We’re so accustomed to the Holiday season, it comes as a surprise that President Lincoln never gave a Christmas speech – because Christmas didn’t become a national holiday until 1870.
He had his challenges but that wasn’t one of them.
Frank McKinney Hubbard was quick to point out that Next to a circus there ain’t nothing that packs up and tears out faster than the Christmas Spirit.
That caution aside, the Holidays are not so much a date as a state of mind, where one hopes to feel the spirit of the holidays. That means putting aside cynicism and looking past the outward displays of decorations and presents, to the things that went right in 2015 and to the peace and goodwill that could be in 2016.
Here at RAP we recognize all the hard work done this past year by our outstanding Faculty and Administration: Robb Horsley, Jose Grave de Peralta, Fran Middendorf, Steven Meek, Edina Eszenyi, Anthony Lombardi, Nina Eaton, Serafino Amato, Irene Barberis, Elizabeth Butler and Laura Sessions.
Every year has it’s challenges and RAP’s come through this one strong and full of momentum. We also don’t take our students for granted; we recognize they used their talent and their sense of studio discipline to battle their way through the Roman heat and to emerge with big portfolios of ideas. Everyone matters.
To all of you wherever you are in the world, I wish you Happy Holidays. Party on and if I could give you a gift, it would be the gift of self-respect.
Carole Robb, Artistic Director
Image courtesy of Shandi-Lee Cox via Flickr
The Rome Art Program has become for me one of the meaningful “returns” that both Life and my own efforts brought along into my path, after I settled in Rome in 2008. Every summer, I wait with anticipation for the days prior to the opening of the summer classes when Director Carole Robb, followed by several other members of the team, slowly contact each other to say we are in town, and thus begins the exciting project of making the new students discover the force and beauty that Rome has to offer them—in fact, that Rome HAS BEEN OFFERING students of art through the Ages.
So at this time, I celebrate so many great things in my year 2015 coming to an end, and raise a toast to Peace and Learning of the R.A.P. variety—and I thank the important members of the school who work behind the scenes as well as the Friends of RAP with their contributions and faith in us, and who will God-willing make RAP 2016 even greater than it has already been!
Merry Christmas!