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Photo of the Casa Italiana facade across from Columbia University's main Morningside campus.

The Twentieth Century and Beyond

In the decades after World War II, the Casa Italiana was a busy place; the curator of this exhibition, Barbara Faedda (author of the original gallery exhibition and the book on the early history of the building) is now continuing her research: both expanding the early history and exploring the decades after World War II. The next volume will bring the story up to the early 1990s, when the Casa Italiana became the seat of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, one of the world's leading research centers. Columbia University and the Republic of Italy, thanks to the efforts of Professor Maristella Lorch, together envisioned the Academy as a new institute for the promotion of the most thorough research and academic discussion on Italian art, culture, and science.

The renovated building was therefore designed for the Academy's post-doctoral mission, while the Italian Department, long housed in the Casa, relocated permanently to Hamilton Hall, where—drawing on the distinguished history that started with Da Ponte—it continues as perhaps America's leading program for graduate and undergraduate students.

Today the Academy's Fellowship Program attracts promising young scholars and scientists, along with distinguished authorities in the humanities and sciences, year after year.

The building was named a New York City landmark on March 28, 1978, and was extensively restored in the 1990s.

The Italian Academy's Home

The building is now filled with scholars and scientists from around the world, and it regularly welcomes the public for symposia, lectures, concerts, and art exhibitions (more here).

Photo of a large crowd in the Casa Italiana's Teatro for the event on art restitution.