Deanna Shemek will use the $99,897 NEH grant to co-direct and -produce a three-dimensional environment that re-creates the art and music studio of Isabella d’Este (1474-1539), marquise of Mantua and an influential cultural and political figure in the Italian Renaissance. UCI School of Humanities

Deanna Shemek, professor of Italian, has been awarded a 2018 National Endowment for the Humanities grant for $99,897. Shemek, together with co-project director Anne Macneil, associate professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a team headed by Antonella Guidazzoli, from VisITLab, the cultural heritage department of Italy’s supercomputing center, Cineca, will design and produce a three-dimensional environment that re-creates the art and music studio of Isabella d’Este (1474-1539), marquise of Mantua and an influential cultural and political figure in the Italian Renaissance. It will be used with virtual reality headsets, laptops and visualization walls. The project also includes the collaboration of the Palazzo Ducale Museum of Mantua and the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna. The NEH Digital Humanities Advancement Grants support digital projects throughout their life cycles, from startup through implementation and long-term sustainability.