ROME.- Over 360 guests attended the American Academy in Rome’s McKim Medal Gala, which honored fashion and art powerhouse, Miuccia Prada. The Medal was awarded to Ms. Prada in recognition of her exceptional achievements in fashion and business, as well as for her contributions to the visual arts as co-founder of the Fondazione Prada. The annual event drew a glamorous, international crowd that included Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, the Mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno, Sid and Mercedes Bass, Adele Chatfield-Taylor, John Guare, Larry Gagosian and Shala Monroque, John Elkann, Pietro Valsecchi and Camilla Nesbitt, Zaha Hadid, Marco and Afef Tronchetti Provera, Carla Fendi, Franca Sozzani and Francesco Vezzoli.

The Medal was presented to Miuccia Prada on Wednesday, May 26th at the 6th annual McKim Medal Gala at the Villa Aurelia of the American Academy in Rome. Valentina Moncada di Paternò, Verdella Caracciolo de Benedictis, and Rose Thorne co-chaired the event. Proceeds from the Gala support fellowships that provide both Italian and American winners with important opportunities to pursue their individual studies and engage in an international dialogue of scholarship and the arts. Funds raised by the event allow Italian artists to join the Academy community each year, and support an exchange program for scholars in the humanities that links the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa with the American Academy in Rome.

Robert Storr, Dean of the School of Art at Yale University and Trustee of the American Academy in Rome, presented the medal. A leading figure in the art world, Mr. Storr has been awarded the medal of Chevalier des arts et des lettres by the French Ministry of Culture and was named Director of the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007, becoming the first American to hold that distinction.

The McKim Medal was established by the Trustees of the American Academy in Rome in 2005 as an annual prize that honors an individual whose work internationally – most particularly in Italy and the United States- has contributed significantly to the arts and humanities. Named for Charles Follen McKim (1847-1909), noted architect who established the Academy in 1894, the Medal recognizes an individual whose work and life exemplify creative and intellectual exchange across the arts, scholarship, language, and culture. Previous McKim Medal laureates include Renzo Piano, Cy Twombly, Umberto Eco, Franco Zeffirelli, and Ennio Morricone.