Celebrating the Prato Centre in words and images
Writer and editor Cynthia Troup, and photomedia artist Jo-Anne Duggan, draw attention to the elegant spaces of the Palazzo Vaj, home of Monash University’s Prato Centre in their collaborative book A Site of Convergence: Celebrating 10 Years of the Monash University Prato Centre.
The publication, launched during the recent 10th anniversary celebrations of the Centre, is rich in images and vignettes detailing exhilarating experiences of encounter with the city and people of Prato contributed by visitors and people involved in the Centre’s establishment.
The Palazzo Vaj is a landmark eighteenth-century mansion in the dynamic city of Prato in the heart of Tuscany.
Cynthia Troup is a writer, historian and academic editor with a background in Italian studies, while Jo-Anne Duggan, the Prato Centre’s first artist-in-residence, is a photomedia artist who has investigated site-specificity, the complexity of the museum and the pasts that collide in the context of viewing art and historical materials.
“The Monash University Prato Centre is unique,” Ms Troup said.
“‘Celebrating’ is used in the subtitle of this volume because the founding and first decade of the Centre represents a ‘good news story’ — in which so much hard work, creativity and idealism are, of course, persistent themes,” Ms Troup said.
“Without exception, all who were contacted during research for the publication were delighted to reflect on their experiences of the Centre’s history and programs; experiences that are inseparable from the flourishing and interest of Prato itself, the pleasures of the Palazzo Vaj.”
Professor Stephanie Fahey, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagement) and chair of the Prato Board said that A Site of Convergence is a unique volume resulting from the collaboration between Cynthia and Jo-Anne.
“Monash University developed the Prato Centre to deepen Australia's connections with universities, governments, cultural organisations via innovative and global education and research programs,” Professor Fahey said.
“The book highlights the Centre’s vitality as a place where knowledge is shared and deepened across the world’s hemispheres; across generations, a wide spectrum of disciplines and areas of research.”
Designed as a tribute to the humanist vision that shaped the development of the Centre, and as a fitting marker of the commencement of the Centre’s artist-in-residence program in 2010, A Site of Convergence includes Jo-Anne Duggan’s account of her association with the Centre, and its profound effect on her creative vision and practice.
A Site of Convergence has been published by Monash University Publishing and is available in print and online.