The IAS sponsored one individual and three linked sessions, as well as gathered for drinks and conversation, at the 2012 meeting of the RSA.

Cocktails at Cure Bar and Bistro
Thursday, March 22, 6:00pm, Cure Bar and Bistro, Grand Hyatt
A group of members and prospective members gathered at the conclusion of Thursday’s sessions at the Cure Bar and Bistro in the Grand Hyatt.

Sessions Sponsored by the Italian Art Society

Session Title: Public Art and Contested Spaces in Early Modern Italy I: Sacred and Communal Spaces:  Pisa, Siena, and Venice
Grand Hyatt, 5B - Independence Level, Independence D 
Friday, March 23, 2012, 8:45-10:15am
Organizer and Chair: Felicia M. Else, Gettysburg College
Speakers/Papers:
Jean Cadogan, Trinity College, "Urban Saints in Trecento Pisa:  Murals of the Life of St. Rainerius in the Camposanto"
Daniele Rivoletti, Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa, "Pinturicchio’s Crowning of Pius III: the interests of a family in a republican context" 
Christine Scippa Bhasin (Northwestern University, "Public Theatre in 'Cloistered' Environs"

Session Title: Public Art and Contested Spaces in Early Modern Italy II: Princely and Papal Power: Genoa, Lombardy, and Rome
Grand Hyatt, 5B - Independence Level, Independence D
Friday, March 23, 2013, 10:30am-12:00pm

Organizer and Chair: Felicia M. Else, Gettysburg College
Speakers/Papers:
Madeline Rislow, University of Kansas, Lawrence, "Framing Family Power in Public Space: Doria’s Appropriation of Portal Sculptures in Their Genoese Neighborhood"
Constance Joan Moffatt, Pierce College, "The People vs. Lodovico Sforza: A Bishop, a Rectangle, and a Tower"
Luke Nicholson, University of British Columbia, “The Universal City: Roman Landmarks and the Interspatial Visions of Nicolas Poussin”

Session Title: Public Art and Contested Spaces in Early Modern Italy III: Machinations of Power in the Republic, Duchy and Beyond: Florence
Grand Hyatt, 5B - Independence Level, Independence D
Friday, March 23, 2012, 2:00pm-3:30pm
Organizer: Felicia M. Else, Gettysburg College
Chair: George L. Gorse, Pomona College
Speakers/Papers:
Roger J. Crum, University of Dayton, “Art and Freedom in Quattrocento Florence: Contesting Why Florentines Commissioned Art for Contestable Public Spaces”
Felicia M. Else, Gettysburg College, "The Story of Biancone:  A Contested Block in a Contested Space"
Sarah Blake McHam, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, "The Disputed Space of the Casino and Giambologna’s Samson and Philistine"

Session Title: The Appeal of Sculpture in Renaissance Italy: Collecting, Patronage, Style, and the Role of Touch
Grand Hyatt / 5B - Independence Level, Independence D
Saturday, March 24, 2012, 10:30am-12:00pm
Organizer: Joaneath A. Spicer, The Walters Art Museum
Chair: Eleanora Luciano, National Gallery of Art
Speakers/Papers:
Francesco Freddolini, The Getty Research Institute, "The Lure of Sculpture, the Role of Touch and the Paragone in Sixteenth-Century Portraits"
Geraldine A. Johnson, University of Oxford, "Weighing the Evidence: Encounters with Sculpture in Early Modern Italy"
Peter Jonathan Bell, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "The Role of the Base in Early Bronze Statuettes of the Renaissance"
Joaneath A. Spicer, The Walters Art Museum, "Tactility and the Appeal of the Small Bronze in Renaissance Italy"