SACI

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title: "SACI" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["art-schools-in-italy"] description: "Arts college in Florence, Italy" topic_path: "geography/italy" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SACI" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Arts college in Florence, Italy ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/SACIFacade.jpg" caption="Facade of SACI"] ::

SACI's Conservation Department worked on paintings from the Renaissance, giving students the opportunity to learn while actually restoring works. Between 1996 and 2006, the department fully restored the historic Chapel of [(Santa Maria degli Angiolini)], which had been closed since 1966, when it was damaged by the flood.

In June 2021, SACI's Board of Trustees communicated that, due to the consequences of the global COVID-19 pandemics, including lockdowns and travel restrictions, it had initiated the closing process of the school.

Facilities

SACI's main facilities are two historical palazzi in the center of Florence: the Palazzo dei Cartelloni, acquired in 1999, and the Palazzo Jules Maidoff for the Visual Arts, inaugurated in 2010.

Palazzo dei Cartelloni is 29000 sqft located at Via Sant'Antonino 11. It contains gallery/exhibition space, classrooms, a library, offices, an art conservation laboratory, media facilities and studios surrounding a large, traditional Italian garden. The interiors have been restored to their original Baroque-era style, with painted ceilings, fresco-ed walls and marble floors. This location is in the vicinity of the Duomo, the churches of San Lorenzo and Santa Maria Novella, and is just steps away from the central market and the new Alinari photography museum. The Palazzo was remodeled as a residence in the 17th century for the mathematician Vincenzo Viviani, who had been a pupil of the astronomer and scientist Galileo Galilei. Viviani dedicated his home to his esteemed teacher and placed two large scrolls on the building's façade that describe the work and achievements of his master. He also added a bust of Galileo to the front facade that crowns the entranceway. Viviani created this monument to Galileo in defiance of the papal ban that forbade honoring the work of Galileo partly because of Galileo's assertion that, "The truth of nature is more important than traditional dogma." SACI's home is, therefore, a unique monument to a man who is considered "one of the two greatest sons of Florence" (along with Michelangelo Buonarroti), an accolade inscribed on the buildings scrolls.

SACI's newest facility is also a major palazzo in the center of Florence: the Jules Maidoff Palazzo for the Visual Arts, which is named after SACI's founder and director emeritus. This palazzo includes a floor with large, well-lit painting studios; SACI's new graduate center, with its own terrace and garden access; SACI's new design center and design library; fully equipped animation and fresco studios; a student lounge, with additional computers for student internet access; gallery spaces; two major lecture halls; and a Renaissance courtyard.

SACI Gallery

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/SACIGallery.JPG" caption="Gallery of SACI"] ::

The SACI Gallery was designed by architect Paolo Bulletti and its renovation was made possible in part through a donation by artist Roger Phillips. The SACI Gallery is approximately 675 sqft, has high vaulted ceilings, movable partition walls, and is adjacent to a courtyard garden.

References

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::