Summer Abroad in Italy

Art & Contemporary Culture: Session II

Florence / Sant'anna in Camprena, / Arezzo

June 28–July 12 2011

Two additional class sessions, held on CCA's Oakland campus, are required.
Orientation: Sat., April 23 from 10 a.m.–noon
Follow-up: Thurs., August 25 from 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Instructor: Mariella Poli

Description

Rich in history and culture and with a singular place in the development of Western art, Italy offers unique perspectives to all students of the arts. Once divided into small warring principalities, the Italian Peninsula still retains regional differences in art, architecture, dialect, and cuisine. Today Italy faces political questions that reflect the pressures of modern globalization.

This interdisciplinary course examines the art, culture, and everyday life of Italy, while providing students an opportunity to work in the medium of their choice. The course traces Italian art and culture from the Renaissance to present day.

Students receive a reader pertaining to museums and historical sites to which they must respond before their arrival in Italy.

Florence: Students spend three days in Florence, accompanied by an art historian, viewing the masters of the Renaissance in museums such as the Uffizi, San Marco, Accademia Gallery, Santa Maria Novella, and Brancacci Chapel.

Sant'Anna in Camprena: The following eight days are spent in the Tuscan countryside. Accommodations (room and board) and studio are in a restored 15th century former monastery, Sant' Anna in Camprena in Val D' Orcia. The monastery was featured as a location site for the film The English Patient and affords students a wide range of activities and opportunities for exploration.

Here the class focuses mainly on working in the studio, preparing for an exhibition, a tradition enthusiastically supported by the mayor and township. The exhibition takes place at the historical Museum Diocesano in the Renaissance town of Pienza (Pope Pius II). The class also visits Estruscan towns, such as Bagno Vignoni, S.Quirico d’Orgia, Montalcino; and the hot springs in San Filippo.

Arezzo: The class spends the last two days of the course in Arezzo, capital city of the Tuscan province. Home to many renowned individuals throughout history, such as Petrarch, Aretino and Vasari, Arezzo has cultivated a vibrant historical and artistic tradition since the Middle Ages. The historic city center contains significant works of art and testimonies from every era.

In particular, the class views The Legend of the True Cross, a sequence of frescoes painted by Piero della Francesca in the Basilica of San Francesco. An early Renaissance masterpiece, this fresco cycle is Piero's largest work and is generally considered to be one of his finest. Its theme, derived from the popular 13th century book on the lives of saints by Jacopo da Varagine, The Golden Legend, is the triumph of the True Cross—the wood from the Garden of Eden that became the Cross on which Christ was crucified. This work demonstrates Piero’s advanced knowledge of perspective and color, his geometric orderliness, and skill in pictorial construction.

Italy x 2
Two summer study-abroad courses in Italy are scheduled one week apart. This schedule allows students the opportunity to spend more time in Italy immersed in the country and culture while earning a total of 6 credits. Students explore the country independently during the one week between programs.

About the Instructor

Mariella Poli has exhibited and had her work published in Austria, Denmark, Italy, Mexico City, South Africa, Spain, and the United States. Most recently her work was exhibited in the Fine Arts Museum in Hanoi, Vietnam. Since 1994 Poli has been teaching photography and interdisciplinary classes at the San Francisco Art Institute, the Studio Art Center International in Florence (an affiliate of Bowling Green State University, Ohio), Saint Mary's College of California, and California College of the Arts. She has curated and organized several student exhibitions that have been exhibited locally and internationally. BFA, MFA, San Francisco Art Institute

Prerequisites

Undergraduates: completion of sophomore level by summer 2011 and instructor approval.
Graduates: instructor approval

In addition all students must be in good academic, conduct, and financial standing for the 2010–11 academic year.

Course Satisfies

For undergraduates, this course satisfies a studio elective requirement or, with prior instructor arrangement, 3 credits of Visual Studies Seminar or a 200 or 300 level Visual Studies Elective; or for students who achieve junior or senior standing by the end of spring 2011, this course can count for an Upper Division Interdisciplinary Studio requirement.

For graduates, this course satisfies a grad-wide elective.

Program Fee

$4,450 + $50 summer registration fee
Fee includes:
3 credits, housing, studio, lunch and dinner while in Sant'Anna; all breakfasts; art historian lecture; museum entrance fees; local transportation and field trips

Program fee does not include:
Airfare to and from Italy, class reader, lunch and dinner outside of Sant'Anna, travel insurance, medical or personal insurance (students must provide their own insurance).

Please make sure you read the related links in full:
Registration
Financial Aid
Passport, Visa, and Insurance
Code of Conduct

Registration begins on March 1 for all summer study abroad courses. Students should register by March 31, but may register on a space available basis after this date. Please contact the Office of Special Programs at 510.594.3710 if interested in registering after March 31.

Interested students should contact Mariella Poli, mpoli@cca.edu, right away to start the approval process for registration.