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Dear friends,

Summer at IDSVA is a time to reflect, relax, and rejoice after a year full of extraordinary moments, which we’d like to share with you in this annual recap, before our usual August break. We hope you’ll enjoy learning more about what makes our PhD program outstanding in so many ways: through an overview of our residencies, our faculty, our commencement celebration, our open webinars on art and ideas, virtual and in-person book launches, and so much more.

We are grateful to our community of artist-philosophers and donors of any stripe who make this necessary work possible. These are challenging times for institutions of higher education nationwide, and particularly for independent schools like IDSVA; as I said in my remarks on the future of education, there has never been a more urgent time for developing new ways of thinking and imagining the world, something that requires extraordinary powers of imagination and critical thinking combined. This is what our students practice daily, and this is what we intend to foster as we enter into our twentieth year of existence. Please consider making a contribution today and support the next generation of artist-philosophers! Every donation will be put toward student scholarships.

With gratitude,

Simonetta Moro

President

Read Simonetta Moro’s statement on the future of education and listen to an interview by Cristopher Andrew at Spannocchia Castle, Italy. LEARN MORE

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Residencies in 2026

Summer

As part of the Topological Studies in art and philosophy, in May and June we traveled with our PhD students to Rome, Tuscany, Athens, and Venice. Along the way we were joined by extraordinary visiting faculty such as Shara Wasserman (Temple University Rome), Giuliana Bruno (Harvard University), Franca Marini (Siena), Arne De Boever (CalArts), Jason Hoelscher (Georgia Southern University) and by IDSVA faculty Howard Caygill, Dejan Lukic, Silvia Mazzini, Simonetta Moro, George Smith and Elina Staikou.‍

In Venice, we brought our distinctive voice to the global stage through participation in the Biennale Sessions at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia—one of the world’s most important gatherings for contemporary art and ideas. Arne De Boever’s public talk, Musical Sketching, explored profound questions at the intersection of philosophy, music, silence, and artistic creation.

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Winter

In January, we travelled to Madrid, Toledo, and Marrakech, where faculty Ilham Ibnou Zahir, Silvia Mazzini, Simonetta Moro, Laila Yousef Sandoval, and George Smith lectured and led students on field trips. These included, in Madrid, the Prado, Reina Sofia, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum; in Toledo, various religious and cultural centers, historical markers of many centuries of convivencia among Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths; and in Marrakech, a wonderful combination of ancient sites, such as the Madrasa Ben Youssef and Badi Palace, with cutting edge contemporary art spaces such as the Montresso Foundation, Comptoir des Mines gallery, and the Museum of African Contemporary Al Maaden (MACAAL).

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Opportunities like these remind us that IDSVA’s impact reaches far beyond the classroom. Through the work of our faculty, students, and alumni, IDSVA participates in global conversations that shape contemporary thought while remaining deeply committed to intimate, transformative learning.

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First IDSVA Certificate Program, June 18-21

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At IDSVA we believe art education needs to be reclaimed as essential. This education should be offered in as many forms as possible, in as many places as possible, to connect with as many individuals as possible to advance our mission. This year, we are proud to have successfully launched the first IDSVA Certificate Program in “Philosophy and Art: Seeds of the Future,” lead by Giovanbattista Tusa and Silvia Mazzini, which took place in residency at the Venice Biennale, the oldest and most important international art exhibition in the world, in June 2026. This non-credit program was open to curators, artists, researchers, and the culturally curious seeking to develop their experiential knowledge of art and philosophy without committing to a degree program. Stay tuned for future Certificate Programs in other parts of the world!

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PhD Extended to BA / BFA Applicants

In March 2026 we started accepting applications from qualified holders of a BA or BFA for our PhD program in Art Theory, Aesthetics, and Philosophy.

Watch a brief interview with our first BA student, Natania Lyson, sharing her impressions of IDSVA during her residency in Venice last summer!

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IDSVA Annual Commencement

Morgan Library Auditorium, New York City, May 2026

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This year’s Commencement weekend was a truly extraordinary one! On May 3rd we celebrated IDSVA’s fourteen PhD graduates: Susan Archer, Rachel Savona Daichendt, Melanie Vennes Eller, Rummy Gill, Michael Frederick Hogan, Holly Priest Holtz, Marvin R. Milián, Adam Antonio Montoya, Alaina Plowdrey Forehand, Silvia P. Ruzanka, Amy Schuessler, Emel MaryLou Thomson, Zoma G. Wallace, and Lizabeth S. Whittier. Links to their dissertations are available on our website. We continue to be grateful to the Maine State Library for archiving the dissertations of our graduates in digital format.

At the annual Commencement we also awarded an honorary degree to Sarah Lewis, introduced by Deborah Willis.

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I have high regard for Dr. Lewis as a critical thinker. Her contributions to art history are both exceptional and enduring. As a scholar, teacher, mentor, and curator, she has expanded the possibilities of the discipline through research that bridges past and present. Her work transforms scholarship into storytelling; bringing new life to the histories of art while centering the contributions of Black artists across the diaspora.

– Excerpt from Deborah Willis's introductory remarks

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We all have a role to play in our understanding of how the arts move societies [...] The work of scholarship really addresses often key omissions and provides critical corrections in the canon.

– Excerpt from Sarah Lewis's interview with Zindzi Harley, Driskell Fellow '25

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Community Awards

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Ted Coons Dissertation Prize

The Ted Coons Dissertation Prize was established in 2015 to acknowledge outstanding IDSVA dissertations, and was made possible thanks to a generous donation by Dr. Edgar (Ted) Coons, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Cognition & Perception at the Center for Neural Science at New York University, and IDSVA Board member Emeritus.

Read more about the 2026 Ted Coons Dissertation Prize recipient, Dr. Adam Antonio Montoya.

What you have all shown me is that we may find, even during great upheaval, not simply endings, solutions, nor even courage, but instead the openings and invitations to those more magical worlds. Worlds that seem to have always been present to us: those that we mourn, those that we dream of, and those that are yet-to-be.

–Excerpt from Adam Montoya’s Commencement speech

New Driskell Fellow Award

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The late Dr. David C. Driskell (1931-2020) was a founding member of IDSVA and one of the first Visiting Faculty. In his honor, IDSVA awards one David Driskell Fellowship with each incoming cohort. Driskell Fellows are students who show promise in carrying forward Dr. Driskell's mission to encourage worldwide community and equality through art.

This year, IDSVA awarded the Driskell Fellowship to Santana Nash – curator, writer, and creative director based in Philadelphia. Read more here.

At the moment, my work focuses on how Black artists respond to histories of oppression, not only by confronting them, but by transforming them into something generative. Through art, I see expressions of resistance, renewal, and the ongoing process of making meaning, and I find that this work is deeply personal to me because it is about history, my history, and I would hope this commitment resonates with the mission that guided Dr. David Driskell.

– Excerpt from Santana Nash's Commencement speech

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Commencement Photos

See more photos of the graduation ceremony courtesy of AwoTùndé, including a welcome reception at the Eventi Hotel in Manhattan, featuring poster sessions with the IDSVA graduates’ dissertation topics.

Other events during the weekend included a symposium and pop-up exhibition by the Alumni Association titled The Artist-Philosopher-In-Practice. These events, held at Gallery MC and the Eventi Hotel, also included a screening of The Novara and IDSVA at the Good Life Center filmed by Christopher Andrew. Photos by AwoTùndé.

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Fall and Spring Webinars

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Foucault's Spatial Archeology of Experience‍

A Webinar Presentation by David Webb

In spring 2026 we had the pleasure to host a webinar lecture by David Webb (Professor of Philosophy at Staffordshire University). In this talk Webb proposes that Foucault does not begin with a ready-made conceptual geometry but rather maps a multiplicity of historical and theoretical limits, divisions, exclusions and practices of various kinds from which the recurrent spatial forms that define a historical period emerge.

To develop this reading, Prof. Webb draws on Michel Serres’s essay “The Geometry of the Incommunicable: Madness,” which helps us to see how Foucault’s method is topological in that he identifies relational structures that remain invariant across transformations.

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The Artist-Philosopher in the Age of Addiction: Heidegger's Climatology

Online book launch with author, George Smith

Part of our series of online book launches, Prof. George Smith (Founder and President Emeritus of the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts) presented his latest publication in a conversation with Prof. Howard Caygill and IDSVA graduate, Dr. Amy Schuessler. In his book, Smith argues that modern humanity suffers from a late-stage, pre-fatal addiction to scientific-technological thinking.

Like most pre-fatal addictions, this one will most likely result in one of three ways: misery, extinction, or human transformation.

Signs from the Future. A Philosophy of Warnings

Online book launch with author, Santiago Zabala

In fall 2025, Santiago Zabala (ICREA Research Professor at Pompeu Fabra University and Independent Study and Dissertation Director at IDSVA) presented his latest book in a conversation with Prof. Silvia Mazzini (IDSVA), Prof. Martin Woessner (City College of New York) and Prof. Simonetta Moro (IDSVA). In his book, Prof. Zabala asks us to think of philosophy as a warning, a call to heed ominous “signs from the future.”

He argues that warnings—as distinct from predictions—invite us to see the possibility of a radical break from the present. Predictions tell us to submit to the inevitable, but warnings ask us to take part in shaping a different future.

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Community Announcements

Effective August 1, 2026

We are pleased to welcome the following new hires at IDSVA!

Dr. Reed brings over a decade of experience in education and nonprofit leadership as the former Director of Innovation at Via International, a San Diego-based institution where he designed and coordinated immersive educational programs and fostered international partnerships through community development and global travel. Dr. Reed is an accomplished artist-philosopher and educator whose artistic and scholarly practice bridges philosophical and ceramic traditions, centering on aesthetic material, imagination, and thinking through fire.

Dr. Schuessler is a Teaching Assistant and recent graduate of IDSVA (PhD 2026). Amy has also served as Chair of TA's and as Assistant to the Director. Until recently, Dr. Schuessler was teaching in the Ohio State University Department of History of Art and serving as Executive Gallery Director of the ROY G BIV Gallery for Emerging Artists.

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Student Newsletter

Please be sure to visit our Student Newsletter webpage to read articles written by our students and alumni.

LEARN MORE

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Students & Alumni Conference Participation

Our students and alumni’s presence on the academic conference circuit remains strong. A sample of the accomplishments of the past year include Fall and Spring participants from within the IDSVA community. More updates can be found on the Our Students & Alumni page.

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We look forward to building on what we've learned, embracing new challenges, and continuing to grow together in the year ahead.

Thank you for GIVING

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