Programs offering classrooms abroad
Many students from the art department will be taking advantage of USU’s Study Abroad program, traveling to Germany, Korea and China, or Switzerland this summer.
Kay Forsyth, director of Study Abroad, said the programs give students the opportunity to study as well as gain a new perspective and to grow individually.
“It gives an international flare to your experience,” Forsyth said.
Robert Winward, associate professor of art and program leader for the Switzerland Study Abroad program, said his 44 students this summer will have the unique opportunity to learn from monks in the Great St. Bernard Hospice which is normally closed this time of year due to snow. To get there, Winward said students will be led by monks on a three-mile hike through a pass in the Alps.
“They’ll learn about medieval art and also about monastic lifestyle,” Winward said. “This is where they breed St. Bernard dogs. Napoleon and Caesar went over this pass. The students will have the experience of staying up there with no one else up there for three days. The monks will essentially be their tutors.”
Winward said USU students have been studying in this part of Switzerland for seven years, and the program lodges students in the same hotel every year.
“They’re putting a USU plaque on the outside of the hotel this year,” Winward said. “They like USU students because they’re well-behaved and not crazy students like others, and we enjoy a good relationship over there.”
Christopher Terry, a professor of art and leader of the Essen, Germany program, said although Germany isn’t the only good place to study it has a lot of both historical and contemporary art which makes it a good location for the program.
“Because of the density of the population, the program is based in a part of Germany with a lot of nearby cities and we can go to a bunch of world-class museums nearby,” Terry said. “It’s certainly got a lot to offer. It’s a place where people can experience an awful lot of art.”
Terry said he hopes his program will help his 15 participants grow artistically and change their perspective.
“I hope they will develop a more sophisticated attitude towards painting and drawing, and think not so much about technique but more conceptually,” Terry said. “They see a lot of art and are involved in producing a lot of art while they’re there. It changes their attitude.”
While the program is aimed at art students, Terry said it is not a requirement.
“The courses offered in the program have prerequisites but I waive them for this program,” he said. “At least two-thirds (of the program’s participants) have been on campus taking art courses for a year or more, but there are always some in the program though that haven’t taken art courses before.”
Alan Hashimoto is an associate professor of graphic design and computer art as well as a co-program leader of the graphic design Study Abroad program in China and Korea. He said this is only the second year that the program has gone to Asia.
“Most group Study Abroad programs go to Europe, most art history is usually western,” Hashimoto said. “A big section of the world is in Asia and they don’t get to study it as much as they should. This is a good chance for them to see the rest of the world.”
Hashimoto said the program in Korea and China is different from the other Study Abroad programs because it takes students out of their comfort zone and puts them in a completely different culture.
“Because it’s a little different as far as language and culture, we really need the students to be a little more individualistic,” he said. “They’re the ones who enjoy the experience more. It’s not a tour, you mingle with people all the time who are a part of the culture. You can’t be too shy.”
JinMan Jo is an assistant art professor and co-program leader of the China and Korea Study Abroad program. Jo said he is from Korea and hopes the new experiences with the Asian culture will open up more artistic ideas for his nine students.
“When I traveled to Europe for two months, it changed my life,” Jo said. “I want to give that same kind of experience to U.S. students to go to Asia.”
-rach.ch@aggiemail.usu.edu