ROSSELLA VASTA, Founder, Pieve International

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Italian artist Rossella Vasta was born in Palermo, Sicily. She received her masters degree in philosophy at the University of Perugia (est. 1308), and has exhibited widely in Italy and abroad, including solo shows at the Spoleto Festival, as well as galleries in Poland, Munich, Rome, Madrid, Todi, Perugia, Washington, DC, Chautauqua, NY, Milwaukee, Tokyo and others. Rossella has been honored as Academic of Merit at the Academia di Belle Arte Pietro Vanucci (the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia, where Perugino taught the young Raphael more than 400 years ago). In 2003 she received first prize at the Florence International Biennial. 

 

For the past twenty five years she has been the Director of Pieve International in Italy. She has also served on the Board of Directors of the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia. In 2012 she received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Cardinal Stritch University. Since 2007 Vasta has collaborated annually with Jacquelyn Buglisi and Dance/NYC to present 9/11: Table of Silence. Participants include professional dancers as well as students from Buglisi Dance Theatre, Ballet Hispanico, Dance Theatre of Harlem, The Juilliard School, The Ailey School, the Martha Graham Company, National Dance Institute, Steps on Broadway, and Peridance, among others. This global tribute has been seen in 82+ countries via live stream. It takes place every September 11th in the Josie Robertson Plaza at Lincoln Center in New York City. It has also been performed at the Piazza San Rufino in Assisi, Italy; and at the Pan Am Flight 103 Remembrance Wall at Syracuse University. 

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