Friends of Phillips Academy have two reasons to celebrate in Venice in the fall of 2008. The Addison Gallery of American Art will be sending seventy of its greatest paintings and sculptures to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in the landmark exhibition, Coming of Age: American Art 1850s to 1950s. This year is also the 500th anniversary of Andrea Palladio’s birth. Neither exhibitions nor books nor lectures equal the first hand experience of his great buildings, and now many of them have been recently restored. The Addison’s jewel-box museum building, designed by Charles Platt, is itself deeply indebted to the genius of Palladio.

This special tour takes us to some of the greatest monuments in Italian art, with a special emphasis on Palladio as well as his influence on both his immediate disciples and his followers over the centuries. The program will be enriched with private visits and receptions in the palaces of Venice and the villas of the Veneto, and will include some of Palladio’s less familiar buildings, as well as his renowned classic creations.