D.onna, young and director. At just 28 years old, the archaeologist Tiziana D’Angelo was nominated head of the Archaeological Park of Paestum and Velia. He still doesn’t believe it, but that’s the way it is.
The announcement came from the Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini who, together with his own, also made official the positions at the helm of museums and autonomous sites in Italy for five other colleagues.
Tiziana D’Angelo, a young director
Milanese, but with Apulian origins, D’Angelo will be one of the youngest directors in Italy. Graduated in Classical and Oriental Antiquities at the Ghislieri College of Pavia, specializes in Oxford and then immediately moved to the United States where he obtained a doctorate in Classical Archeology atHarvard University with a thesis on the painted tombs of southern Italy in classical and Hellenistic times.
A career abroad
And it is precisely in the United States that D’Angelo begins to work, first as a research assistant and then as Agnes Mongan Curatorial Intern at Harvard Art Museums. Then as a fellow at the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Washington and, again, at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. The road continues to Deutsches Archäologisches Institut in Berlin (2013) and then again in America, at the Metropolitan in New York (2013-2014).
From 2014 to 2018 he taught Classical Art and Archeology atCambridge University as a lecturer, and during the same period she was Director of Classical Studies at St. Edmund’s College in Cambridge. And since 2018 she was an assistant professor of Greek and Ancient Roman Art at the University of Nottingham.
Tiziana D’Angelo: an honor
And now the Archaeological Park of Paestum and Velia. As director. An honor, she says, and also an opportunity to finally return to Italy. Paestum means a lot to her, given her specialization in Magna Graecia archeology in pre-Roman Italy. The first time he visited it was in 2012 and the director was Marina Cipriani. He studied the many painted steles kept here and began many collaborations with the former director Gabriel Zuchtriegel.
The action plans
Now it’s his turn: what will he do? It will certainly proceed with the projects already activated. First among all, the redevelopment plan of the former Cirio factorysouth of the ancient walls, which must be recovered as soon as possible and will host exhibition spaces, educational activities and events.
And then, will move to Velia, where its entire museum system needs to be reactivated, opening to the public the underground gallery of the former Velia Scavi station, a former archaeological deposit. Then it will undertake new excavation campaigns, as long as they all have an immediate impact on research.
iO Donna © REPRODUCTION RESERVED