Melissa Conn, a Wake Forest graduate, runs the Save Venice, Inc. program here in Venice. Her headquarters is just a few palaces down the canal! She attended Casa Artom when she was in school and met her future husband at the Corner Café just outside our house. The rest is history and ironically, she has a son who now attends WFU in Winston-Salem!
Save Venice Inc. is the leading American nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the artistic heritage of Venice, Italy. Since 1971, Save Venice has funded the restoration of more than 500 artistic, architectural, and culturally significant works. In 2015, Save Venice established the Rosand Library & Study Center in Venice, creating a nexus for the research of Venetian art, history, and conservation.
https://www.savevenice.org/about
Save Venice was established in response to the serious damage caused by the 1966 floods. Since the flooding of November 12 -17, 2019, the Acqua Alta, it has been seen great attention. Yesterday Melissa took us around and we toured a large Roman Catholic church, Santa Maria del Carmelo, that Save Venice helped restore a couple months ago. The salt water from the sea covered the marble tiles in the floor which needed fresh water rinsing. Wooden furniture needed restoration. Preventative measures, metal doorway barriers, have been made.
Today she invited us to the Rosand Library. The library has over five thousand volumes and also includes a substantial rare book collection dating to the 16th century, periodicals and journals, as well as dissertations. When David Rosand bequeathed his library to Save Venice, it also included a part of his vast personal research archive. Highlights of the archive include material on great masters like Titian, Paolo Veronese, Giorgione, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Domenico Campagnola, Palma il Giovane, and Peter Paul Rubens.
The Rosand Library is on the top floor of the Palazzo Contarini Polignac, an early renaissance building, and is a palace probably built in the late fifteenth century. The views of the Grand Canal from her office windows were stunning!
2020 Vision of Venice 