Completed SMATCH USA Programs:

2007
2006
2005
2004

Roman History Courses 
Ongoing Since 2003

-- Semester-long courses on Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Rome, and Pompeii/Vesuvius, Carthage and North Africa, Rome/Hollywood and Ancient Egtpy.  University level (non-credit) courses, ten weeks each, at the Arlington Learning in Retirement Institute (ALRI)  taught by SMATCH Board Member Tom Wukitsch in Arlington, Virginia.  (All ALRI events require separate ALRI membership.)

(2007) return to top

 Egypt Study Trip
November
SMATCH Board member Tom Wukitsch led a fourteen day archeological tour of Egypt.  Tour participants were members of the Arlington Learning in Retirement Institute  (ALRI) who have participated in his continuing series of courses on Ancient Roman and Italian history. Click here for information on the courses.

Spectroscopy of Gems
February,  Ferarra Italy
              Seminar on spectroscopy of gems and other materials
            used in works of art and cultural artisan works

Fantastic World of Gemstones presentation
January, organized for the Italian Cultural Society (Washington D.C.) at the Friendship Heights Community Center.  Click here for captioned photographs

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High School Student Exchange
October
High School Students from Rome's  Liceo Giordano Bruno visited schools in Montgomery County Maryland.  Click here for information.

Rome's Gruppo Teatro Essere (GTE) 2006 performances in the USA
October, College Park, Maryland and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Click here for information.

Florence, Venice Study Tour
September
SMATCH Board member Tom Wukitsch led a ten day tour of Florence and Venice, Italy.  Tour participants were members of the Arlington Learning in Retirement Institute  (ALRI) who have participated in his continuing series of courses on Ancient Roman and Italian history. Click here for information on the courses.

SMATCH Presentation at the Gemological Research Conference
August, San Diego, California

SMATCH sponsored a presentation entitled The genesis of gemstones revealed by photoluminescence: synthetic and natural Mg-Al spinels at the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) Gemological Research Conference in San Diego.  The presenters were Dr. Stella Nunziante Cesara of SMATCH Italy and Sylvana Ehrman, of SMATCH USA.   (An abstract of the presentation is available here)

Brumidi
May, in Rome, Italy

Casa del Cinema, Largo Marcello Mastroianni, Villa Borghese, Rome (map)

http://www.smatch-international.org/ConstantinoBrumidi.jpgSMATCH  sponsored a presentation by  Dr. Barbara Wolanin, the Curator for the Architect of the Capitol in Washington DC, and Christiana Cunningham-Adams, Restorer, on the art of Constantino Brumidi and the art conservation and restoration program at the U.S. Capitol.  James Ehrman of SMATCH USA also participated.

http://www.smatch-international.org/BrumidiGroupPic.jpg
Left to Right:  Tonini Tosto, Loredano Mancuso, Maurizio Bartolucci,
Sylvana Ehrman, Dr. Wolanin, Phillip Brown, Sauro Rossini, James Ehrman
Click here for a short essay on Brumidi's art and Capitol conservation by Dr. Wolanin.

Click here for a biography of Dr. Wolanin.

Click here to go to a page on the web site of the Architect of the U.S. Capitol on Brumidi's Apotheosis of Washington in the eye of the Capitol Dome.

Click here to go to a page on the web site of the Architect of the U.S. Capitol on
the Brumidi Corridors in the US Capitol.

Click here for more images of Brumidi's work in the Capitol.


http://www.smatch-international.org/SMATCHUSAlbro.jpg Memories of a Nation, paper conservation at the Library of Congress, Washington DC
 June 9, 2006, Rome, Italy, at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome.  The presenter was Ms. Sylvia Albro, a curator and expert on Italian paper-making and conservation from the US Library of Congress.  Biographic information for Ms. Albro is available here. 

(2005) return to top
Magic Rome
written and directed by Tonino Tosto  
October, 2005
Gaston Hall, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
and
John Heinz History Center,  Pittsburgh, PA

Supported by a special grant from The Municipality of Rome, Italy

Natural, Synthetic and Treated Gemstones (Conference)
September 2005
An Update on Diagnostic Techniques
In Rome, Italy At the ACCADEMIA DI SAN LUCA
Piazza dell'Accademia di San Luca 77, Rome
 
Personal Living Space  Venice Biennale

SMATCH administered funds to assist
Marya Kazoun's installation at the 2005 Venice Biennale.
For more information, click here.
Another project in association with Berengo Fine Arts.

Modern Visions/Ancient Traditions

Ongoing project of Tatyana Zhurkov in Italy and New York
SMATCH USA, SMATCH Italy, and Swashbuckler Enterprises, Inc.
administer the Zhurkov Residency in Venice and Murano

(2004) return to top
Italia in Cantata
November, 2004
SMATCH and the Italian Cultural Society of Washington, D.C. presented
ITALIA IN CANTATA (A Short History of the Italian Song)
performed by IL GRUPPO TEATRO ESSERE from Rome, Italy
at the Friendship Heights Center, 4433 South Park Avenue, Chevy Chase, MD.

Brazilian Gemstones at the Smithsonian Institution
October, 2004 

Brazilian-American Cultural Institute in collaboration with SMATCH-International, Inc.
Washington DC

Dr. Jeffrey Post, Curator of the Gems and Minerals Collection
of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Gemstone Photomicrograph Exhibition

October, 2004

Dr. John I. Koivula, Chief Research Scientist, (GIA)
Organized by SMATCH and sponsored by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), the Italian Gemologival Institute (IGI), the Municipality of Rome, the University of Rome, and the Italian National Council of Research (CNR)

Civic Zoological Museum, Rome

Archeological Tour of Rome
September, 2004

SMATCH Board member Tom Wukitsch guided an ALRI tour of archeological sites in Rome, Italy. See http://www.mmdtkw.org/RT04-ALRI-2004RomeTrip.html for details.

Julius Caesar, Caligula, and Diana on the Shores of Lake Nemi,
January 28, 2004

At the Italian Cultural Institute, Washington, DC
A lecture by Dr. Irene Bald Romano
Dr. Romano was Coordinator and Co-curator of the new Classical Galleries which opened in 2003 at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. She is a Research Fellow of the University of Pennsylvania Museum.