Art History Alive

arthisto February 26th, 2009

Below is an article that was recently published in two California business newspapers describing Art History Alive. It affords the reader a succinct look at the small group AHA philosophy of valuable travel. The picture is funny, as I look like a cod fish, but that is really my passion showing. The photo was taken by my husband Jim, in the small hilltown of Pitigliano, after a delicious three course lunch with a fun group of clients.

ART HISTORY ALIVE IMMERSION: The New Travel Edge
San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce Advocate, February 2009, Vol. 81, No. 2 AND San Jose Business Journal, February 13, 2009, Vol. 26, No. 42.

Cynthia Quist, director of Art History Alive, may be a new member of the SJSV Chamber, but she actually grew up with it. Cynthia is the daughter of Ron James, the first directly-elected Mayor of San Jose who went on to serve as President and CEO of the San Jose Chamber of Commerce from 1974 through 1990. San Jose has always been a part of Cynthia’s life.

Over the past 25 years, Cynthia, with her husband Jim and their four children, have lived in Sydney, Australia, Hong Kong, and Connecticut, and have traveled extensively. Now, having returned home to California, Cynthia has taken her vast travel acumen and turned it into Art History Alive, a company devoted to cultural immersion travel. We asked Cynthia to define this type of travel. “It is the wrapping of clients in the art, history, and culture of a place. It is absolutely the most fulfilling way to travel.”

“First, group size is 4 to 8. Second, we stay in very historic hotels and castles. Third, our lodgings are typically located in the heart of the historic center of our destinations. Fourth, at a meandering pace, we visit the art and architecture of the locale, enriched by delicious traditional cuisine and local wines. Finally, the most valuable ingredient in cultural immersion is something that you cannot get in a larger group, and that is the gift of time. Time to think, digest, and just “be” in a place. Tight schedules do not exist for AHA.”

AHA travels to many beautiful and culturally rich places, but Italy is by far a favorite destination. “I have found that my clients are intellectually curious about Italy”, says Cynthia. “They want more than a survey tour, and their penetrating questions are proof.”

“Daily we challenge ourselves personally and professionally, and are able to absorb and learn new skills at an amazing rate. If we take that ability on a cultural immersion experience, you will be surprised at how enlightened you feel, and how this breathtaking art serves as a balance to our fast-paced lives.”

Here is the AHA recipe for cultural immersion:

1. Our groups are very small.
2. We move at our own pace.
3. AHA surrounds you daily with architecture and art that dates back hundreds and thousands of years. This puts our lives in immediate perspective.
4. Our meals are a social event, Italian style. Lunch and dinner with AHA are typically a slow-paced, multi-coursed affair, in warm and inviting family-run restaurants that we have enjoyed for years. Everything is prepared fresh and each course compliments the next. Around these tables we casually discuss what we have seen and experienced.

“It is so fulfilling for me to watch history become clear over a steaming plate of pasta and a glass of local red wine.”

For more information on Art History Alive and their destinations for 2009, visit www.arthistoryalive.com or call Cynthia Quist at 831.475.3807

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arthisto February 3rd, 2009

Dark Water, by Robert Clark; Published by Doubleday, 2008; First Edition; 354 pages; inside cover map of Florence 1226 – 1966. $26.00; ISBN 978-0-7679-2648-5

“This dramatic, beautifully written account of the flood that ravaged Florence, Italy, in 1966 weaves heartbreaking tales of the disaster and stories of the heroic global efforts to save the city’s treasures against the historic background of Florence’s glorious art.” Inside front cover of Dark Water: Flood and Redemption in the City of Masterpieces.

Within the first pages of Dark Water, the author, Robert Clark, refers vaguely to his noticing of “a tile.” This immediately caught my attention because, I too, have noticed and wondered about these tiles that are mounted here and there, high above my head, in Florence. Now, having read Dark Water, I am not wondering anymore. In fact, my wondering has been replaced with amazement.

These tiles, embedded permanently in walls and ceilings around the city, indicate the high water mark of the great flood of November 1966, when the Arno crested its banks and drowned Florence.

Based on expansive research, the author wades the reader through several of the floods that have ravaged Florence over the centuries, occurring curiously about every 150 years. However, as interesting as these historical accounts are, Mr. Clark is all the while, building suspense for the worst flood to date.

We come to know, not only the personalities and peculiarities of the Florentine art experts, but the Arno itself. We learn how, in the face of the loss of the art that represents Western Civilization, everyone from the most exalted and world renown art historians and restorers, to the lowly “mud angels,” rushed from everywhere to help organize and save what they are not willing to live without. In many cases they are forced to improvise and create restoration techniques on the fly, in a mad race against mold, mildew, and tons and tons of mud.

As the water recedes the dilemma of a lifetime stares back at the art historians, rescuers, restorers, and Western Civilization as a whole.

What to do?
Where to start?
Save the least damaged first or the worst?
Is there such a thing as a piece of art that is no longer worth saving?
What about the floating books in the Biblioteca Nazionale, Italy’s Library of Congress?

These are the overwhelming questions that had to be answered and fast. Here is where the book became a page turner for me.

In some cases an amazing solution is applied to the delight and relief of most, never all, but most. After forty years of painstaking care and constant attention, hundreds and hundreds of pieces of art were finally returned to there homes for the world to enjoy.

“A wonderfully intimate evocation both of the geniuses that created Florence’s masterpieces and the teams of art experts and “mud angels” who rescued them. Anyone visiting Florence after reading Dark Water will find the city all the more precious and miraculous.” Ross King, author of Brunelleschi’s Dome

I agree and look forward, more than ever, to my next visit to Florence. I will see her through more perceptive and appreciative eyes.

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