art_history
Art and Art History

Learning Tuscany: Art and Culture in Italy Summer 2006

The Learning Tuscany program exposes deserving students to art and culture first-hand. Students are given the opportunity to be ambassadors from the United States and Texas, sharing their experiences with students and citizens of Italy. Many make connections that continue to exist today, and many have cited this experience as the most important of their academic careers. Our program is one of the foremost programs of its kind in the United States, and has launched international careers of our alumni. The program has trained students from all four of our divisions; Studio Art, Art History, Design, and Visual Art Studies.

The program focuses on the landscapes of Tuscany in order to consider what defines particular places and the ways we represent them. Students investigate how landscapes are cultural as well as natural. The emphasis is upon understanding the region in Tuscany in which the program is located. All students live in the distinctive facility of Santa Chiara in the town of Castiglion Fiorentino and take an art history course and a drawing course taught by faculty from the UT Austin Department of Art and Art History. These courses, both focusing on the experience of landscape, further frame student experiences within a broader view of Italy by taking students to the most famous art and architecture in Florence, Siena, Rome and Bologna. The integrated approach of the program balances carefully designed trips with group work in the region in order to understand the forces that shaped this particular Italian countryside. Students reflect on how they engage with the town and countryside in which they live as well as with particular landscapes and monuments in nearby well-known cities such as Florence and Siena. These experiences provide interesting contrasts with journeys to less known but spectacular sites. In addition, visits to Rome and Bologna, which are outside the region, allow students to encounter some of the larger Italian context with which the experience of Tuscany can also be compared. Readings and work for the program emphasize how an understanding of a particular culture is shaped by visual experiences. Students learn how to engage with traditions that are not their own by investigating different ways of seeing as well as reflecting upon the components of their viewing competence. In this way, drawing is a significant activity of the program as both a way of thinking and learning about particular subjects. Making drawings does not necessitate artistic skill as learning to raw or developing one’s drawing abilities illuminates what we bring to the viewing process. Making drawings thus leads to new ways of seeing.

No prior experience of any kind is required, and there are no prerequisite courses. Admission is opened to all undergraduates by application. The Summer 2006 program will have 25 students, all taking both courses and a core course in Italy, May 24th-July 5th.

The itinerary, program costs, and course descriptions are available now. For further information, visit “Learning Tuscany” (or program code 350069) at CGEO: CGEO: Center for Global Educational Opportunities. For more information on the program’s content, itinerary, and program costs, download this document: Learning Tuscany Brochure (pdf)

Program Curriculum:

Summer 2006

ARH 374: Ways of Seeing Landscape
Dr. Michael Charlesworth

ART 319T/ART 320K/ART 379T: Drawing and the Italian Landscape
Prof. Dan Sutherland

Program Faculty:

Dr. Michael Charlesworth, Associate Professor, Art History

Prof. Dan Sutherland, Associate Professor, Studio Art

Dr. Ann Johns, Lecturer, Art History

“Learning Tuscany” is being coordinated by Dr. Janice Leoshko, Associate Professor, Art History.