Annual Report 2007-8 - The British School at Rome

D I R E C T O R ’ S R E P O R Tand produce much else as spin off. This year has seen noless than two exhibitions of the photographs of ThomasAshby: I giganti dell’acqua followed him in pursuit of theaqueducts of Lazio, in a series of haunting images, thanksto the generous support of the Regione Lazio, in consortwith the Comune di Roma and the Istituto Centrale per ilCatalogo e la Documentazione; this was followed later inthe year by the no less striking images of the ItinerariAbruzzesi. The success and interest of these initiatives hasattracted sponsorship of other kinds, and we areparticularly pleased that the John R. Murray CharitableTrust is now supporting the conservation and restorationof some of our rare books. John and Virginia Murray werealso generous in hosting a fundraising event in the oldseat of the publishing house in London: our goal is tobring an exhibition of Ashby photographs to Sir JohnSoane’s Museum, with which we have set up a welcomenew partnership.Our archaeology is equally dependent on externalsupport, on the major grant from the Arts and HumanitiesResearch Council that supports Simon Keay’s work atPortus, and the ability of the collaboration withSouthampton University in geophysics to undertakenumerous other projects. The greatest single item on ourbudget, however, is the Herculaneum ConservationProject, a long-standing collaboration with the PackardHumanities Institute and the Soprintendenza Archeologicadi Napoli e Pompei (Naples and Pompeii have beenmerged by a reform this year, still under Professor PieroGuzzo). The impact of a project with a turnover of nearlytwo million pounds a year is much more visible on site atHerculaneum than in Rome, but the allowance of anadministration fee to the BSR, in recognition of thesignificant impact of the project not only on the Directorbut on our Bursar, Alvise Di Giulio, and on the institutionat large, makes a material difference to our finances.We have no doubt that the future prosperity of theSchool depends more on building further this network ofpartnerships and sponsorships, rather than drawing moreheavily on a shrinking public purse. We repeat ourgratitude to all these bodies, but also to the manyindividuals, university departments, colleges and bodiesthat provide subscriptions and donations, all of whichcumulatively give life-blood to the institution. We alsothank the numerous friends and supporters, in Rome,London and elsewhere, whose kindness and, often, whoseunpaid efforts, keep the show on the road: above all tothe Chairs of our committees, who undertake a notableburden (with especial thanks to Jenni Lomax, who willsoon complete a six-year term with the Faculty of FineArts), to the Editor of our Papers (with especial thanks toDr John Patterson, who after five volumes has handedover to Jo Crawley Quinn), and to the numerous committeemembers, friends and supporters. But I close, asever, with thanks to our own staff, both in Rome andLondon, and in particular to Sarah Ciacci, who left theLondon office in March 2008. Our staff form a team ofexceptional dedication, to whose efforts both this Reportand the healthy state of the School itself bear ampletestimony.Andrew Wallace-HadrillDirector10