Filippo Grassi awarded an ArtsforAll grant to develop his Art History Courses project

This award will allow Filippo to further develop a project he first conceived and fleshed out the past year in the Collaboratory

A few weeks ago Filippo Grassi received the happy news that his year-long Collaboratory project, Art History Courses, was selected as worthy of one of the ArtsAMP Graduate Student Research Grants awarded and managed by the ArtsforAll campus initiative.

As Filippo describes the project, it "aims to develop an online platform offering readily available, well-structured, and comprehensive courses on selected topics in art history. Each course focuses on objects and images, guiding users through a limited number of well-explained artworks. This approach allows students to look closely at each piece, equipping them with new knowledge and the skills to appreciate unfamiliar art without overwhelming them with information.

The platform is ideal for survey art history courses, as well as for more circumscribed topics, single artists, or museum collections. It is useful not only for newcomers to the field, but also for art historians who study specific geographical areas or time periods and seek an introduction to other artistic traditions or periods.

The goal is to make this new resource available to all UMD students from all majors and potentially to a broader audience curious about art history."

The $2000 award will allow Filippo to partner with a member of the Computer Science department to further refine his existing code and its deployment so that Filippo can focus on the development of four or five courses taught by graduate students using his platform that will be ready by May 2025.

Congratulations Filippo on this award, much deserved, and good luck developing this project!