The Wolfsonian–Florida International University is a museum and research center that promotes the examination of modern visual and material culture. The focus of the Wolfsonian collection is on North American and European decorative arts, propaganda, architecture, and industrial and graphic design of the period 1851–1950. The collection includes works on paper (including posters, prints and design drawings), furniture, paintings, sculpture, glass, textiles, ceramics, lighting and other appliances, and many other kinds of objects. The Wolfsonian’s library has approximately 50,000 rare books, periodicals, and ephemeral items.
The Wolfsonian’s collection is an important resource for the study of Italian culture and politics in the first half of the twentieth century. The Wolfsonian holds an outstanding collection of Italian Stile Floreale furniture and decorative art, as well as rare publications that document Italian design of this period. The collection also has strong holdings of Futurist decorative and graphic art, publications about Rationalist architecture, and exhibition catalogs from the 1920s and 1930s. A number of significant journals—such as Domus, Capitolium, Emporium, Casabella—complement these holdings.
Books, journals, fine art, posters, and other objects in the collection address key aspects of the Fascist regime, including the Duce cult; Italian colonization of North Africa; the planning of new towns; the celebration of aeronautic achievements; the autarchy campaign; youth and student organizations; Romanità; and sports and fitness campaigns. The Wolfsonian also has a substantial amount of Italian war propaganda, including an archive of propaganda material produced under the Italian Social Republic.
Besides material from Italy, the Wolfsonian also has extensive holdings from the United States, France, Great Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands. There are also smaller but significant collections of materials from a number of other countries, including Austria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Japan, the former Soviet Union and Hungary.
Fellowships are intended to support full-time research, generally for a period of three to five weeks. The program is open to holders of master’s or doctoral degrees, Ph.D. candidates, and to others who have a significant record of professional achievement in relevant fields. Applicants are encouraged to discuss their project with Wolfsonian staff prior to submission to ensure the relevance of their proposals to the Wolfsonian’s collection. For more information, visit https://www.wolfsonian.org/research/fellowships or email to research@thewolf.fiu.edu.
The application deadline is December 31, for residency during the 2023–24 academic year.
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