PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The Getty Foundation has awarded Brown University a $180,000 grant to support the first phase of the international project, “The Arts of Rome’s Provinces.”

The two-year project will bring together an international group of historians, art historians, museum professionals and archaeologists to promote a broad conversation about both theoretical issues of Romanization and the particular manifestations of material culture in Rome's imperial provinces.

“We are simply delighted at the news of this Getty award, which will enrich the research and teaching of many scholars at Brown,” said Susan E. Alcock, the Joukowsky Family Professor of Archaeology and director of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World.

“Exploring the art of Rome’s provinces is a fascinating subject and one with significant ramifications for our understanding both of the ancient world and of modern empires alike,” Alcock said.

“This initiative also marks the start of Brown’s renewed association with distinguished art historian Natalie Boymel Kampen," Alcock said.

Brown will convene two intensive sessions, one in England in May 2011, and one in Greece in January 2012. Alcock and Kampen will lead the two-week sessions.

Kampen, who received her doctoral degree in art history from Brown in 1976, is visiting professor of Roman archaeology and art at Brown. She is the Barbara Novak Professor Emerita and a research professor of art history at Barnard College, Columbia University.

The 20 fellows chosen to participate will explore museums and archaeological sites from London and Newcastle to Athens and Thessaloniki, and also will engage in discussions and public presentations about the analytic models and historiographic debates of the specific regions they visit.