Leadership & Staff

Director of Arts & Culture
ROBERTA LAPUCCI PH.D.

A renowned Italian scholar and conservation expert, Dr. Roberta Lapucci has catalogued and restored numerous works of art belonging to Florentine museums and churches, and is the author of Caravaggio and Optics. Dr. Roberta Lapucci has ben SACI’s Conservation Department Head. Since 1986, she has also been teaching Conservation, Artistic Techniques and Diagnostics in specialization courses for post-graduates held at the University of Florence.

 

With more than four decades of conservation experience, she has apprenticed with Florentine restorers, worked in private studios, and authored numerous articles for exhibition catalogues, art history magazines, and critical reviews. Dr. Lapucci has written extensively on such topics as the science of light and Caravaggio’s working methods, and is the author of a book entitled Caravaggio and Optics, published in 2005.

 

She also co-directed the Caravaggio exhibitions held at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence and the Palazzo Ruspoli in Rome, and established an archive of technical documentation and photographs of Caravaggio’s masterpieces at the Roberto Longhi Foundation in Florence. Some of her recent research proposes the use of a proto-photographic system for the execution of Caravaggio’s artworks using photosensitive and photo luminescent materials.

Director of Outreach & Development
JANE ADAMS

With her experience in PR and Communications within the luxury hospitality, Real Estate and Art sector she creates and directs conservation projects that seek to raise awareness about forgotten artists of the past and reclaim their rightful place in history.

 

Jane Adams formerly director of Partnership Relations with Jane Fortune and Advancing Women Artists Inc.  a not for profit (501c3) organization dedicated to rediscovering, restoring and exhibiting works by women artists found in Florence’s Museums and State deposits that has over the last 14 years restored 70 works of art. Jane Adams continues this quest as fundraiser and project manager for several high profile conservation projects throughout Italy.  

 

More recently she has worked with the prestigious art school SACI, Florence and presently acts as advisor to Italiart and the International Fine Arts Society with it’s precious Fremantle Collection that has recently found its new home at the Caravaggio & Contemporary Research Center at Palazzo Bourbon del Monte, Monte Santa Maria Tiberina.

ACademic Coordinator
KARI VARNER

Kari earned her BFA in Electronic Media Arts Design from the University of Denver and her MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. She is the former Studio Coordinator for Photography & New Media at Anderson Ranch Arts Center and is currently a Professor of Photography at the Florence Institute of Design International. Having first traveled to Italy for a study abroad program, Kari is passionate about the opportunities that global engagement and cross-cultural exchange provide.

IT Coordinator - Social media Content Creator
JACOPO MAZZONI

Jacopo studied Computer Science at the University of Florence before going on to receive his BFA in Digital Arts from Bowling Green State University in Ohio, and his MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. In his own artistic practice, he utilizes technology to stage interactive installations that re-enact and reveal mechanisms of surveillance and oppression. He is currently a research fellow at IMT Lucca and an Adjunct Professor of Interactive Media Design at SRISA.

OUTREACH & MARKETING coordinator
Josephine Porciatti

Josephine is currently living in London. She grew up in Tuscany and her interest from a young age in art forged a deep connection with the profound artistic and cultural history of the country, which she then took with her in her studies abroad. Whilst living in Florence she took a course in Entertainment Design at the Accademia NEMO and attended various lectures given by the Florence Academy of Arts. She began her academic formation after high school by attending an Art and Design Foundation at Croydon College of Art, for which she earned a Distinction grade, and it gave her an opportunity to explore different practical approaches and cultural backgrounds through which to understand and appreciate the art world, leading her to study at Goldsmiths University from which she received a BA in History of Art.