The American Academy in Rome is one of the leading American cultural institutions abroad for study and research advances in the arts and humanities. It is based on the Janiculum Hill in Rome and was founded in 1894. The American Academy in Rome awards the Rome Prize to a small group of artists and scholars, after a selection process that begins each year in the fall. The winners, announced in the spring, are invited to Rome to dedicate themselves to their work in an atmosphere that favors intellectual and artistic freedom, the exchange between different disciplines and innovation. The encounter with the city of Rome now represents, as from the beginning of the Academy, something unique: a chance for American artists and scholars to spend a significant period of time interacting and working in one of the oldest and most cosmopolitan cities in the world. . The richness of Rome's artistic and cultural heritage and its ability to stimulate creative thinking provided the initial impetus for the foundation of the Academy.