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Courtesy of the American Academy in Rome

I love to go to the beach on Sunday, a custom we adopted when our son was small and have tried to adhere to ever since (though Mr. Sun-Phobic, my husband, tends to prefer the gym these days). But yesterday, the last Sunday of January, was a day devoted to thinking larger, longer thoughts at a lecture at the The Wolfsonian-FIU museum given by the eloquent Adele Chatfield-Taylor, who is president of the American Academy in Rome. Chatfield-Taylor spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at The Wolfsonian, and her lecture — a history of the academy — was at once surprisingly frank (as she detailed the decades of financial woes at the end of the 20^th century) and quite uplifting. Founded in 1894 and housed high on a hilltop overlooking the “eternal city,” the American Academy offers a retreat and temporary home to architects, artists, musicians and scholars in a glorious setting. Chatfield-Taylor is not just a fine advocate for the institution she heads but is also an ardent believer in the need to allow creators the time and space to create — the paintings, music, architecture, sculpture that enriches our lives at home and grants us stature abroad. And I might add that it was no weather for the beach — though the lecture was so engrossing that I didn’t even think once about sand between my toes.