A native of Canada, Tamara has lived in Venice for 14 years and coordinates the Canadian Pavillion at the Biennale. In 2000 she became a certified sommelier through AIS and has coordinated wine walks for prestigious organizations such as the Culinary Institute of America.

American-born Carla arrived in Europe 20 + years ago with a love of Italy and two suitcases. After finding a place to live, a job, learning the language and getting her working papers, she now has an Italian husband, a teenaged daughter, a sailboat, and career as a travel and website consultant. She’s got a dream job: she inspects hotels for a guide, visiting luxury properties and trying their facilities, and she writes articles with a group of photographers and journalists. Carla has worked in travel all her adult life (“26 years now, but who’s counting?”) and loves to show you the things you don't see on any tour: out-of-the-way wine bars, little farms that serve genuine fare; going sailing, cooking gourmet meals, meeting artisans at work, participating in crafts and adventures. She is curious and likes to meet “characters” people just a little bit “out of the box”. Some of her finds are sculptors, painters, potters, weavers, photographers, chefs, sommeliers, and hoteliers. Carla has combined all of these interests for Context and leads cultural days in Bassano del Grappa, introducing visitors to the pleasures of the Veneto.

Originally from Madrid, Almudena graduated in art history in 1997 from Warwick University (BA Hons). Her first experience of Italy dates from 1996, as an undergraduate living and studying in Venice. Her interest in Italian art was further fuelled during her Master’s dissertation, which dealt with the fourteenth century tomb of Rizzardo di Camino in Vittorio Veneto, and the course ‘Rome before Avignon’. After completing the MA in Art History: Venice and Europe at Warwick in 1999, she started her PhD at the same university. Her thesis studies the artistic patronage of Cardinal Gil de Albornoz in Spain and Italy in the fourteenth century. Almudena lived in Rome for a year, and has travelled extensively throughout Italy and Spain. Her main interests lie in the history of the church in the Trecento, and the patronage of medieval fortresses, reliquaries, and textiles, as well as tomb sculpture. After moving around between Italy, Spain, England and Germany, she returned to the region where she first fell in love with Italy, and is finally based in Vicenza.

A native of Murano, Andrea is an accomplished musician and composer with a master's degree in the humanities from Venice's Ca' Foscari University. In 1992 he founded the Joy Singers, a well-known Venetian gospel choir, which has won international acclaim, and is the artistic director of the Venice Gospel Festival. For years he has collaborated with schools in Venice and the Veneto in order to promote gospel music to Italian youths.

Originally from London, Jane graduated in zoology in 1988 from Oxford University. After a brief spell in the City she began her postgraduate studies at Imperial College Centre for Environmental Technology (London) and subsequently won a research scholarship to the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei in Milan. Her research has broadened from methods for valuing non-market goods, which is crucial to the development of environmental policies, to improving the connections between the scientific and policy making spheres, including the public understanding of science. She worked on a number of projects supported by the European Commission and for the Italian National Research Council, to survey research efforts on climate change. Since marrying a Venetian Jane’s interest in sustainable development has concentrated on unravelling the key issues central to the safeguarding of Venice, from the physical, ecological and socio-economic standpoints. Since 2001, her work has been supported by the Venice in Peril Fund as the Venice research fellow of a Cambridge University project which aims to crystallise our knowledge of the main issues, processes and trends in Venice which affect the long term survival of the city and its unique heritage. She is co-author of The Science of Saving Venice (Umberto Allemandi, 2004).

Rachel Erdman has been living in the Veneto since 1994, and is originally from Ohio. While working for the Boston University study abroad program in Padova and Venice for many years, she especially enjoyed sharing her love of all things Italian with students and visiting faculty. She now works as a travel consultant specializing in personalized travel throughout Italy. As a lover of food and wine, she is fulfilling a dream to become an Italian Sommelier. She has also coordinated private cooking courses in the Colli Euganei for the Abano Ritz Grand Hotel with an emphasis on Mediterranean and Veneto cuisine. Rachel holds a B.A. from Boston University in International Relations, and it was during her studies that she first developed a passion for foreign language and culture. She lives in Padova with husband Mario and two children.

Francecsa studied Foreign Languages at Ca' Foscari University, Venice (including modules in Comparative and Venetian History of Art), and graduated with a dissertation in English Renaissance Literature in 2002. She recently completed her Phd at the same university in English Restoration Theatre. She has been lived in Venice since 1995, but also spent two years in England, where she studied History of Art at Warwick University (Medieval and Renaissance European Art, Seventeenth Century Art) and taught Italian language and literature at Downe House School, Berkshire. She has always been deeply interested in Venice, its art and history, and worked as a registered guide of the mosaics in St. Mark's Basilica for two years

Italo Ongaro is native of the island of Murano and, for the last decade, has been working for the University Ca’ Foscari of Venice as the head scientific glassblower. In addition, he works closely with the department of environmental science and the department of chemistry as the captain of a 25-foot research vessel. This vessel is partially owned by the Veneto Region’s Meteorological headquarters, with which he participates. His knowledge of the Venetian lagoon is extensive, as he frequently traverses the lagoon on research projects. He currently lives in Mestre.

Mario is a certified Italian Sommelier (AIS) and Master Cheese Taster (ONAF). His background also includes a degree in the Science of Food Production from the University of Bologna. Mario, a native of Milan, has lived in the Veneto for 35 years, and his grandmother was from the Cannaregio sestiere of Venice. He is an experienced wine educator, and particularly enjoys the wine tasting seminars he regularly organizes for the U.S. diplomatic corps in Italy. In the past Mario led a seminar on Italian wine and food for the undergraduate students of Boston University studying in Padova. He also works as a travel consultant, specializing the wine and food of the Veneto, Friuli and Trentino Alto-Adige. Mario lives in Padova with his wife, Rachel, a native of Ohio, and their two children. He can often be heard to say “A glass of wine is not merely something to drink, but a true reminder of our history, traditions and culture.”

In 2006 Daniele finished his PhD in the History of Architecture at the University Iuav of Venice, where he now has a research fellowship and works as a teaching assistant. His main areas of interests are Italian Renaissance architecture, aesthetics, and contemporary architecture.

John Rapaglia is a coastal oceanographer who recently finished his PhD at the Marine Science Research Center of Stony Brook University, NY. Though his research has taken place on several continents, he now makes his home in Venice and works for the National Research Council of Italy’s Marine Science Division. John first came to Venice in 2002 as a teaching assistant for the prestigious Research Experience for Undergraduates (R.E.U.) program and continued his work here with support from a Fulbright Scholarship. His research has focused on groundwater-seawater interactions and groundwater as a source of chemical contamination in the Venice Lagoon. In 2005, he published the first paper concerned with this phenomenon, which has brought to light many of the problems associated with groundwater in Venice. Recently he organized a major workshop at UNESCO Venice on the use of Radium and Radon isotopes in environmental research. This work is peripherally associated with many of the research and development projects underway in the lagoon. His main interests lie in the impact that human modifications have on natural subterranean systems.

A gap year working in the frenetic world of women’s fashion in Milan prepared Prue well for an undergraduate degree in Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge University, where she used linguistic flourish and copious coffees to confront courses in French and Italian art, literature, history and culture. Her final year topics reflected her lifelong love of Dante and Renaissance Italian art and literature. Prue spent her year abroad studying the history of Renaissance Venetian art at Ca’ Foscari University, during which time she wrote a dissertation on the erotic dialogues of Pietro Aretino. She is currently completing a Master’s degree in the History of Renaissance Design and Material Culture taught at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal College of Art in London. Her research has focused on fashion, the domestic interior and the decorative arts in Renaissance Venice. Her dissertation is on doors and door furniture from this period. Prue worked for three summers as a registered tour guide of the mosaics in St Mark’s Basilica in Venice and for the last four years has led cultural tours around Europe for American students.

Canadian art historian, Allison Sherman, took to heart the words of Francesco Sansovino, who wrote in his 1581 guidebook to Venice that the name of the city had its origins in the Latin Veni etiam, meaning “to come again and again.” While studying art and architecture in the city for a month in 2000, Allison discovered a passion for this singular city and has returned on an annual basis to explore, learn the language and to do research. After completing her undergraduate degree in the history of art at Queen’s University, Canada, Allison remained there to pursue a Master’s degree on Venetian Renaissance painting. At present she is a doctoral candidate at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and is once again making the city home while she wades through documents in the libraries and archives pertaining to her dissertation. The project will focus on the form and decoration of the church of Santa Maria dei Crociferi, addressing the many important cinquecento monuments produced for this little-known monastic order by artists such as Tintoretto and Veronese, as well as aspects of ducal, patrician and confraternity patronage. As an art historian, Allison is passionate about using visual material as a means of understanding people, places and times lost to us and will apply this same approach to her walks for Context. She looks forward to sharing her knowledge of the rich remains of Venice’s historical past and the sites of its vibrant, captivating present.

Susan Steer teaches for the University of Warwick’s undergraduate and MA Venice programmes. After graduating in the history of art and Italian in 1998, she took an MA concentrating on Venetian art and architecture, and in 2004 she completed her specialisation in Venetian renaissance painting with a PhD on the altarpieces of Bartolomeo Vivarini. Susan has taught undergraduate and life-long learning courses on subjects such as the altarpiece, Titian, and Venetian renaissance painting for the University of Bristol (UK). For the University of Glasgow, she has worked extensively as a researcher for the National Inventory of European Painting 1200 – 1900, the catalogue of European paintings in museums in the UK which will be published on-line in 2008. Susan has also contributed articles to the Burlington Magazine and Artibus et Historiae. Susan met her Venetian fiancé Paolo in 1997 and they have since divided their time between homes in Venice and the UK.

Krystina, a native of Canada, has been living in Venice for three years, where she recently finished her PhD in art history from Queens College. Her research focused on Venetian art and the League of Cambrai and she teaches art and architecture courses for several study abroad programs in Venice.

Jessica Stewart hails from Massachusetts and earned her BA in Art History from Boston University. She got her first taste of Italian living during a semester exchange in Padova. She holds an MA in Renaissance Studies from University College London, where her dissertation dealt with the development of Giulio Romano’s early painting style in Rome. Her main areas of interest are Renaissance and Baroque painting and sculpture. She shares duties as Rome city manager and squeezes in walks as a docent when she can. In 2007 she also began managing Context: Venice and now divides her time between Rome and Venice.

Louisa is an art historian who obtained her BA at the Courtauld Institute, where she specialised in Venetian art and the Italian Medieval and Renaissance periods. In 2000, she earned her MA from the University of Warwick in Venetian Renaissance art, although she specialised particularly in medieval Venetian art and sculpture. She has worked as an English teacher to students of all ages, as well as a translator for cultural and artistic publications on historic and contemporary art in Venice, for institutions such as the Fondazione Querini Stampalia and the Island of San Servolo. She has also worked as a simultaneous translator for the Italian Military on cultural tours of Venice for English American delegations and aboard cultural cruise ships as a lecturer on Venetian art, architecture and history. She is a keen art lover and although untrained in contemporary art greatly enjoy following it through the Biennale and with temporary art exhibitions held in the city. Louisa is married to a Venetian and has a baby daughter Isabelle. Married to a "native" she has the opportunity to enjoy Venice from different perspectives: as a tourist and art lover and as a practical everyday Venetian (with the added bonus of having a private boat!).

Originally from St. Louis, Jill has lived in Venice for 11 years. She holds an undergraduate art history degree from the University of Colorado and an M.A. in arts management from New York University. Upon completion of her MA she spent 5 years working in the Venice office of Save Venice, a non-profit organization that deals with the restoration and preservation of Venetian art and architecture. She is currently the Export Manager for Caffè del Doge, a Venetian coffee roasting company. She also keeps her foot in the art world by managing the Il Capricorno Gallery, a fixture of contemporary art in Venice since 1970.

Luca Zaggia is a geologist who has been working for the last 15 years as a coastal oceanographer for the National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Marine Science, Venice. His research has been focused on many aspects of the management of the lagoon ecosystem, from the assessment of contamination in the water and sediments of the city canal network prior to dredging to the monitoring of the input of freshwater and contaminants from the tributaries of the drainage basin. More recently, with his staff of technicians, he has been involved in studies on the hydrodynamics and transport of sediments in the tidal channel and shallow water areas of the lagoon, as well as the monitoring of the environmental effects of the works for the protection of Venice and its lagoon from floods. In cooperation with European and American institutions he is also working on research focused on the determination of submarine groundwater input in lagoons and coastal areas.