SACI’s interdisciplinary collaborative approach to learning. A life-enhancing experience in the center of Florence, Italy.
Studio Arts College International (SACI) in its 43-year history, is now considered one of the premier institutions for studying Art and Design in Florence, Italy. Offering both graduate and undergraduate programs, SACI collaborates with over 50 Consortium institutions of art and design in the United States. For any motivated student in the arts, SACI provides full immersion into the Italian culture—tapping and learning from its rich history—and simultaneously exposing students to a contemporary understanding of Italian arts, technology and making.
Our faculty members are practitioners and experts in their fields, with a passion for conveying their knowledge to students, that often translates into life-changing experiences. Our 12,000-strong alumni, many of whom with success stories of their own, look back at their experience at SACI as being pivotal to their future careers. SACI has its own gallery space in the heart of Chelsea, NY that features our outstanding alumni artists and designers and two gallery spaces in Florence with ongoing exhibitions of emerging and known Italian artists. SACI’s MFA in Studio Art students have the unique opportunity to stage and host solo shows of their work with intensive training in how to prepare for a career as an artist.
Instead of traditional learning in the classroom, SACI has created an interdisciplinary collaborative approach to learning. Students have the opportunity to work on practice-based projects with major institutions and corporations in Florence. In the SACI MX (Museum Experience) projects with world renowned museums like the Bargello and the Accademia Museums, students combine their skills to help improve the visitor experience and appreciation of the works displayed by enhancing museum websites, wayfinding, and digital and printed materials.
In spring 2019, SACI is offering a course entitled Without Limits sponsored by MIT’s Agelab and Dainese D-Air Lab (designers of smart textiles and clothing for International MotoGP racing). Students will be working with world class designers, scientists and technology experts to design protective clothing for the aging population. Our faculty and collaborators in Fashion Design, Interaction Design, Graphic Design and Industrial Design will lead this extraordinary innovative design process.
In an ongoing collaboration with Ferragamo Museum and Foundation, SACI students will also be afforded a unique opportunity to work on a collaborative studio next spring culminating in an exhibition in April entitled Sustainable Thinking, that will examine changing models and highlight research in materials and new sustainable strategies for the art and fashion industry. Students in Museology, Graphic Design and Fashion Design will have an opportunity to collaborate on this exciting project with Ferragamo and local museums. These collaborative courses are open to graduate students in our MFA in Communication Design Program, as well as undergraduate students in design and the arts.
The contemporary experience of the arts is heightened for our students with ongoing dialogues and interactions with artists and intellectuals. Understanding our roles as artists in a world threatened with political and environmental turmoil is ever more important. In collaboration with NYU, SACI recently hosted a second symposium entitled “Feminism and Intersectionality in the Arts,” with world renowned artists, activists, and legal experts sharing their ideas with our students. Simultaneously, our students of art history and conservation were exposed to a symposium entitled “Evidenza Caravaggio” with international experts including scientists, museum conservators and historians, led by Roberta Lapucci, Director of SACI’s Post-Bac in Conservation program and world expert in Caravaggio.
For more information, visit our website or contact the SACI Admissions Office.
