Students travel to get hands-on experience studying ancient art, architecture in Italy
An eager group of students from the College of Art and Architecture packed sketchpads, pencils and charcoal into suitcases and jumped on a plane last summer to go to one of the most recognizable, architecturally ancient cities in the world: Rome, Italy.
Emily Mosset | Argonaut
Each summer, architecture and interior design students have the opportunity to participate in a robust eight-week study abroad program in Rome to learn and live in an environment rich in art and design.
Matthew Brehm, head of the Rome Summer Study Program, said while taking a group of students across the world is challenging, it’s ultimately a fulfilling feat.
“I often tell people it’s the hardest job I’ve ever done, but by far it’s the most rewarding work I’ve ever done,” he said. “The reward I get is seeing students’ lives changing and their eyes opening up to the world and acquiring skills. It’s not about tourism, it’s about being in a place and really studying it through the act of drawing.”
Brehm said since he began the program in 2007, more than 100 Vandals have studied abroad in Rome.
“I studied there in 1986 when I was an undergraduate architecture student at the University of Notre Dame,” Brehm said. “I spent nine months working there, living there, and ever since then I have wanted to teach over there.”
As much as a trip to Rome sounds like a carefree vacation, students in the program didn’t just take selfies in front of the Colosseum and go site seeing, they were taking classes and working. Participating students took a six-credit studio course and two-credit history and drawing courses — just like they would during the academic year.
“It’s similar to the studios we’d be taking here and it’s set on design in that context of Rome and what it is as a city,” said Katelin Sillery, a second-year graduate student of architecture. “And then there’s a drawing course that’s based off drawing off observation and then a history course that we do as well.”
To dive even deeper in the Italian culture, students take fieldtrips to nearby structures, cities and towns. Sillery said her favorite ventures were seeing the Pantheon and traveling to the Amalfi Coast.
Emily Mosset | Argonaut
UI Students stop at the Idaho Commons Reflection Gallery Wednesday to view exhibits created by art and architecture students who participated in the Rome Summer Study Program.
She said she went on the trip a few years prior, and highly recommends future architecture students go.
“It was interesting going in a way that wasn’t just travelling as much but going with more of a plan or a purpose behind it — having a schedule of studio times, drawing times, that sort of thing,” Sillery said. “I think it allows you to experience the space in a whole different way, versus just being a tourist that goes through and moves on to the next thing. That alone made me love it even more.”
Fellow graduate student in architecture Justin Bise said he took part in the program to have a university experience that can’t be captured in Moscow.
“The fact that you’re pretty much living there for eight weeks — so you have your own home that you get to have, you know the way home, the grocery shopping and all the local stuff, so you actually become a part of the community and get to really get inside of the culture,” Bise said.
Emily Mosset can be reached at [email protected]