It’s Thursday, September 7th, and I have officially declared today SAGIndie Day at the Venice Biennial. The day will be spent spreading the good news of SAGIndie and culminate with the SAGIndie Venice Intensive Student party. The day was started with breakfast at the official venue for the Venice Intensive Student Breakfasts. We followed breakfast with a parade through the streets of Venice with the SAGIndie Banner prominently displayed, stopping along the way for photo ops. Most of the parade was also captured on video. The parade made its way through Venice, over the Rialto bridge, through the narrow, shop filled cobblestone streets, to the Plaza at San Marco where pigeons soar dangerously close to everyone’s heads, and over to the Vaporetta Stop. A quick trip across the water and we arrive on the Lido to continue the parade. 
After pleading with no avail to the Italian police we were forced to continue the parade on the outside of the red carpet area of the Sala Grand, past the graffiti covered barricade to the Excelsior hotel terrace where we were met with cheers by all the industry power players including David Lynch and Justin Theroux of Inland Empire, David’s entry into the Festival. It was a grand parade!!
Walter Harris – Director, Student Programs, The American Pavilion