Athens Office
UGA Cortona, Rm 201AOffice of Global Engagement
1324 S. Lumpkin Street
Athens, GA 30602
Phone:706-542-7120
Email:
Fax:706-583-0160
Cortona Office
Via delle Santucce, 252044 Cortona AR
Italy
Staff Information
Christopher Robinson
Program Director
Christopher Robinson is originally from Atlanta, Georgia. After attending the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, he graduated from Guilford College in Greensboro, NC with a BA in Ceramics and a minor in Medieval Studies.
From 1994-98 he attended the Penland School of Crafts in Penland, North Carolina as a core fellow. During these years he continued his study of ceramics, making his first research on the practice of wood-fired pottery, as well as exploring other materials and techniques such as blacksmithing, glassblowing, and woodworking.
Robinson first came to Cortona as a graduate student in 2000, while working towards his MFA in Ceramics at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia in Athens. After graduating, he returned to Cortona in the summer of 2001 as an assistant to then-director R. G. Brown. From 2002-10 he lived and worked in Cortona year-round, serving as Associate Director and Instructor of Ceramics. In 2011, he was named the Director of UGA Cortona.
Robinson’s long experience with the UGA Cortona program strongly informs his vision for its future. He believes that better curriculum integration will pave the way for more students from the Lamar Dodd School of Art and the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences to study in Cortona, including graduate students. He is also working to expand the program’s curriculum and broaden its reach to the rest of the University. “With the challenging global climate of today, I think it’s vital for every student to participate in cultural exchange through a studies abroad experience – and particularly for art students to experience a country like Italy where art surrounds its residents, and is an everyday reality.”
Robinson is also working to find new ways to cement the connection between the UGA Cortona Studies Abroad program and its host city of Cortona, a partnership which will celebrate its 50-year anniversary in 2019. “Through our exhibitions, collaborative projects, language exchanges, and other interactions, we will continually refresh and renew this relationship between the program and its very gracious hosts, the people of Cortona.”
Kristine Schramer
Associate Director
After graduating from the College of William & Mary in 1994 with a BA in Fine Art, Kristine Schramer studied at the New York Academy of Art and the Art Students League of New York before earning her MFA in Painting from Indiana University Bloomington in 1998. Prior to joining the UGA Cortona team in 2013, she was an Associate Professor of Fine Art and Foundation Studies at the Columbus College of Art & Design in Columbus, Ohio, where she gained twelve years’ experience in teaching and worked with honors, independent study, and graduate students.
The daughter of a U.S Naval officer, Kristine lived in Italy several times during her childhood. Her first experience with study abroad came as a Monroe Scholar at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, when she attended the Ecole Albert Defois in France during the summer after her junior year. As a graduate student, she participated in Indiana University’s study abroad program in Florence, Italy during the summer of 1996, and the following year returned to the same program as an Associate Instructor of Drawing. In 2000 she received a painting award from the National Society of Arts and Letters that enabled her to travel and work in Poland. In 2003 and 2005 she received grants to study and paint in Italy; also in 2005, she was a finalist for a Fulbright junior research fellowship in Italy. In 2006 she led a group of Columbus College of Art & Design students in a pilot study abroad program on the Italian island of Sardinia.
In August 2013, Kristine became the Associate Director of UGA Cortona. She now lives in Cortona year-round, where she helps manage program logistics, student activities, health, and safety, campus facilities and grounds, community relations, and occasionally teaches Painting and Drawing classes. She is still a practicing artist whose work can be found at www.kschramer.com.
Enza Valente
Business Manager and Community Liaison
Enza Valente was born in Venezuela to Italian parents from the Abruzzo region of Italy. She is fluent in Italian, English, French and Spanish and earned her degree as Interpreter and Translator in English and French in 1987 at the Scuola Superiore per Interpreti e Traduttori of Rome. She has managed the UGA Cortona Studies Abroad office in Cortona, Italy since 1999, serving as our invaluable liaison with Cortona city officials, businesses, service providers, and contractors.
Program staff
Office of Global Engagement
Margaret Faz Perry
203D Office of Global Engagement
(706) 542-2228
Office of Global Engagement
Clayton Foggin
203E Office of Global Engagement
(706) 542-0378
International Centers Advisor
Office of Global Engagement
Jennifer Peirce
201A Office of Global Engagement
(706) 542-2244
Office of Global Engagement
Allison Little
201A Office of Global Engagement
(706) 542-7120