Directors

Giancarlo Calicchia
Director

Artist, master sculptor and founder of Calicchia Stone Industries Inc. (one of the largest architectural stone suppliers, designers and installers in the country, with offices and fabrication facilities in Cleveland, Verona, Carrara, Italy and Caracas.) 

"I have been a sculptor all my adult life and perhaps long before that. I learned through my work that there is an essential seriousness to all of our human passions, what the Romans called gravitas. I believe that without this commitment, this gravitas, we would be less than what we are. All over the world, in Italy, Haiti, Mexico, Canada and right here in Northeast Ohio I have been involved with learning and sharing and teaching experiences that have forged a desire to be the best and to give the best and even more when possible. Art should encourage and exalt this basic human drive to learn and create to the limits of our ability." 

Dr. Serena Scaiola
Development Director

Hon. Consul of Italy in Cleveland

Adjunct Faculty in Italian
Cuyahoga Community College

A Rome, Italy, native, she is a graduate of the Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” with a doctoral degree in Italian literature. In 1991-1992, she also completed a course of studies at Cornell University, NY.
In September 2006, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs appointed her Hon. Vice Consul of Italy in Cleveland, in which capacity she works closely with the Consul of Italy in Detroit.
In May 2012, the office has been elevated to the rank of Hon. Consulate.  
While still living in Rome she worked for RAI-TV, the main national TV station. Upon moving to the United States in late 1995, she began teaching Italian at Kent State University. She  also worked in the same capacity at Cuyahoga Community College. In 1995 she took a teaching position at John Carroll University where in 2005 became a full-time faculty member in her capacity as Visiting Professor and Lower Division Coordinator. 
In 2009, Cuyahoga Community College hired her as Adjunct Faculty Member and Coordinator of the Italian Language, Literature & Culture Program.           
In March 2000, she became the official Italian language translator for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, a position she held until 2006.

Sunia Boneham-Yendo
Creative Designer

Creative Visual Design Director

Sunia holds a Masters of Industrial Design from the preeminent Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY and a BA from the all woman's college, Wells. She also completed many courses at Cornell University (while attending Wells College, through their exchange program), Lorenzo di Medici University in Florence, Italy and The Arts Student League in NYC. She was co-owner of  Yendo Design (a subsidiary of the highly renown M. Yendo Architects and Engineers), an architectural, engineering, interior, industrial design firm with offices in Tokyo and NYC. Sunia and her husband Mas Yendo created the iconic book Ironic Diversion, published through Springer and RIEA (Research Institute of Experimental Architecture headed by legendary visionary architect Lebbeus Woods), and designed in conjunction with the interationally acclaimed design studio, Büro Destruct.