ROME — The president and chief executive of the American Academy in Rome, Adele Chatfield-Taylor, announced on Thursday that she would step down at the end of next year after nearly 25 years as leader of the independent research institution.
"It's been the great experience of my life," Ms. Chatfield-Taylor, 67, said, adding that she witnessed the "transformative effect" of the city on generations of American artists and scholars. "We cannot say enough about how cultural diplomacy helps people," she said. "You can't declare war on a place you love."

Founded in the 1894 by the architect Charles Follen McKim as a place where the architects building America could learn from the classics, the Academy now awards its Rome Prize to scholars in the humanities, archaeologists, artists, preservationists, designers, writers and composers. They spend a year at the academy's McKim, Mead and White villa on Rome's Janiculum Hill, in whose gardens Galileo once stargazed.

Ms. Chatfield-Taylor, a historic preservationist by training, helped bring the villa and a second building on the academy's grounds, the 16th-century Villa Aurelia, back from physical ruin. The endowment of the private institution grew fivefold, to nearly $100 million.

William B. Hart, chairman of the academy's board of trustees, said a search committee is expected to name a new president next year.

by Rachel Donadio, The New York Times