A new home for Warwick in Venice

Welcome to Venice...

As we open the doors to our new home overlooking Venice's Grand Canal, let's take a moment to explore this exciting space within the Palazzo Giustinian Lolin building and find out how it will benefit students, researchers and partners over the years to come.

"Recommitting ourselves to this city is also about committing ourselves yet more deeply to students having international experiences... to education with international partners." - Professor Stuart Croft, Vice-Chancellor

Plus, hear from Warwick staff members as they share precious memories of their own time in Venice.

Transcript

Professor Stuart Croft, Vice-Chancellor: We are opening our wonderful new centre, which is primarily, in the first instance, a centre for the Venice term, for History and History for art students. But we are growing this to reach out to a whole series of other programmes.

Dr Bryan Brazeau, Deputy Head for Cross-Faculty Studies: I really think that this site testifies to how much Warwick values being a global citizen and how much it does that institutionally in the hope to foster that sense of global citizenship and belonging among its staff, its students and every member of the Warwick community.

Professor Stuart Croft, Vice-Chancellor: I have to confess; Venice is my favourite city in the whole world. It is absolutely unique.

So recommitting ourselves to this city is also about committing ourselves yet more deeply to students having international experiences, to education with international partners. For our staff, research collaboration is also really important and through EUTOPIA, through our partnership with Ca'Foscari, we have that ability to really develop and deepen the excellent, high-quality research that we do.

Luca Mola, Associate Professor, History: My dream: it's to transform this place not from just a teaching space, to a teaching and special research place. So to set up collaborations with other universities, with other institutions across Italy, across Europe and possibly across the world. But it’s a big dream, I have to say.

image of students boating on grand canal

Warwick staff mingling at the launch event

Staff memories

We’re so proud of our new home in the heart of Venice. But did you know that Warwick first opened a base in Venice way back in 1967? That's over half a century of Warwick students having the chance to immerse themselves in the history, art and culture of this unique city - and over half a century of our brilliant Venice staff teams leading the way.

To celebrate this exciting new home for Warwick, we asked staff to share some special memories of their time spent in Venice...

Favourite teaching experiences

"The Venice terms provide amazing opportunities for Warwick students to get to know the city of Venice and the surrounding Veneto region.

One of my favourite teaching experiences was taking a group of MA students to Verona to tour the Castelvecchio museum - a building with a tumultuous history.

Our visit helped us to understand how the contested Veneto region became a breeding ground for so much cultural production, as well as being a simply breathtaking city in which to spend the day!"

- Dr Danielle Stewart, History of Art

Round-the-clock enthusiasm

"Discovering some of Venice's many surprises with the students was wonderful. My module explored the modern architecture of Venice, and my abiding memory is how involved the students became.

Emails were dropping into my inbox at all times of the day and night telling me about new buildings they had discovered and couldn't wait to share!

Their active input helped the module to evolve over the course of term, and learning together made the teaching a very special experience."

- Dr Sarah Walford, History of Art

Happy times

"I'm the only permanent member of Venice staff - I love my job. Most of all I love being among international students and teaching staff, who are not only colleagues but also friends.

I always enjoy the regatta, when the Warwick rowing team takes part in an international race at the Grand Canal during the famous Regata Storica event. Looking at the students rowing in the Grand Canal and thinking how emotional this can be for them has always made me so happy."

- Chiara Croff, Venice Programme Coordinator

Wayward water

"Site visits in Venice provide unique challenges - on several occasions, our tour of the Rialto area had to be shortened as acqua alta (high water) lapped around our feet!

Luckily, the recently completed barriers at the entrance to the Lagoon now ensure that the city - and our feet - stay dry."

- Dr Jonathan Davies, History

Surprise visitors

"Occasionally, other visitors attached themselves to our group on site visits. I remember teaching students in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco when some distinguished-looking figures decided that they also wanted to hear what I had to say. I realised that one of them was José Manuel Barroso, then the President of the European Commission!"

- Dr Jonathan Davies

Image of staff members at launch event, standing in front of purple WELCOME sign

A magical place

"Even on the most bitterly cold and foggy January days, Venice is a magical place. You could walk the same route every day for a month and see something different on every journey." - Dr Sarah Walford

"I'll never forget the privilege of working in such a beautiful and historic environment." - Dr Jonathan Davies

"And now, at a new venue on the Grand Canal, other stories and memories will follow..." - Chiara Croff

Find out more about our new Venice home and our aims for global engagement