American Academy in Rome Announces 2025–2026 Rome Prize Fellows
A new cohort of 35 artists and academics have joined the ranks of American creatives to be named as Rome Prize fellows by the American Academy in Rome (AAR). First established in 1894 under the leadership of architect Charles McKim and incorporated by the U.S. Congress in 1905, the venerable non-profit is America’s oldest independent overseas research institution for the arts and humanities. This year’s recipients will be presented at the Janet & Arthur Ross Rome Prize Ceremony, taking place this evening at the City University of New York Graduate Center.
Starting this September, the latest group of Rome Prize awardees will start their five-to-ten-month residencies on the AAR’s historic campus at Janiculum Hill. Each will be presented with the “time and space to think and work” through independent workspace, room and board, and stipends granted by the AAR as part of the highly competitive program, which spans 12 disciplines including architecture, landscape architecture, design, and historic preservation and conservation. This year there is also a pilot Rome Prize in Environmental Arts and Humanities that, per the AAR, was “designed specifically for collaborative efforts between artists and scholars working jointly on projects that help understand our expand our understanding of the way human beings relate to, experience, and process their encounters with the natural world.”
This cycle, the AAR received a total of 990 fellowship applications from 44 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, as well as 17 different countries. The acceptance rate was 3.5 percent, with recipients ranging in age from 28 to 71 years old. (The average awardee age is 45.)
Jurors overseeing the design, architecture, and landscape architecture disciplines included, among others, Dorothée Imbert (chair), Deborah Berke, Nicholas de Monchaux, Carlos Jiménez, and Gregory Wessner.
In addition to the latest Rome Prize recipients, the AAR also announced a group of invited residents who will join the 2025–2026 fellows for one to three months to “engage one another as they rethink and expand the boundaries of their disciplines, challenge assumptions, and cultivate ideas that resonate far beyond the institution’s walls.” They include Lesley Lokko (architecture), Susan Chin (architecture), Glenn LaRue Smith (landscape architecture), Lorraine Wild (design), and Brent Leggs (historic preservation and conservation).
Launching April 24 at a83 in New York is Roman Thresholds, an exhibition showcasing prints, collages, and drawings produced by Rome Prize alumni including Germane Barnes (2022 fellow), Michael Graves (1962 fellow, 1979 resident), and others. The displayed works “explore architectural forms to blur the lines between architecture, visual arts, and design, all shaped by the transformative experience of the Rome Prize.” The show runs through May 25.
Below are the 2025–2026 Rome Prize winners, along with the projects they’ll be working on in the Eternal City in the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, design, and historic preservation. You can view the full list of the AAR’s latest fellows, including the 2025–2026 Italian Fellows and those working in the visual arts, literature, medieval studies, and more, on the AAR website.
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2025–2026 Rome Prize in Architecture
Akima Brackeen, assistant professor, School of Architecture, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | Sonic Impressions | Lily Auchincloss Rome Prize
Cory Henry, principal and founder Atelier Cory Henry, Los Angeles | Borders of Belonging: Rome’s Public Spaces as Arenas of Democracy and Dissent | Arnold W. Brunner/Frances Barker Tracy/Katherine Edwards Gordon Rome Prize
2025–2026 Rome Prize in Landscape Architecture
Tameka Baba, Professional Practice assistant professor, Landscape Architecture section, Knowlton School, The Ohio State University | Urban Tapestry: Exploring soft density in Rome’s public spaces | Garden Club of America/Prince Charitable Trusts Rome Prize
Sean Burkholder, associate professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, Stuart Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, and Karen Lutsky, associate professor, Landscape Architecture, College of Design, University of Minnesota | Timescapes of Lake Bracciano | Gilmore D. Clarke and Michael Rapuano/ Kate Lancaster Brewster Rome Prize
2025–2026 Rome Prize in Design
Heather Scott Peterson, professor, Department of Architecture, Woodbury University | Etchings and Accretions: The Geomicrobial Transfiguration of Rome | Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Rome Prize
Ginny Sims-Burchard, proprietor and studio artist, Ginny Sims Ceramics, Minneapolis | Moments in Sculpture | Mark Hampton/Henry W. and Marian T. Mitchell Rome Prize
2025–2025 Rome Prize in Historic Preservation and Conservation
Claudia Chemello and Paul Mardikian, principals and co-founders, Terra Mare Conservation, Charleston, South Carolina | Preserving Archaeological Remains in Situ | Suzanne Deal Booth Rome Prize
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