Springtime, Renewal and Reflection
by Joseph V. Scelsa
 

At this time of the year, when the weather starts to get warmer and flowers start to bloom, one is reminded that Spring is the season of renewal. There are so many activities and functions in our community, at this time, like the Annual Italian American Museum gala, that one needs time to reflect on what has taken place.

Allow us to take this opportunity to reflect and give thanks. Over the past year, the Italian American Museum (IAM) has mounted seven new exhibits:
Behind the Barbed Wire: Photo Documentary of Life and Culture in a POW Stalag Camp, Italian American Museum, Spring 2003
Enrico Caruso: The Life and Work of an Opera Legend, Italian American Museum, Fall 2003
Italian Americans in Aviation, Intrepid Museum, Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum sponsored by the Columbus Citizens Foundation, October 2003
Desperate Inscriptions: Graffiti from a Nazi Prison in Rome, Italian American Museum, February 2004
The Art of Freedom: Onorio Ruotolo and the Leonardo Da Vinci Art School, Italian American Museum, Spring 2004
Memory & History, the art of B. Amore and Pauline Jacobsberg, Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Queens College, Spring 2004
Evviva La Madonna Nera!, Italian American devotion to the Black Madonna, by artist B. Amore (traveling exhibition), Mount Vernon City Hall, Spring 2004



In December 2003, we entered into a formal agreement with The City University of New York, Queens College and the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, which has strengthened our academic and public program offerings while we actively pursue a permanent home for our museum.

In the coming year, we look forward to the installation of our new library in Fall 2004. Once completed, we will have 20,000 Italian and English books on Italian and Italian American themes. The collection is being installed under the watchful eye of our Historical Advisor, Distinguished Professor Philip V. Cannistraro. This significant collection will become a focal point for the research of museum scholars and students for years to come.

Yes, we have much to be thankful for and much to look forward to. At our gala this year, we honored three outstanding individuals: Mrs. Matilda Raffa Cuomo the driving force behind the institutionalization of the Advance Placement Test in Italian being offered by the College Board. Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, a true friend of the Italian American Museum who championed the affiliation of the museum and The University and Tony Lo Bianco who has lent his talent and celebrity to give voice to the Sons of Italy in America as their national spokesperson.

This year, in addition, we will be presenting a special award for lifetime

achievement in humanitarian services to Dr. Lucia Servadia Bedarida, the

oldest living Italian American in the United States. Lucia will be 104

years old next month. She is the subject of a new documentary film entitled

“From Here to Tangier: The Remarkable Life and Global Travels of Dr. Lucia

Servadia Bedarida” or “Chasing Lucia”.



All the major national Italian American organizations have joined to support the IAM. The Columbus Citizens Foundation, the National Italian American Foundation, UNICO National Foundation, the Coalition of Italo-American Associations and the National Organization of Italian American Women, and most important, individual visitors and supporters of the IAM, have encouraged us by their enthusiastic response.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Italian American Museum, we thank you one and all.

Buona Pasqua.
Joseph V. Scelsa
President