An extended version of this video can be found on the Mission & History page of this website as well as on our Youtube Channel.
Civitella is a residency program for international writers, composers, and visual artists. Since 1995, Civitella has hosted more than 1,000 Fellows and Director’s Guests. The Center enables its Fellows to pursue their work and to exchange ideas in a unique and inspiring setting.
“Every once in a while, if you are lucky, you get to experience a place so beautiful that you get an overwhelming sense that the creativity of the universe, of nature, is more splendid than anything anyone could have imagined. This is home. A place in time, remembered with those with whom you shared it. Such is, and will be, Civitella, my Civitella.”
Giving Tuesday: Support Us
Please join the many supporters of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. On the heels of our most difficult year, your gifts have never been more important. Thank you for your generosity on this Giving Tuesday. If you are donating in the USA, please go to:...
Career Opportunity: Coordinator for Programs and Operations
Ready to become part of an international team dedicated to the inspiring mission of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation? The Foundation seeks a full time Coordinator for Programs and Operations to be based in the New York office located in Tribeca. The position is...
Stories for the Years – Virtual Book Launch
You are invited to the virtual launch of the book Stories for the Years (Yale University Press), the new translation of Luigi Pirandello’s book by Civitellian Virginia Jewiss (DG 2009). The event, co-sponsored by the University of Notre Dame and Civitella Ranieri,...
Artists require unfettered time and space to engage in their work and the world. Building on the legacy of our founder, Civitella Ranieri Foundation opens the doors of its 15th century Castle in rural Umbria annually for four six-week residency sessions of self-directed studio and work time.
“Civitella Ranieri is an exquisite place to work. There is a grand feeling here of care-taking that is rare and stupendous and lucky. My weeks there were some of the most productive of my life. And also, some of the most pleasurable…”

Join us for Winter Session
Learn more about Winter Session and the opportunity for you to stay in the Castle each November through April.

Letter From the Director
Message of welcome from Dana Prescott, Executive Director of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation.

News/Events
We invite you to celebrate our Fellows by joining us at any of our events in 2020.
Each session at Civitella brings together accomplished international artists, writers, and composers at emerging and established moments in their careers.
“There is no place that takes such good care of its Guests and Fellows as Civitella Ranieri does; no place that offers so much and demands so little in return. There is no place that I know of where such a profound relief from the cares and distractions of daily life are possible and where work, even one’s best work, can be done, with pleasure and without interruption.”
Emerging talent, mid-career Fellows, and senior, established professionals are all sought to round out the community of any given group. Below is a representative sampling of past Fellows.
Civitella Ranieri Fellowships are awarded through a careful nomination and jury process by a rotating group of distinguished artists, academics, and critics that ensures access to a highly diverse group of emerging and accomplished candidates from around the world.
“At Civitella I worked hard, laughed hard, and was consistently amazed- by the beauty of the landscape in which we lived, the food we ate, and the art we visited, by the talent and intelligence of my fellow residents, and the effort and care that the Civitella staff exerted to feed me, teach me, and think of everything I might need so I could think only of my work.”
Located just outside the small city of Umbertide, the Ranieri castle is one of the best-preserved castles in Umbria.
“Civitella is geographically rich, and this asset cannot be overemphasized. The regular forays into the Renaissance landscape are stimulating, of course, but also soothing… to seamlessly blend work and play.”