course, we will read the works of American expatriate writers and travelers, to trace the stories of Americans who come to Italy searching for a particular experience of time –the ancient and Renaissance past, the modern future, an estrangement from the present.
While our readings will examine the central role that Italy played in the 19th- and 20th-century American literary imagination, our proximity to the destinations of these writers and characters will enable us to follow in their footsteps, examining the Italy of 19th-century travel guides alongside both the literary versions of these sites and their contemporary settings. Traveling to Rome’s Capitoline Museum to see the Dying Gaul just as Hawthorne’s American artists did, and touring Florence’s Uffizi Gallery along with Henry James’s Isabel Archer, we will consider the ways in which museums and guide books shape the experience of time and place for the tourist – even the tourist who (like Fuller, Melville, and Pound) went to Italy in search of the radically new. Requirements for this course will include reading, engaged participation, and about 20-25 pages of writing, including both literary analysis and an experiment in travel writing.
HST 102 Europe and the World in Modern Era (3h) (D)
Our current political moment has led many to inquire into the totalitarian societies that dominated much of Europe in the middle decades of the 20th century. With a special focus on the history of modern Italy, this course will investigate the long origins of these totalitarian regimes, whose roots extend at least to the beginning of the 18th century. We will first examine their nationalist origins within Europe and consider how these phenomena were shaped in part by encounters with those considered to be non-Europeans. We will then discuss Europe’s imperial expansion and examine its effects both in Europe and in colonized societies. Finally, we will explore the formation and practices of—as well as resistance to—the various totalitarian states that arose in the early 20th century. While doing so, you will be introduced to—and expected to demonstrate mastery of—the basic skills of historians. These include distinguishing between primary and secondary sources; identifying, analyzing, and forming historical arguments based upon correctly cited evidence; and understanding the interconnectedness of historical events. By the end of the course, you will have gained a sophisticated understanding of totalitarian societies in the twentieth century, their mechanisms of state violence, ethnic division, containment, and genocide, and learn why they failed.
Other possible courses offered will include two electives taught by local professors.
ART 269 Venetian Renaissance Art (3h) (D)
A survey of the art of the Venetian Renaissance, with slide lectures and museum visits.
ECN 271 The Political Economy of Italy (3H) (D)
Traces the role of Venice as an important cultural, military, and economic power from its founding in the 8th century to today.
Satisfies the Division IV requirement.
Students will learn the basic theories and techniques of public speaking, practicing speaking for various purposes and different contexts. Students will develop speeches on topics related to their time in Venice and the surrounding community. The students will research local topics, talk to residents, and connect to other classes, linking what they will be learning about language, culture, art, and life in Venice, to the public speaking skills from class.
COM 370 Citizenship, Mobility, and Time (3h)
This class will encourage students to go in more depth with the understanding of their presence in Venice and Europe as temporary citizens, as they reside in Venice longer than tourists, but not as long-term citizens and full members of the community. Students will read, reflect, and practice their own mobility, as they discover Venice and travel across the region, possibly beyond Italy, while developing an analytic understanding of their temporary role and the ways in which they relate to others, be they other Wake students, the local faculty and staff, neighbors and other residents, and tourists.
Other possible courses offered will include two electives taught by local professors.
ART 269 Venetian Renaissance Art (3h) (D)
A survey of the art of the Venetian Renaissance, with slide lectures and museum visits.
HST 119 Venice and the World (3h) (CD, D)
Traces the role of Venice as an important cultural, military, and economic power from its founding in the 8th century to today.
Satisfies the Division I requirement or can be taken for History major credit.
ECN 271 The Political Economy of Italy (3h) (D)
Traces the role of Venice as an important cultural, military, and economic power from its founding in the 8th century to today.
Satisfies the Division IV requirement.
It is the student’s responsibility to speak to their major and minor advisor(s) regarding their abroad coursework and how (or if) it will count towards their degree plan.
Standard Courses
Italian Language (3h or 4h)
Beginning, Intermediate, or Advanced. (Prior study of Italian is not required.)
HMN 160 Venice Today (1.5h) (p/f)
Using Venice as the classroom, students will examine the history of the city, through its buildings, urban planning, arts, and artifacts.
Fall 2021 with Dr. Peter Kairoff, Music
MUS 214 Music of Italy (3h) (D)An introduction to art music composed in Italy, with special emphasis on composers associated with Venice. Composers such as Vivaldi and Verdi are studied in light of the social and artistic context of their time. No previous study of music required.
HON 258 Honors Venice in Art and Literature (3h)
An exploration of what Venice has meant to nonnative artists, writers and musicians, and what they have made of it. A wide range of creative artists, including Shakespeare, Byron, Whistler, Sargent, Mendelssohn, Liszt will offer us multiple perspectives on Venice as source of inspiration.
Other possible courses offered will include two electives taught by local professors.
ART 269 Venetian Renaissance Art (3h) (D)
A survey of the art of the Venetian Renaissance, with slide lectures and museum visits.
HST 119 Venice and the World (3h) (CD, D)
Traces the role of Venice as an important cultural, military, and economic power from its founding in the 8th century to today.
Satisfies the Division I requirement or can be taken for History major credit.
Spring 2022 with Dr. Andrius Galisanka, Politcs & International Affairs
POL 115/269: Political Theory: Italian Political Thought (3h) (D)Political theory asks: What is a good political community? We will explore and assess answers to this question by reading key texts of Italian political thought. Doing so, we will explore political traditions, including liberalism, realism, and socialism/Marxism. We will ask: According to these traditions, what is human nature and how is it relevant for politics? What reasons do we have for obeying the law? How should we understand liberty? And what kind and degree of equality should we strive for? Thinkers studied will include Niccolò Machiavelli, Antonio Negri, Antonio Gramsci, and Giorgio Agamben.
POL 281: Environmental Political Thought (3h)
Why should we preserve the wilderness, create national parks, concern ourselves with pollution? Answers to these questions depend on how we conceive the human relationship with the wider natural world. Do non-human entities have value in themselves, independent of human beings? Or are they valuable only because they are useful for human beings? Having considered these questions, we will turn to specific issues, in particular those related to Venice, such as sustainable development, consumerism, tourism, social justice, and climate change, asking how we should respond through social and individual action.
Other possible courses offered will include two electives taught by local professors.
ART 269 Venetian Renaissance Art (3h) (D)
A survey of the art of the Venetian Renaissance, with slide lectures and museum visits.
HST 119 Venice and the World (3h) (CD, D)
Traces the role of Venice as an important cultural, military, and economic power from its founding in the 8th century to today.
Satisfies the Division I requirement or can be taken for History major credit.
Fall 2022 with Dr. Jennifer Greiman, English & Dr. Barry Trachtenberg, History
ENG 175 Studies in American Literature (3h) (D)America in Italy: Art, Revolution, Modernity
For Nathaniel Hawthorne’s American artists in The Marble Faun, Italy promised a world of exquisite objects which seemed to stare back at their living viewers from the ancient past. For Margaret Fuller, the Italy of the Risorgimento promised a revolutionary future of radical equality and liberty unseen anywhere else in the 19th century. And for American writers of the early and high eras of Modernism, Italy promised privileged access to both the past and the future at once. In this course, we will read the works of American expatriate writers and travelers, to trace the stories of Americans who come to Italy searching for a particular experience of time –the ancient and Renaissance past, the modern future, an estrangement from the present.
While our readings will examine the central role that Italy played in the 19th- and 20th-century American literary imagination, our proximity to the destinations of these writers and characters will enable us to follow in their footsteps, examining the Italy of 19th-century travel guides alongside both the literary versions of these sites and their contemporary settings. Traveling to Rome’s Capitoline Museum to see the Dying Gaul just as Hawthorne’s American artists did, and touring Florence’s Uffizi Gallery along with Henry James’s Isabel Archer, we will consider the ways in which museums and guide books shape the experience of time and place for the tourist – even the tourist who (like Fuller, Melville, and Pound) went to Italy in search of the radically new. Requirements for this course will include reading, engaged participation, and about 20-25 pages of writing, including both literary analysis and an experiment in travel writing.
HST 102 Europe and the World in Modern Era (3h) (D)
Our current political moment has led many to inquire into the totalitarian societies that dominated much of Europe in the middle decades of the 20th century. With a special focus on the history of modern Italy, this course will investigate the long origins of these totalitarian regimes, whose roots extend at least to the beginning of the 18th century. We will first examine their nationalist origins within Europe and consider how these phenomena were shaped in part by encounters with those considered to be non-Europeans. We will then discuss Europe’s imperial expansion and examine its effects both in Europe and in colonized societies. Finally, we will explore the formation and practices of—as well as resistance to—the various totalitarian states that arose in the early 20th century. While doing so, you will be introduced to—and expected to demonstrate mastery of—the basic skills of historians. These include distinguishing between primary and secondary sources; identifying, analyzing, and forming historical arguments based upon correctly cited evidence; and understanding the interconnectedness of historical events. By the end of the course, you will have gained a sophisticated understanding of totalitarian societies in the twentieth century, their mechanisms of state violence, ethnic division, containment, and genocide, and learn why they failed.
Other possible courses offered will include two electives taught by local professors.
ART 269 Venetian Renaissance Art (3h) (D)
A survey of the art of the Venetian Renaissance, with slide lectures and museum visits.
ECN 271 The Political Economy of Italy (3H) (D)
Traces the role of Venice as an important cultural, military, and economic power from its founding in the 8th century to today.
Satisfies the Division IV requirement.
Spring 2023 with Dr. Alessandra Von Burg, Communication
COM 110 Public Speaking (3h) (D)Students will learn the basic theories and techniques of public speaking, practicing speaking for various purposes and different contexts. Students will develop speeches on topics related to their time in Venice and the surrounding community. The students will research local topics, talk to residents, and connect to other classes, linking what they will be learning about language, culture, art, and life in Venice, to the public speaking skills from class.
COM 370 Citizenship, Mobility, and Time (3h)
This class will encourage students to go in more depth with the understanding of their presence in Venice and Europe as temporary citizens, as they reside in Venice longer than tourists, but not as long-term citizens and full members of the community. Students will read, reflect, and practice their own mobility, as they discover Venice and travel across the region, possibly beyond Italy, while developing an analytic understanding of their temporary role and the ways in which they relate to others, be they other Wake students, the local faculty and staff, neighbors and other residents, and tourists.
Other possible courses offered will include two electives taught by local professors.
ART 269 Venetian Renaissance Art (3h) (D)
A survey of the art of the Venetian Renaissance, with slide lectures and museum visits.
HST 119 Venice and the World (3h) (CD, D)
Traces the role of Venice as an important cultural, military, and economic power from its founding in the 8th century to today.
Satisfies the Division I requirement or can be taken for History major credit.
ECN 271 The Political Economy of Italy (3h) (D)
Traces the role of Venice as an important cultural, military, and economic power from its founding in the 8th century to today.
Satisfies the Division IV requirement.
Resident Professor
Spring 2021: Dr. Alessandra Von Burg, Communication, beaslea@wfu.edu
Fall 2021: Dr. Peter Kairoff, Music, kairoff@wfu.edu
Spring 2022: Dr. Andrius Galisanka, Politics & International Affairs, galisaa@wfu.edu
Fall 2022: Dr. Jennifer Greiman, English, greimaj@wfu.edu & Dr. Barry Trachtenberg, History, trachtbc@wfu.edu
Spring 2023: Dr. Alessandra Von Burg, Communication, beaslea@wfu.edu
Spring 2021: Dr. Alessandra Von Burg, Communication, beaslea@wfu.edu
Fall 2021: Dr. Peter Kairoff, Music, kairoff@wfu.edu
Spring 2022: Dr. Andrius Galisanka, Politics & International Affairs, galisaa@wfu.edu
Fall 2022: Dr. Jennifer Greiman, English, greimaj@wfu.edu & Dr. Barry Trachtenberg, History, trachtbc@wfu.edu
Spring 2023: Dr. Alessandra Von Burg, Communication, beaslea@wfu.edu
Casa Artom can accommodate twenty students. The house has bedrooms, a library, classrooms, a dining room, a living room, two kitchens, a patio, and an open courtyard. Modern kitchen facilities are available, and students often prefer to cook their meals together in the house. The house is wired for Internet access and students should bring their laptop computers. The Resident Professor has a suite upstairs consisting of two bedrooms and a bath. Washers and dryers are available in the laundry room.
Click the following link for pictures of Casa Artom: Casa Artom Photographs.
Click the following link for pictures of Casa Artom: Casa Artom Photographs.
The Resident Professor is responsible for the selection of each group based on the following criteria:
- Academic suitability
- Social and emotional maturity
- Classification (seniors given some priority)
- Priority may be given to students that have completed Italian 111 or 113
- Seriousness of the student in pursuing the academic and cultural aims of the program
- Applicability of the program to the student's interests and studies
Majors in all disciplines are eligible and encouraged to apply.
Students pay current Wake Forest tuition and housing fees. Students are responsible for all meals, round-trip airfare, additional travel, books, visa fees and other personal expenses. Students on this program are eligible for additional scholarships.
Special scholarships for study at Casa Artom are available through the Camillo Artom Fund and the Hubert Humphrey Studies Abroad Scholarship. Interested students should apply through the Center for Global Programs and Studies. Students are also eligible for additional scholarships through the Center for Global Programs and Studies (Reynolda Hall 116).
Dr. Peter Kairoff
Program Director of Casa Artom and Professor of Music
Phone: (336) 758 5369
E-mail: kairoff@wfu.edu
Jessica Francis
Director for Study Abroad
Center for Global Programs and Studies
116 Reynolda Hall
Phone: (336) 758 3890
E-mail: francija@wfu.edu
House Address:
Casa Artom
Dorsoduro 699
San Gregorio
30123 Venice, Italy
Phone: 011-39-041-522-2709
Fax: 011-39-041-522-0277
Program Director of Casa Artom and Professor of Music
Phone: (336) 758 5369
E-mail: kairoff@wfu.edu
Jessica Francis
Director for Study Abroad
Center for Global Programs and Studies
116 Reynolda Hall
Phone: (336) 758 3890
E-mail: francija@wfu.edu
House Address:
Casa Artom
Dorsoduro 699
San Gregorio
30123 Venice, Italy
Phone: 011-39-041-522-2709
Fax: 011-39-041-522-0277