INTERNATIONAL
CENTER FOR THE
STUDY OF PAINTING

Vincent Desiderio is a Senior Critic at the New York Academy of Art. He is also visiting professor at the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, China.  He has been teaching and lecturing internationally for over thirty years

Bernardo Siciliano is currently on the faculty of the New York Academy of Art.  He has taught at the Accademia di belle arti, Napoli and lectured at the Palazzo delle esposizioni in Rome.  

Roxanne Ritacco, painter, designer and certified teacher, received her M.F.A. from the Graduate School of Figurative Art of the New York Academy of Art. She earned a B.F.A. in Environmental Design from Parsons School of Design and an A.A.S. in Interior Design. She has studied decorative arts at the Museum des Art Decoratifs, The Louvre, Paris. She received her education certification from the School of Visual Arts.  

Carolina De Luca holds a B.A. in English Literature from Hunter College, and both an M.A. and M.Phil. in Comparative Literature from The Graduate Center. She is also a certified Mindfulness coach, specialized in young adult instruction with a trauma-sensitive based approach. She currently teaches English Composition and Public Speaking at John Cabot University in Rome.

Katie Hemmer was born in 1981. She earned an MFA from the New York Academy of Art and a BFA from Pratt Institute. Her work has been exhibited in US and international galleries, including Mark Miller Gallery (New York, NY), Cabinet d’art Contemporain (Cluny, France), Galerie Terrier (Trivy, France) and Eden Rock Gallery (St Barthelemy, FWI). She has been granted residence awards at Eden Rock (St Barthelemy, FWI) and Château de Ballaroy (Normandy, France). Hemmer currently lives and paints in New York.

Blaze Nowara is a documentary and travel filmmaker based in New York City. He has worked in countries around the world including Jordan, Colombia, Panama, Canada, Nepal, Mexico, Thailand, Ireland, Indonesia, Italy and the Philippines. His work can be found on his company's site Nomofilms.com as well as Matadornetwork.com.  Blaze earned his M.A. from Monmouth University.

Rochelle Ritacco received her B.A. in communications with a concentration in Fine Art from Seton Hill University. She also has certification in Digital Art (BCC) and Filmmaking (NYU).   For that last decade, she has been specializing in image forensics focusing on fraudulent manipulation of scientific images.  Please contact Rochelle regarding errors, omissions or compliments on the website.