2018-19 GCA Rome Prize Fellow Named

May 10, 2018

University of Virginia (UVA) Assistant Professor Zaneta Hong has been named recipient of The Garden Club of America Rome Prize Fellowship in Landscape Architecture for 2018-19. This fall, Hong will join a cohort of artists and scholars living and working in Rome.

Hong was awarded the prestigious fellowship for her proposal Material Traceability; she will examine the latent and hidden histories of materials used in the manufacture and construction of Roman architecture and landscape infrastructure. Hong will research how the applications of specific materials have shaped and been shaped by contemporary shifts in regional to global economies, cultural histories, and emergent technologies, with a focus on a singular material that is geologically and symbolically foundational to Rome’s past, present, and future, Carrara marble.

For more than a century, the American Academy in Rome has awarded the Rome Prize in eleven broad disciplines, including literature, musical composition, visual arts, design, architecture, and landscape architecture. Nine appointed juries, representing a broad cross section of excellence in the various disciplines, select from candidates who not only are outstanding in their respective disciplines, but also are at a point in their careers where the prize would be crucial to their future growth and development. The highly competitive fellowships support advanced independent work and research.

The first Rome Prize Fellowship in Landscape Architecture was established in 1928 with enthusiastic contributions from GCA member clubs. Additional money was raised in 1976, and individual GCA club members continued to contribute over the years. By October 1989, through the efforts of Mrs. Niels W. Johnsen (1983-85 GCA president), various donors had committed the amount needed to fund a permanent, fully endowed fellowship. A formal agreement between the GCA and the Academy was signed in 1990.

Hong is the most recent UVA landscape architecture faculty member to receive the Rome Prize Fellowship; Julie Bargmann, Brad Cantrell, Pete O'Shea, and Michael Vergason are among the UVA Landscape Architecture faculty and alumni who previously have received the honor.

Click to read the press release announcing all 2018-19 Rome Prize winners.

 

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