CCA News
Summer Abroad in Italy
Posted on Monday, January 30, 2012, by Carol Pitts
Italy: Art & Contemporary Culture
Florence / Sant’Anna in Camprena / Pienza / Venice
Instructor: Mariella Poli
SF Campus: April 21, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.
Italy: June 11–25, 2012
SF Campus: September 1, 12–3 p.m.
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, that pertains to museums and historical sites, to which they must respond before they arrive in Italy. Students are also required to participate in a CCA fall exhibition (two Sundays and a Wednesday night reception to be determined).
Masters of Renaissance and Renaissance Humanism / Florence: The course begins with three days in Florence where students, accompanied by an art historian, view the masters of the Renaissance with a background of Renaissance Humanism (Masaccio, Masolino, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Botticelli, Brunelleschi, and others) in museums such as the Uffizi, San Marco, Accademia Gallery, Santa Maria Novella, Brancacci Chapel and Foundling Hospital & Laurential Library.
Studio Practice in the Renaissance Town of Pienza at the former Monastery Sant’Anna in Camprena: Participants spend the next seven days in 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 houses a cycle of frescos from 1503 by Sodoma and was the site for film director Anthony Minghella’s, The English Patient.
Pienza was rebuilt from a village called Corsignano, the birthplace of Aeneas S. Piccolomini, a Renaissance humanist who later became Pope Pius II. As Pope, Piccolomini had the entire village rebuilt by architect Rossellino as an ideal Renaissance town. It represents the first application of humanist urban planning concepts that were adopted in other Italian towns and cities and eventually spread to other European centers.
In Pienza, the class mainly works on a project whose final product is a public projection in a town square with the enthusiastic attendance and support of the mayor and township. Students are divided into small groups that research, collect, experience and create a visual and/or sound narrative of Pienza by focusing on an element from Pienza's multitude of layers—e.g., the architectural heritage created by its humanistic reconstruction— tracing history's influence on contemporary life.
Contemporary Art/Venice: Students spend the final four days in Venice dedicated to viewing part of the renowned Francois Pinault Contemporary Art Collection at Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi, designed by Tadeo Ando; as well as the Emilio Vedova Foundation, Magazzini Del Sale, restored by Renzo Piano; The Peggy Guggenheim Museum Collection; and others.
Prerequisites
Undergraduates: completion of sophomore level by summer 2012 and instructor approval.
Graduates: instructor approval
In addition all students must be in good academic, conduct, and financial standing for the 2011–12 academic year.
Course Satisfies
For undergraduates, this course satisfies a Studio Elective; an Upper Division Interdisciplinary Studio; or, with prior instructor arrangement, 3 credits of Visual Studies Seminar or a 200 or 300 level Visual Studies Elective.
For graduates, this course satisfies a Grad-wide Elective.
Program Fee
$4,300 + $50 summer registration fee
Program fee includes:
3 units, housing, studio, breakfast, dinner while in Sant'Anna, 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 (except for dinners while at 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
In-person registration begins on Thursday, March 1, for all summer study abroad courses. Students should register no later than Friday, March 30. If spots are available in the course after this date, students may still register as long as accommodations have not been finalized.
Enrollment is limited. Interested students should contact Mariella Poli right away to start the approval process for registration.
All CCA Summer Study Abroad courses (including the New Mexico and New York Studios) are coordinated by the Office of Special Programs.
Questions
Office of Special Programs
Oakland campus, Ralls 201
Nina Sadek
Dean of Special Programs
510.594.3773
nsadek@cca.edu
Carol Pitts
Assistant to the Dean of Special Programs
510.594.3732
cpitts@cca.edu