The art department’s Art on Location courses in New York, London and Japan are moving students beyond the classroom to interact with great art and discover the uniqueness of other cultures.
Adjunct instructor Laura Antonow, who leads trips to New York and London, said she thinks it’s “tremendously important for our students to realize that there is an entire world out there that we tend to overlook.”
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UM art students saw this piece, ‘Kew Persian Chandelier,’ created by American glass artist Dale Chihuly for a large-scale exhibition at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, just outside London. |
“While my art history survey course introduces students to great works of art, being submerged in the culture is the best way for students to understand and appreciate art,” Antonow said. “Seeing an actual Jackson Pollock painting or Rodin sculpture that you’ve studied in the classroom can be a really moving experience for students.”
With a Master of Fine Arts from the Parsons School of Design in New York and several years of experience at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on Manhattan’s Museum Mile, Antonow provides students with an insider’s view of the city’s art scene. In addition to studying New York architecture, she takes students to such art landmarks as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim and Whitney Museum of American Art.
During the London course, Antonow took students to the British Museum, Tate Modern and Tate Britain, and the Saatchi Gallery. They also visited the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew to see “an incredible” Dale Chihuly installation, she said.
“We were lucky enough to be in England during the one month a year that Buckingham Palace was open to the public,” she said. “We also toured Windsor Castle, Salisbury Cathedral and Stonehenge. It was a great inaugural trip, and I look forward to growing the London course as I did the New York course.”
“In the study of art, there is no comparable substitute for the face-to-face interaction between the viewer and a work of art,” said M. Lance Herrington, art instructor and visual resources curator who leads study trips to Japan.
Herrington, who earned his master’s in art history from UM and lived in Japan for a year, took students to see the world’s oldest pottery, tombs of early emperors, prints from the world of the geishas, castles of the shoguns, rock gardens of Zen monasteries and earthquake-resistant skyscrapers. They also studied the Japanese art of origami, or paper folding.
Part of the written component in all three courses is a journal assignment in which students are required to document their experiences. “To read about the impact these courses are having in the lives of the students is inspiring,” Herrington said.
While the Art on Location courses provide exciting learning opportunities for the students, every trip is a learning experience for the instructors, too.
“I expand my own knowledge and understanding, which makes me a better teacher,” Herrington said. “I like the idea of leading by example and demonstrating to our students that learning is enjoyable and a lifelong process.”
“I think the students learn a lot about the place they’re visiting, but they learn as much about themselves,” Antonow said. “They begin to realize that the art world is alive and well. They learn to sort out what they personally respond to, and I hope they’ll have a lifetime love of art.”