This is a story by CCA alumna Victoria DeBlassie (MFA 2011) recounting her study-abroad trip to Italy in summer 2010. It inspired her to apply for a Fulbright grant to return to Italy, which was accepted!

Learn more about CCA's study-abroad programs, hosted by the Office of Special Programs.

Tuesday, July 14, 2010: I'd been traveling throughout Italy for more than a month and had just arrived in Rome. My eyes, heavy from the long trip from Venice and the dense summer heat, glanced at the marquee of the building where I was staying, one floor of which was the Lilium Hotel. I did a double-take when I saw the neighboring proprietor's name: Di Blasi, the original Italian version of my own last name!

A specialist, style-wise? On the contrary, Erinn Clancy (Media Arts 2010) is continually looking to expand his vocabulary as a filmmaker. He and his longtime friend and creative collaborator Justin Nunnink, recently cofounders of Shot & Cut Productions in New York, are working on projects that range from day-in-the-life documentaries to cutting-edge experiments.

Every aspect of filmmaking presents an interesting new challenge for Clancy: "You create your film three times: when you storyboard and conceptualize it, when you shoot it, and when you edit it. Each experience adds a unique problem, and you have to find a creative way to solve it."

Clancy reports that he almost didn't attend CCA. "I was shopping around for colleges; and had planned on going to Boston’s Museum School. Ultimately it was the beauty of the Oakland campus that lured me to CCA, and the Presidential Achievement Award and Scholarship that sold me." During his time here he took full advantage of the interdisciplinary approach the college promotes, building glassblowing and screenprinting courses into his schedule. "I went in as a Media Arts / Film major, but constantly had opportunities to expand my creative palette. I found ways for other disciplines to inform my work in film."

Watching their Carnaval float moving down Mission Street as part of San Francisco's massive annual parade, laden with dancers from the Brazilian troupe Sambaxé, accompanied by the vibrant beats of the Brazilian musical group Blocura and the powerful moves of the Brazilian ABADA Capoeira troupe, TV cameras rolling, people cheering from the sidewalks and the rooftops high above. . . It was a triumphant moment for CCA faculty member Sandra Vivanco and the 15 students in her Body and Spectacle course.

The Carnaval parade was the culmination of a semester of hard work and intensive collaboration -- not only among the CCA students, but also in coordination with a group of high school students enrolled in the Out of Site Youth Arts Center, the city of San Francisco, experts in construction and transportation, and beyond. The CCA course was offered under the auspices of Diversity Studies and attracted a correspondingly wide-ranging bunch, from Architecture and Interior Design to Graphic Design, Illustration, Fashion Design, and Painting/Drawing.

The students designed not only the Carnaval float structure, but also the costumes and props that made its appearance in the parade a real performance rather than just a potential site for one. They had done as much work as they could in the CCA shops, and then transported the pieces to Pier 40, where the city graciously donated space for final assembly.

Maja Ruznic's painting Self Portrait as Mother of All Evil was recently featured on the cover of New American Paintings. That, plus the sudden flurry of activity that has followed (including a hefty feature on ABC news and commissions from around the world, have been extraordinary and gratifying, and the biggest break thus far since her graduation in 2009 from CCA's Graduate Program in Fine Arts.