0:00 SUSMAN: Art in Embassies was started by John F. Kennedy in 1963. The idea was that ambassadors
0:07 at posts would have wonderful artworks with which to create discussions and help with
0:12 cultural diplomacy. Today Art in Embassies is a public private partnership, we have over
0:17 20,000 artists that we’ve worked with and what we try to do is mix artists from host
0:23 countries along with American and international artists.
0:26 PHILLIPS: This is about the Art in Embassies program which provides works of art for the
0:32 representational spaces of the US chanceries, consulates and the embassy residences around
0:39 the world in 190 countries. So it’s a big program, a lot of buildings.
0:44 SUSMAN: The wonderful, eclectic art collection here at Villa Taverna is a testament to the
0:50 vision of Ambassador John Phillips and his wife Linda. They wanted to really fuse America
0:55 and Italy where John’s parents and grandparents had originally come from. We’re very lucky
1:00 to have in this collection such notable artists as Sean Scully and Philip Guston as well as
1:07 a wonderful woman artist named Joyce Kozloff who created masks that describe voyages people
1:13 take around the world based originally on the masks of Venice. We also have landscape
1:18 painting and some fantastic works by Donzelli, an Italian who did tapestries. Altogether,
1:25 this collection is a wonderful testament to their vision of how Italy and the United States
1:31 work together to make the world a better place.