SACI was founded in 1975 to create a complete program in Florence for students seeking excellence in studio art and liberal arts instruction at the United States university level. In 1999, after twenty-four years of activity and growth, SACI had the extraordinary good fortune to acquire as its permanent home the Palazzo dei Cartelloni, a Renaissance building right in the center of Florence. This advantageous location provides highly dynamic surroundings for art education.

The palazzo was dedicated in the seventeenth century to the scientist Galileo Galilei by his pupil Viviani. On the façade there are large scrolls which describe the extraordinary achievements of Galileo. The 29,000 square foot palazzo surrounds a large traditional Italian garden. The spacious light-filled interiors have been conserved in their original baroque magnificence, including the painted ceilings and frescoed walls.

SACI provides a stimulating educational experience that draws upon the rich cultural resources of both past and present Italy. The inspiring and well-equipped facilities of the palazzo and separate Graduate Center are located a few steps from Michelangelo's Medici Chapel, the Laurentian Library, the Duomo, the church of Santa Maria Novella, and the bustling activity of Florence's central market.

Studio Art Centers International is recognized as one of the leading overseas institutions in the areas of studio art, art history, art conservation and Italian language and culture. Our long experience in the field of overseas education has led us to develop five programs which are fully described in the following links. Separate materials are available which give more detailed information about our Two Year Diploma, Post-Baccalaureate, and MFA programs.

It is part of our goal to make Italy's abundant resources available and pertinent to studio art, art history and art conservation students through field trips and course work. Rome, Milan, Lucca, Arezzo, Bologna, Carrara, Assisi, Pisa, Siena, San Gimignano, Faenza, Urbino, and Pietrasanta are visited over the course of the year by classes in SACI's programs, as well as the major museums, churches, and monuments of Florence.

In addition, courses in studio art, art history and art conservation make use of field trips to artists' studios, private collections, galleries, art fairs, professional designers' studios, and manufacturers of Italian design products. SACI students have access to modern art collections and contemporary art museums, such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Prato, the Marino Marini Museum in Florence, and the Contemporary Art Museum of the Papesse in Siena. For students of art conservation, there is the unique opportunity to participate in the conservation of works housed in the Conservatorio di Santa Maria degli Angioli, a special cultural arrangement by SACI with the city of Florence.

SACI's growing library has over 7,000 schoolwork related titles in English to choose from, as well as a good selection of art periodicals and works of fiction. As the library is specifically designed for use by students enrolled in SACI classes and research projects, this is an invaluable resource. The library is open seven days a week and hours are posted each term. Books may be checked out for one week at a time. Students can sign out video cassettes from SACI’s video library and use the VCR in the aula magna. Complete art history bibliographies are also available to help students locate books and materials in other Florentine libraries, to which our students have access. For example, all of our students can also use the documentation center at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Prato and the British Institute library.

SACI has a Visiting Artist Program, and also holds important exhibitions in its Gallery, including a series of exhibitions, in collaboration with Florence's cultural offices, which feature emerging and established artists. Many visiting artists are members of the SACI Artists Council, a group of internationally renowned artists who support SACI and its mission. The school also hosts an evening lecture series to complement curricular offerings. Our speakers include artists, art historians, conservators, museum directors, curators, critics, and scholars specializing in art, art history, conservation, and other aspects of Italian culture and life including politics, music, literature, and history. Additional evening activities open to students include life drawing classes, film screenings, and introductory courses on Italian culture and food.

SACI's extensive language program includes unique features. In our Italian Language Partner Program, students are introduced to a selected group of Italian students and young professionals who accompany their SACI partners to interesting local events and activities. This encourages SACI students to practice their language skills and has proved an extremely rewarding experience for many of our students.

In addition to the many site visits which are part of our courses, optional trips are usually offered to Naples, Pompei, Herculaneum, and Venice. Over mid-term break, optional week-long trips have been offered to Paris, Amsterdam, Cologne, or, as graduate workshops, to Geneva and London. Information regarding a wide range of travel, sport, and cultural activities is available through SACI. For more than twenty-five years, SACI has proved to be a stimulating environment for the serious student of art, design, art history, and art conservation. Many of our alumni attribute their professional success to their time at SACI. If you are seeking a creative, challenging, and rewarding Italian study program, SACI may be the right choice for you.


Studio Art Centers International (SACI) is a program administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE, www.iie.org). IIE is the world’s most experienced, nonprofit global higher education and professional exchange agency. SACI’s United States offices are headquartered in the IIE New York building at 809 United Nations Plaza. Along with SACI, IIE administers such programs as the US Government’s Fulbright Program, The Humphrey Fellowship, The National Security Education Program, and over 200 others. SACI is proud of its affiliation with the Institute. By working closely to strengthen and encourage international education we can “open minds to the world.”

 

The Lorenzo de Medici school, which opened its doors in 1973, was one of the very first in Florence to specialize in the teaching of Italian as a foreign language. The school is situated in the San Lorenzo quarter in the heart of the old part of the city, just a few steps away from the Medici Chapels and the famed central market area.

Housed in a former convent dating back to the medieval period (the adjacent thirteenth century church of San Jacopo Corbolini is integrated into the complex) the school underwent extensive renovation and today provides a wide range of modern conveniences such as a cafeteria, air-conditioning, reading rooms and an attractive courtyard garden.

The school-whose students come from all age groups and from all over the world- guarantees a high quality in teaching and in the services provided.

OUR METHOD

In line with the most up-to-date theories on Italian language teaching, our method aims at a harmonious development of all four linguistic skills: listening and speaking, reading and writing.


The small number of students per class and the varied teaching techniques enable each student to be an active participant in the learning process. The language is always presented in context with the student immediately putting into practice what has been studied.
 
 
The school provides, free of charge, a pack of course materials which is frequently updated. Preference is given to original and stimulating material that is aimed not only at improving language skills but also permits the student to learn more about Italian culture and present day Italy.
 
The teachers hold University degrees and have specialized experience in the teaching of Italian language and culture to foreigners.
They attend monthly teacher training seminars. 

 
LEVELS

Each type of course is offered in seven levels and 4 weeks are needed to complete a level. Absolute beginners can only start their classes on the first day of the course (see dates). Non beginners can start the course at the beginning of each week. The most appropriate level is selected through a placement test.


A more detailed description of levels is available on request.


Beginning: 
Will be able to interact in simple daily situations: at the cafè, restaurant, hotel, shops, railway stations, in the street. Will know how to introduce themselves and talk about themselves, to invite others to do something and to reply to an invitation. To ask for, and to give, information on people, places, services, articles to buy. Acquisition of the basic structures of the language through the use of the present and present perfect of the most commonly used verbs; article-adjective-noun agreement, direct and possessive pronouns.


Intermediate 1:
Will be able to deal with daily situations such as at the gym, real estate and travel agencies etc. understanding the gist of information given. Ability to talk and write about personal habits and experiences through the correct use of the present, past and imperfect tenses. Will be able to describe, in simple terms, places, surroundings and people. Will be able to speak about personal plans and make promises using the future tense. Ability to express hopes and wishes by using the conditional. Will be able to give and follow instructions, advice and commands through the use of the imperative.


Intermediate 2:
Will be able to deal with more complex daily situations: at the doctor, at the pharmacy, on the telephone, at a job interview. Will be able to take part spontaneously in conversations on familiar or daily matters. Will be able to relate the plot of a movie or tell a story while at the same time expressing opinions and points of view by using the present subjunctive. Ability to describe in detail places and objects by using relative pronouns and making comparisons. Will be able to comprehend short articles and literary texts where the passato remoto is used.


Intermediate 3:
Will be able to deal with more complex daily situations: at the bank, hotel, the box office. Will be able to conjecture opinions with the use of grammatical structures such as the subjunctive and "if" clauses. Ability to argue personally held opinions, ideas, preferences. Will be able to understand without too much effort the significant points of short literary texts and articles even when expressed in complex forms such as the passive, impersonal and implicit. Will be able to understand the gist of radio and TV shows.


Advanced 1:
Will be able to recount and write about events, personal experiences, traditions and habits using quite complex grammatical patterns such as subordination, tense agreement and indirect speech. A broadening of vocabulary will allow a very good understanding of literary prose as well as articles and news reports on current events. Will be able to follow without too much effort movies and radio and TV programs in standard Italian. Would be able to work or study in an Italian environment.


Advanced 2:
Will be able to interact with native speakers, orally or in writing, in any given situation whether it be formal or informal. Ability to discuss and express personal ideas including in an academic or professional context - in an elegant and well articulated manner through the use of forms of the subjunctive, "if" clauses and the passive voice. Ability to read a wide range of texts making distinctions between different styles of writing. Will be able to understand without difficulty TV and radio shows and movies.

Mastery:
Will be able to write fluently using correct grammar, sentence construction and the appropriate linguistic register. Will have acquired a wide vocabulary with specific application to specialized area such as Italian bureaucracy, youth culture and the field of medicine. Will be able to understand movies and TV programs even when idiomatic Italian, regional accents and slang expressions are used. Will be able to understand works of literature in both form and content.

According to the Common European Reference Levels -European Language Portfolio - our levels correspond as follows:

EUROPEAN LANGUAGE PORTFOLIO / LORENZO DE' MEDICI
A1  Beginner
A2  Intermediate 1
B1  Intermediate 2 / Intermediate 3
B2  Advanced 1
C1  Advanced 2 
C2  Mastery

 

Founded by a group of artists who graduated from the Art Academy of Florence, Accademia d’Arte AD’A, offers courses in art and culture for a wide variety of students, both foreign and Italian, who are interested in understanding and, or, deepening their knowledge of specific artistic disciplines.

Accademia d’Arte AD’A is open year-round and is located in the historic center of Florence which is home to many important museums and a place of study for artists from all over the world.

The courses are composed of lectures by visiting artists, museum visits and lessons taught by professional artists. The faculty of Accademia d’Arte ADA strive to facilitate the comprehension and insertion of students into the variegated art world.

The length of the courses vary and is determined by the possible length of stay of the students interested in specific programs.

In addition to its academic curricula, Accademia d’Arte AD’A offers services which are especially helpful for foreign students including various types of housing arrangements, an extracurricular program with both cultural and recreational activities and other services to ensure that the students’ period of study is both interesting and profitable.