Auslandssemester

Teaching Assistant for 2012 trip announced!

2012-01-09T09:36:00.000-08:00

I'm pleased to be able to report that the assistant on the 2012 trip to Germany this coming summer will be Richard "Chuck" Landvatter. Chuck is a graduate student in the Drawing & Painting program at USU and has been teaching basic drawing courses for the department for two years. Chuck is a really effective instructor and is a favorite with undergraduates.

Chuck Landvatter, hard at work on a recent project.

Chuck was born in Salt Lake City in 1981 and is currently living and working in Logan, UT, where he is completing his MFA in Drawing & Painting. Chuck has been married four years and in November 2011 he and his wife Chelsea had their first baby, Judith Laine. Chuck received his BS from the University of Utah in 2008. His interests lie in the amalgamation of several disciplines, from traditional and conventional to experimental and low-brow; classical painting and portraiture to contemporary design, illustration and graffiti.

Applications are still being accepted for the 2012 Summer trip. contact Chris Terry (chris.terry@usu.edu) with questions.

Applications Accepted After December 2, 2011

2011-11-14T18:00:00.000-08:00

At the Albers Museum, Bottrop

In the information meetings I held during the Fall semester, I bragged a lot about the great place I had found for students to live while we're in Germany. It's not a hotel, not really a hostel, in fact, it's pretty hard to define. The building is an eighteenth century school house that has been converted to a neighborhood cultural center with guest house accommodations on the top floor. On the first floor there's a Spanish restaurant and meeting rooms for groups like Weight Watchers or the Rotarians. Classes are offered in subjects such as dance, watercolor painting or Italian for Beginners in classrooms on all three floors. There's also a small theater and a room for live music and poetry readings. The building and administration that's been set up to run it are called GREND, and after many years of asking, I've never found anyone to tell me what Grend means. It's just what they call it.

Facade of Grend from across the Westfalenstrasse

You can learn a lot more about Grend at their website, but you'll need to speak some German to get through the text. The pictures are accessible however what ever your language skills. Check it out at http://www.grend.de/

Among the many things I like about Grend is its location. Situated on the edge of the pedestrian zone in Steele, the students who are living there can easily walk to almost any kind of business without even crossing traffic. Within a five to ten minute walk of Grend there are at least three dozen restaurants, three Internet cafes, grocery stores, ten banks (with attendant ATM machines) a cobbler, ice cream parlors, clothing stores, bakeries, a post office... But for all its multifarious consumer opportunities, there is one down side to Grend: its sleeping accommodations are limited to only eighteen beds. That means that the total number of students I can take on the Study Abroad Summer Semester in Germany trip is limited too. If we leave a bed open for the TA (always a good idea) then I can take seventeen students on the trip. During the Fall semester I've spoken with twenty two students who have expressed some interest in the program. If they all follow through and make an application, then I'll have to make some difficult decisions about who may participate.

All of this information is my way of saying: "Be sure to make your application as quickly as you can after the December 2 start date is past!!!"

"How do I apply?" you ask. A good question and here are the details. Go to the USU Study Abroad website and click on Applications and Forms in the right hand list. On that page you'll have a choice of several different forms. You should click on Short Term Applications which will bring you to the actual application form. Choose Germany - Art from the pop up menu at the top of the form and fill in all the info requested. Pay particular attention to the reference section. You'll be asked for the name and e-mail address of someone who can write a reference letter for you. Ideally, they should receive an automatic request for a letter about you, but often there is a problem with the process. Be sure to tell your referrer that the request is coming and follow up on it to make sure they send it in. If you prefer, ask me and I'll call or write them to ask them to follow through. Click on Submit Form at the bottom of the page and you're done. If you have any problems or questions, please contact me or the Study Abroad office.

I also have a few suggestions. It could be that in some cases, the form will ask for info you don't have yet. Passport information is a good example. My advice is, don't hold back your application while you wait for that info. Submit the application and you can fill in the missing information later, when your passport arrives in the mail. I also noticed that when the application form loads, sometimes the pop up menu at the top doesn't populate properly. When I did it the first time, my only choice was a Spanish language program. I re-loaded the form and the problem went away.

As always, contact me with any questions.

Backside of Grend with the Biergarten and Spanish restaurant in the foreground

Weekend Travel

2011-06-06T16:52:00.000-07:00

I've spoken with several students who had questions about travel in Europe on the weekend. Most of had questions about the Eurail Pass, but unfortunately I don't know much about that method of travel. I've never traveled with a Eurail Pass, and everyone I know who has, told me they weren't a very cost effective method of traveling around for short periods of time.

I can suggest some good alternatives though, and I've got some web addresses where you can learn more. The first option I can recommend is the "Länder Ticket". (LAYN der) This is a ticket you can buy through Deutsche Bahn (DB) that will allow a group of five people to travel together for one day, anywhere in North Rhine/Westphalia (NRW), the state or Land that we'll be living in. NRW is a big place and the tickets are a real bargain. Learn more here.

The other option is the "Schöneswochenende Ticket". Details here. This ticket will allow you and a group of up to five people to travel anywhere in Germany for one day on the weekend. The catch is, you can only take local trains, not the super-fast ICE trains. Last year, a group of students went all the way to Paris and back on a similar ticket in three days. It involved a lot of waiting on rural train platforms, sometimes at odd hours, but it was cheap and an interesting adventure.

DB has a lot of information in English at the site connected with the links I've provided above. Make a note of it and you'll probably find it very useful while we're in Germany.

Arrival

2011-06-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

I'm going through my arrival info for the group today and the timing is not ideal. Here are the facts:

Eleven students arrive before 10:20 am
One student arrives a day early and can meet the group by 10:20
One student arrives at about 14:30
One student arrives 18:30
One student doesn't have an arrival time yet.

I'm trying to work out a plan that will be convenient for everyone, but it's not complete yet. I can give specific info for those of you arriving on June 11 BEFORE noon. Most of you are on Delta 24 and will arrive at 7:25. It will take you an hour to go through passport control, baggage claim and customs, so you'll be out in the airport by about 8:30. You should go to the designated Meeting Point (remember that this is marked on the maps I gave you. I'll include a picture below.)

I will NOT be getting up at the crack of dawn to meet you as you arrive. We can't check into Grend until about noon, and there are stragglers who are coming in on other flights at 9:55 and 10:20. So, I'll get my beauty sleep and arrive at the airport around 9:30-10:00. The last of you will come out of Customs by 11:00 or so and we'll begin our trip to Steele and Grend. For those of you that have to wait, you can rest in the chairs at the Meeting Point (=Treffpunkt, in German) or explore the airport. It's a fairly small airport, so you can't really get lost. At the far southern end, past the "C" gates there's a McDonalds, and there are cafes and bars all along the concourse. Also; a very chic shopping section you can explore, places to change dollars, and a big Starbucks on the main level. Just remember to be back at the Treffpunkt by 10 or so. If you wander in shifts, then you can leave someone to watch all your luggage.

I'm sending e-mails to those of you who won't be at the airport until later in the day to work out a plan to get you safely to Grend. It could be you're really confident about getting there on your own, and that will be fine. If you prefer someone to help you, I'll be looking for volunteers to head back to the airport as scouts to pick up the late arrivers. Let me know if you think you might want to do that. It's important that you DON'T go to sleep once we get to Grend, so everyone will need to stay active through the afternoon. A trip back to the Düsseldorf Flughafen (=airport) might be fun and will give you valuable public transit experience. At that point, you'll all have your Ticktet Zweitausend transit passes, so it won't cost you anything to travel to and from the airport, explore the Duisburg Innenstadt, or anything else that interests you.

If you want to stay closer to home, you'll be able to go out on foot and explore the Steele area: the banks of the Ruhr, the old town cemetery, local Dönerkebap opportunities. I'm making arrangements for a meal to be served in the dining room in the evening and then everyone should get to bed early so we don't have to deal with students who are hopelessly jet-lagged for the first 4-5 days.

I'll post more updates here before we leave. Check your e-mail in case I've got questions for you individually and let me know if you have questions.

Zollverein

2011-05-09T20:00:00.000-07:00

When Fritz Shupp and Martin Kremmer were charged in the late 1920's with developing a design for Shaft XII of the Zollverein coal mine in Essen, Germany, their brief was to build the biggest, most efficient, most beautiful coal mine in the world. The architects were influenced by the same ideals of simplicity and rationality that were driving the Bauhaus aesthetic and they combined those principles with a monumentality that has to be seen to be believed. The site was built during the depression of the 1930's, was a driving force behind the Nazi war machine in WWII, functioned through the re-building of the German economy after the war and was closed finally when the coal was simply too expensive to bring up out of the shafts.

The years in which coal mines all over the Ruhrgebiet were closed were difficult ones for residents, many of whom had worked in mining or the steel mills served by the mines, for many generations. Some of the effects of the economic impact are still visible today. But mostly Essen and the Ruhrgebiet are seen today as a success stories. Mines and mills were closed, the economy shifted to an information base and new businesses developed. Today industrial sites like Zeche Zollverein have been repurposed and are serving the community as concert halls. parks, outdoor rec sites and retail centers. Recently, Zeche Zollverein was recognized by the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage organization and is now protected, just as the Taj Mahal and the Egyptian Pyramids are.

I've been on the grounds of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site at Zeche Zollverein countless times and recently had a tour with a really knowledgeable expert on the topic. But I still find it hard to grasp. The site is complex and not easily filed in any existing categories that I've got in my brain. I took some photographs on my recent visit and I'll paste them in below as a QuickTime slide show. Enjoy the photos and get ready for your visit to this important architectural and cultural site in 2010.

Third pre-departure meeting

2011-05-02T10:51:00.000-07:00

Our third pre-departure meeting will be this Wednesday evening, 5-8 pm. Let's meet again in v118, the smaller seminar room on the ground floor of the Chase FAC. I'm planning the agenda for the meeting and I'll be covering a variety of topics again. For example:

•another Bauhaus lecture, this one focussing on the characteristics of Bauhaus design.
•recap the practical info I covered at the Health and Safety meeting most of you attended.
•distribute and summarize the CD I'll hand out.
•presentation on the altered book project we'll all do.

BUT, the most important thing I'll cover will be registration. I'll want to get your request for the courses you want to be enrolled for. The first question for most of you is, how many credits do you want to be enrolled for? Usually twelve, but some of you may choose to be enrolled for less. For those of you enrolled for twelve credits, you'll need to select a course number for each of the four categories. The choices will be:

Drawing: either ART 1110, 2110 or 4270. If you've never had Drawing I, then you want 1110. If you've taken Drawing I, then probaly DrawingII, 2110 is right for you. If you've had both, then you want 4270.

Color: one choice, ART3270.

Painting: one choice, ART4200

Art History: one choice, ART4970

The only exception to the guidelines above would be those of you that would want graduate level credit. I THINK that only applies to one student, but if I'm wrong, let me know.

IN CONCLUSION: if you're planning on being at the meeting this Wedensday, relax and we'll fill out a chart for you there. If you can't make this week's meeting, please respond to me by e-mail and let me know what courses you want. As always, contact me with questions.

next meetings

2011-04-19T15:35:00.000-07:00

I'm going ahead with our planned meeting for this evening (in just an hour!) but I'm going to change one of the May meetings. So many of you told me that you will not be in Logan after exams, that I've decided to alter the schedule I proposed earlier. Now I'm thinking that our third meeting will be during exam week. I figure you'll all need a break from studying anyhow, so we'll meet on Wednesday evening at 5 pm, May 4. The last meeting will on Saturday, May 14 at 10 am. Both meetings will be three hours in total.

First Pre-departure Meeting

2011-04-10T20:04:00.000-07:00

April 16th is a Saturday (this coming Saturday!) and we'll meet at 11:00 am for our first pre-departure meeting in room v118 in the Chase Fine Arts Center. It will be a three hour meeting, with a break in the middle, so feel free to bring a brown bag lunch or whatever will help you to get through to our 2 pm ending time.

I don't plan to cover a lot of practical information at this meeting. The Study Abroad office has a mandatory meeting each year and they cover Health & Safety at that meeting. I always attend it, and we talk about things like climate, money, clothing, and so forth. So, this meeting will be about curriculum and I'll try to cover as much of the basics as I can.

I'm still making my outline, but I believe that topics for the meeting will include the answers to these questions:

The Bauhaus School: what was it, how was it influential?
Systems of color classification: what is the Itten Theory of the Seven Color Contrasts
Line and Shape Relationships: how can they help you to work spontaneously?
What kinds of materials will you need in Germany?

We won't cover Drawing at all, (I'll leave that to Scott when we're in Germany) but I'll try to cover at least a little of the material that you will need for each of the other courses on the trip.

And what if you can't make it to the meeting? The more information and background you have before we go to Germany, the more you will get out of the experience, so it's really to your advantage to try to make each of these pre-departure meetings, but I know that not all of you will be able to make everyone of them. So, if you miss a meeting, do your best to find out what we talked about. The best way to do that is to ask someone who is in attendance to take some notes for you, but I'll post my outline here on this blog. That way, at least you'll know what questions to ask when you get the chance.

I'm going to try to make some changes in the schedule for subsequent meetings to make it easier for more people to attend and I'll announce the schedule for future meetings on Saturday. Also, I'll start collecting information about how each of you will be arriving in Europe, so if you're going to be at Saturday's meeting, bring your flight information: Dates, Times, Airports, Flight numbers.

Let me know if you have questions, otherwise, I'll see you all there.

Pre-departure meetings

2011-04-01T16:12:00.000-07:00

We'll need to have a series of pre-departure meetings to cover course material before we leave for Germany. When I brought the meetings up back in early March, it seemed that many of you are planning to be away from Logan after graduation and I've tried to take that into consideration as I've planned our schedule. I'm going to propose four meeting times below and give each of you a week to respond and let me know if there are times that would work better for your schedule. Not everyone will be able to make it to every meeting, but if there are times that are really bad for a large percentage of you, I'll switch to a different time.

Because I know that some of you won't be able to be at every meeting, I've got some strategies for providing back-up information. I'll give each of you a CD with lots of info on it, including maps, syllabi, background cultural information, images and a schedule. I can also use time in Germany to fill in gaps that any of you might have about the courses. The more of the pre-departure meetings that you can attend, the more you'll get out of the experience, but we'll make sure that everyone gets what they need to have a successful experience.

Tentative pre-departure meeting schedule:

Saturday, April 16, 11am to 2:00pm

Tuesday, April 19, 5:30 to 8:30pm

Saturday, May 14, 10am to 1:00pm

Monday, May 16, 4:00 to 7:00pm

I'll fill in the location as I commit to these dates and times. So get back to me with your comments and I'll post here to firm up the dates next week. What will we discuss at these meetings? Here's a list of stuff I'll be covering:

Course Registration

Berlin schedule

Practical Issues

money
luggage
weather
safety in the Guesthouse
telephone
calendar

Your Arrival

When and where will I meet each student
go over directions on the CD

Materials
ART3270

color aid provided
buying mat board in Essen
razor knife
adhesive glue stick
straight edge
personal colored paper collection: minimum of 100 colors

ART4970

Reader
Journal

ART4200

Toned paper. Canson Paper is nice but expensive
Gouache, brushes, drawing tools

DRAWING

I'll be getting a list from Scott

GENERAL

Drawing Boards, foamcore about 18x22
paper cut to 16 x 20 , consider toned paper
Masking tape
graphite pencil, charcoal, conte crayon or similar line tool
brushes, mostly watercolor brushes in a variety of sizes
waterbase paints: gouache OR watercolorOR acrylic, etc.
palette/trays/saucers/water container
a german language book to alter
PVA glue

Bauhaus Film: Less is More

Seven Color Contrasts lecture

The Information CD

Assignments

Complete list on the CD

Altered Books, presentation

Painting Portfolio

Painting Journal, show sample journal

Bauhaus Journal

Color Journal, example

Color Collages

Landeskunde

Public Transit
Ticket 2000
Schwarzfahren
NRW Tickets
Steele
Laundry
Food
Museum Etiquette
Photography
writing instruments
Weather

Journal entries

Altered Book

Bauhaus Second Film: Face of the 20th Century

Painting course objectives

Gray or toned paper for the portfolio
Five specific line/color relationships
Fifteen more paintings that revolve around a specific theme
Architecture
Combining line and color, presentation

Arrivals Follow Up

Bauhaus 1919–1933: Workshops for Modernity

2011-03-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

The Bauhaus Masters on the roof of the Bauhaus building in Dessau, December 5, 1926

Last year, the Museum of Modern Art in New York mounted it's first major exhibition since 1938 on the subject of the Bauhaus School in Germany. The Bauhaus was founded in 1919 and shut down by the Nazis in 1933. It brought together artists, architects, and designers in an extraordinary conversation about the nature of art in the age of technology. Artists and teachers at the Bauhaus wanted to rethink the very form of modern life and the school became the site of a wide array of experiments in the visual arts that have profoundly shaped our visual world today.

The Bauhaus school and the artists that worked there are the focus of the art history course that forms the hub of our curriculum this coming summer in Germany. As we'll be discussing, the significance of the Bauhaus for the path that Modernism later took can't be overemphasized and the individuals of the Bauhaus faculty were often influential in their own careers that followed the closing of the Bauhaus by the Nazis in 1933.
The exhibition at the MOMA showed four hundred works that reflected the broad range of the school’s productions, including industrial design, furniture, architecture, graphics, photography, textiles, ceramics, theater design, painting, and sculpture, many of which had never before been exhibited in the United States. It included not only works by the school’s famous faculty and best-known students—including Anni Albers, Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Lyonel Feininger, Walter Gropius, Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, László Moholy-Nagy, Lucia Moholy, Lilly Reich, Oskar Schlemmer, and Gunta Stölzl—but also a broad range of works by innovative but less well-known students, suggesting the collective nature of ideas. There was an excellent catalog of the show, which opened last November and I'll be using some parts of that book in lectures I'll give about the Bauhaus both before we leave and after we're in Germany. Plus, with visits to the Quadrat Museum in Bottrop, The Bauhaus Archive in Berlin and the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Köln planned for this year's Study Abroad in Germany program, we'll be seeing everything that was on exhibition in Manhattan and more besides.

There have been a few final changes to the roster of participants for this summer's program and I'm planning to introduce them here as they send me biographical material. You'll all meet them in person at the pre-departure meetings I'll be scheduling soon. In the meantime, I've got the following information to share about our newest addition, Laura Pehrsen. Please get in touch and welcome her to the group:

My name is Laura Jane Pehrson and I go to the University of Utah. I am a senior and finishing my second semester in nursing school there! I love to travel, play tennis, be outdoors, and anything to do with art. I am interested in traveling before or after the program so let me know if any of you are planning something! I am very excited for this summer!

Airfare drops a little

2011-03-16T09:38:00.000-07:00

I check airfare regularly and subscribe to a service that watches an airfare average for flights to Germany. There has been a $25 drop over the past seven days, but I don't expect to see a big improvement in fares in the coming weeks. The cost of oil, affected by political unrest in the Middle East, is not dropping significantly and it's leading to mostly rising prices for jet fuel. All of this is a round-about way of saying, now is probably a good time to be making a decision about your travel plans and purchasing a ticket. Prices may go down, but I plan to make a decision myself in the next 5-7 days and buy a ticket.

I have a lot of other news to share with trip participants: some changes in the roster, scheduling of pre-departure meetings, a tentative schedule, cultural items that might be of interest... But, I have a policy of limiting information items to one per post. So stay tuned for further updates and share your best airfare deals with me.

Meeting Tomorrow, February 22, 6:30 pm

2011-02-21T15:40:00.000-08:00

As I announced previously, all participants in the 2011 Art: Germany Study Abroad Program are invited to a short get acquainted meeting on Tuesday at 6:30. We'll meet in the Art Department Conference room. Enter the main office, v122, and walk straight back along the corridor. The office will already be closed, but I'll be there to let everyone in. We'll each introduce ourself and I'll take some time to answer questions. Refreshments provided.

We have at least one participant who will join us through an on-line link, so we'll get started right on time. See you all there.

Airfare and travel to Germany

2011-02-16T17:45:00.000-08:00

I've spoken with some trip participants who are starting to think about airfare and they asked about airports in the Essen area. Look at the map below:

For most of you, I recommend the Düsseldorf airport (DUS). But, you can see that there are many other possibilities. What if you wanted to arrive at an airport other than DUS? Can you do that? The answer is yes, if you plan for it and are ready for some adventure. One possibility would be to fly into the Dortmund airport: DTM. I've been out there and it's a hub airport for EasyJet. Travel to and from the Dortmund airport isn't as easy as Düsseldorf, but if you're going to save $200, 300 or 400, maybe you're ready for a little difficulty. I recommend avoiding the Weeze airport: NRN (so called because it used to be named the Niederrein Airport.) It's even further out and hard to reach by public transit. I've found that when students work with a travel agent, the agent will sometimes refer to Weeze as "the other" Düsseldorf airport. Very misleading in my opinion: don't be fooled.

But you might look at fares to Köln/Bonn or some of the other possibilities. If you can save enough money to cover the train ticket you'll have to buy, it might be a good idea. Also, if you are spending a week in London or another European city before our program begins, you can probably get a really cheap RyanAir or EasyJet flight to Germany and they usually fly into the smaller airports.

But, if you choose to fly into Düsseldorf by noon on Sunday, June12, then I will meet you at the airport, cover your transportation costs to Essen, and hold your hand (figuratively speaking) the whole way. So you could start to look at flights with that in mind. Here's an example of a relatively inexpensive flight I just looked up:

Is this the right flight? I don't think it's a very good choice myself, and I'll explain why. The total trip time is very long and it includes changing planes in Houston and London to get to Düsseldorf. You have to remember that every plane change is a chance for something to go wrong, so I look for something like, SLC to Atlanta, Atlanta to Düsseldorf. Delta flies that route and it may come down in price if we wait. (With fuel prices rising, it could go UP as well!) I haven't bought my tickets yet and will probably hope for better fares in March. No one can guarantee how the economy or fuel prices might affect airfares, but I'm going to wait and see for at least three - four weeks.

Don't forget, party next week, Tuesday 6:30 pm. Everyone will introduce themselves and I'll answer questions. For those of you on other campuses, should we consider a Skype connection?

February Social Event & TA announcement

2011-02-07T15:47:00.000-08:00


Scott Nelson Foster, watercolor

I'm please to be able to announce that recent USU graduate, Scott Foster, will be the Teaching Assistant for this year's trip to Germany. Scott is a currently a full-time faculty member in Art at Siena College in New York and brings a lot of experience to the position. We're all really lucky to have him on board. Find out more about him by checking out his work and biography here:

http://scottnelsonfoster.com/index.htm

On another note: the voting is in and it's Tuesday, February 22 in a landslide. That will be the time of a short get-acquainted event that I'll host for everyone who's on the trip this year. The idea is to make sure that all of you know one another, you can exchange e-mail addresses and/or phone numbers, and talk about plans you have for the trip. I haven't decided on a location yet, but I'll provide some refreshments and I'll have lots of stuff to share with you. The focus though will be social, not academic.

Some of you probably won't be able to attend. Rest assured that I will collect all information and send it on to you. I'll also suggest that you send me a short bio/photo and I'll post it here on the blog. If you include some of your travel objectives, then we'll get you connected to the rest of the group and you can be included in any independent travel that students are planning.

I'm off to NY for the rest of this week but will be posting another update early next week.

Get Acquainted

2011-02-01T10:44:00.000-08:00

With the list of participants nearly set, I want to organize a meeting in February so that everyone can get to know one another. Most of us are on the Logan campus, but at least three or four trip participants are going to be from out of town. I'd like to arrange a meeting time that would allow as many of us to be there as possible, so I'll suggest a few alternative meeting times:

Saturday, February 19, 3:00 pm

Tuesday, February 22, 6:30 pm

Wednesday, February 23, 11:00 am

Please send me an e-mail with your preference. I doubt if we'll be able to schedule a time that works for everyone, but we'll do our best.

REMINDER: If you're not checking this blog on a regular basis, you'll be missing important announcements. I recommend you use the "subscribe" feature in the right hand side bar and remember that you must verify your subscription by responding to the e-mail that the FeedBurner subscription service will send you.

Jaunary Update

2011-01-23T12:44:00.000-08:00

The holidays are over and it's time to get serious about concrete planning for the Study Abroad Summer Semester in Germany. Many of you have by now gotten a confirmation of your acceptance from the Study Abroad office. I'm trying to wrap up the other applications too, but it's been a slow process getting all the letters of reference in. I've had a couple applicants who've had to change their plans for summer, but I believe the total number of participants is now at fourteen.

Fourteen is not the maximum I can take and I'll be working to recruit one or two more students during the Spring Semester. If you know anyone who would like to participate, please pass their name on to me. Alternately, you can have them contact me directly.

I'll be announcing who I've chosen as the trip Teaching Assistant in just a few days. This will be a graduate student or BFA alumni who will have primary responsibility for the Drawing course and will live on-site with you at the Grend guesthouse. I get my own apartment about a ten minute bike ride away: rank has it's privileges. My first concern right now is to plan the excursion to Berlin, probably scheduled for the middle of our stay. The costs for the trip to Berlin, including round trip train travel, a three day transit pass, a museum pass and zero star accommodations in a hostel yet to be named are included in the fees you will pay to Study Abroad. Berlin is one of Europe's most exciting cities and offers us all kinds of opportunities for curriculum too. If you have time, check a tour guide or history of the city out of the library and learn a little bit about it before we go.

Ludwig Kirchner, Nollendorfplatz

There are also some other things you can do to prepare for the trip. Make sure your passport is up to date. Make two xerox copies of it, keep one on file and bring the other with you. Get a travel guide to Germany and do some reading. You'll have several opportunities for relatively short local trips during the five weeks that we'll be in Germany and you may want to plan for them now. In previous years, students have gone to Munich, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Bremem as well as lots of smaller towns and cities. And don't neglect the language issue: you don't need to speak German to travel comfortably, but it makes your travels much more interesting. At the very least, get a Berlitz audio course on a couple of cassette tapes and listen to it in the car for the next couple of months.

It's essential that I have a reliable means of communicating with you between now and when we are getting together for the pre-departure meetings. I'll send this message to the e-mail address that you provided on your application, but you will need to cooperate by checking your e-mail regularly. In six to eight weeks we'll begin discussing airfare and I'll be keeping everyone informed about the best flights. In March/April I'll schedule several pre-departure meetings and distribute course materials. If you have questions about anything regarding the trip, please stop by my office almost any time and I'll be happy to have an answer for you.

Und zum Schluß, another short promotional film that makes Essen look pretty cool.

Info meeting

2010-11-10T12:17:00.000-08:00

Bode Museum on Museuminsel in Berlin

I've scheduled two final information meetings with interested students to discuss the 2011 trip and answer questions. If you've already attended a meeting before, there won't be any new information to share. Come if you want, come if you have new questions, but you're not obligated to attend. If you haven't already been to a meeting, try to make this one, but if you're otherwise engaged you can always stop by my office and I'll give you the condensed version. The meetings will take place on:

Thursday
November 11, 2010
Noon, in Room v122
Chase Fine Arts Center Building

&

Monday
November 15, 2010
4:30 pm in Room v122
Chase Fine Arts Center Building

Curriculum

2010-11-10T08:55:00.000-08:00

My objective for the Germany Study Abroad curriculum is to develop four separate but interrelated courses that allow participation by art students at every level. Content for courses should, naturally, take advantage of the fact that we will be on location in Germany during the five week period. I also place a very high priority on the experiential research value of the program. That means that I feel there is an intrinsic value in the experience of travel that should be given value and weight when I put together a syllabus for a study abroad course as compared with course activities and content typical in an on-campus course.

The diversity present in the Study Abroad group is potentially a source of difficulty in implementing the curriculum I'm trying to develop. In a typical year, I have students that range from graduate to freshman levels. While most students are majoring in Art, there are often a few non-Art majors that will require more attention in technical areas of drawing and painting. Under on-campus circumstances it could be very difficult to juggle that many different demands from the group, but within the context of the study abroad program, the diversity of the group is a positive asset. Because students have so many contact hours with faculty, it's easy to tailor course content to individuals. In the downtime students have between museums and classroom activities, more experienced students can help those with less experience in mentoring relationships that benefit both sides.

This year curriculum will include an Art History course that focuses on the Bauhaus School and its faculty. A second course will center on Color, especially emphasizing the theory of former Bauhaus faculty members, Josef Albers and Johannes Itten. Albers and Itten both led the justifiably famous Vorkurs or preliminary course at the Bauhaus and they stressed the importance of drawing among other fundamental exercises. Our curriculum will also include a Drawing component with content that will dovetail with the history and culture students will be encountering on a daily basis. The final curriculum subject, Painting, will combine elements of all the other courses and could be thought about as a capstone course for the program. The painting portfolio each student develops will be a personal response to the experience of five weeks living and studying in Germany and will likely be a permanent addition to the student's BFA portfolio.

While students are not required to enroll in all areas of the curriculum, most will be signed up for a total of twelve credits and will participate in all fours courses. The courses can be offered under a variety of different numbers that will allow each participant to earn credit for the study abroad course work in a way that will meet their individual graduation needs.

MEETING TODAY: Antwerp and the 2011 trip

2010-11-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to meet the Vice Mayor of Culture and Tourism of the City of Antwerp. His name is Philip Heylen and I asked him about visiting the city for the opening of the new Museum Aan de Stroom this summer. He said he would set the whole thing up for us if I just send him an e-mail with the dates. So I'm planning to add that to our itinerary, and I will have some details about it today at 4:30 when I'll be meeting with any interested students to discuss the program. We'll be meeting in the Art Department Faculty Conference Room, v122. Hope to see you there. Read more about the museum here.

Information Meeting Planned

2010-10-22T12:44:00.000-07:00


Rhine bridge at Cologne

I'm planning another information meeting for Monday, November 1 at 4:30 pm. I'll show my standard slides, give a condensed presentation about dates, costs, activities and curriculum. I'll also answer any questions students have about the program. If you have already attended a meeting like this one, you don't need to come again. BUT, you'd be welcome if you had some new questions, or just really enjoy looking at the slides. The meeting will take place in the Art Department faculty conference room, v122 in the Chase Fine Arts Center.

Please pass on news of the meeting to friends and continue to visit the blog for more information about the 2011 trip.

2011 dates

2010-10-09T11:07:00.000-07:00

Allysa Ashdown, watercolor and ink on paper, 2007

I've made a firm decision about dates for the 2011 trip. Classes will begin on Monday, June 13 in Essen and our last day of classes will be July 15. For most participants, that will mean leaving SLC on Saturday, June 11. Students will land at Düsseldorf International Airport (DUS) on Sunday June 12 and have a day to adjust before we begin on Monday. Most participants will leave Düsseldorf on Saturday July 16 and land the same day in Salt Lake City. Some students will want to travel in Europe before returning to Utah, so we won't all necessarily travel together.

As you're looking at your options for air travel to Germany, you may be tempted to fly into some airport other than Düsseldorf. A lot of American travel agents will steer you toward Frankfurt, the largest airport on the continent. You might find a cheaper flight to Frankfurt, or a regional airport like Dortmund, but keep in mind that you'll need to get to Essen from the airport. I'll meet everyone who flies into Düsseldorf and pay for your travel from the airport to Essen. If you land in Dortmund, Köln or Frankfurt you'll have to find your own way to Essen (and pay for it too!) Lots of students have done that and you may too, if you prefer. I can provide you with very accurate directions. But if you land in Düsseldorf, I'll make everything really easy for you.

The show is up

2010-09-23T12:09:00.000-07:00

The exhibition looks great and I want to thank all of you who helped to put it together. I've got some photos I took of it that I'll paste in below. I'll see you all at the opening October 29, 5-8pm.

Press Coverage

2010-09-20T14:44:00.000-07:00

For your clippings file:

http://www.usu.edu/ust/index.cfm?article=48134

Exhibition

2010-09-03T10:47:00.001-07:00

I just got the final draft of the poster that will be going up soon to promote our show later in September. It's a beauty:

I think we're on track for everything. I finally got a balance report from Study Abroad and we have even more money in our account than I thought, so the reception committee shouldn't hold back on planning for refreshments.

I designated the exhibition as "M" for Mature, since I didn't know what kind of stuff I'd find in the portfolios. I hope there are some really outrageous images to include in the show now, so we can live up to our "bad boy" reputation.

I've already photographed some work from the portfolios that were turned in a little early and I'll be mounting a slide show on this blog in the coming week. Watch for it.

Portfolios Due

2010-08-24T10:44:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone has had a great summer. My thanks to Teresa for hosting a party at her house earlier this month for those of us who could attend. We were able to share some stories of our adventures since early June, when most of us left Germany. Thanks for doing all the work to set it up and thanks for the great dutch oven cooking.

You may remember the schedule I posted here back in June:

Portfolios due: June 28. This is the early option, and if you get your work to me by this date, I'll post your grades by July 1.
Later option: September 1. Get your portfolios to me by this date if you want to participate in the exhibition we have scheduled.
Exhibition dates: September 20-30.
Exhibition planning meeting, August 30, 4 pmCANCEL THIS DATE!

We're coming up on the September 1 deadline and I wanted to remind you all of it. Once I've got all the work in, I'll set up a time for Shelly to make the drive north and we'll work on grading first, and then on curating a show from the work. I'd be happy to have student help in choosing the work for the show, so let me know if you want to spend an hour or so doing that. My selection criteria will be to first include work from every participant, but after we've accomplished that, we might choose some additional work that we feel will make for the best show possible.

According to the time line above, we're going to meet on August 30, but I've got a bunch of conflicting events on that day now. I'd like to move our meeting to Wednesday of that week, September 1. Let's get together in v209, the painting studio. We'll talk about some details of the show and I'll answer questions. If you can't make it, you can see me with your questions/comments some other time that day or the next. By the way, if you didn't turn in your work yet, I've changed all your grades to Incomplete C-. That means, I've given you credit for the "experience" part of the classes which gives you a C-. By turning in your journals and portfolios, I'll be able to revise that grade up. If you have turned in your work, you should have your final grades already posted and you can relax.

Where should you turn in your portfolios? I'll clear some space in the storage slots in v209 and mark them clearly. I'll use the group of slots that are at the far west end of the room, facing to the south.

I've got a new office now too. If you're looking for me, I'll be in UPRES 210. My phone and e-mail stay the same.

Dates for Summer/Fall

2010-06-21T14:59:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to all of you who participated in the 2010 program. I'm back in Logan now, chained to my desk and trying to catch up on all that happened while we were in Germany. I hope those of you who returned to the US had a good trip and for those of you who are still on the road, best of luck in your travels.

Here is a listing of important dates to keep in mind:

Portfolios due: June 28. This is the early option, and if you get your work to me by this date, I'll post your grades by July 1.
Later option: September 1. Get your portfolios to me by this date if you want to participate in the exhibition we have scheduled.
Exhibition dates: September 20-30.
Exhibition planning meeting, August 30, 4 pm, location TBA

For those of you whose work I reviewed in Germany, I have already posted your grades. Please choose 3-5 pieces you'd like to have included in the show and get them to me by the beginning of September.

And finally, I'm looking for a student participant to take primary responsibility for the show. If done correctly, this job doesn't have to be overwhelming. I have an easy-to-follow checklist of tasks, and the work can be shared among the whole group. If you're interested in helping out, or in taking on primary responsibility, let me know.

Thanks to each of you for your help in making the trip a success.

Photo Albums

2010-06-03T22:07:00.000-07:00

I've created a Picasa webpage where we can share and exchange photos. You can get to the site by clicking on this URL:

http://picasaweb.google.com/grendler10

The password is steele2010

There are lots of ways to upload and share images. Let me know if you've got any questions.

Registration

2010-04-21T11:39:00.000-07:00

There are some on-going difficulties with course registration this year. I think this may have something to do with prerequisites. I've exchanged e-mails with the Study Abroad office and I'm following up on it. In previous years, all the prereq's and "majors only" restrictions were waived automatically, so I've never experienced this before. I'm sure I'll be able to sort it out, but it might take some time.

Die Vulkanasche

2010-04-20T12:43:00.000-07:00

Germans extend stay in Logan

Iceland volcano delays flight home for exchange students

Follow this link for a story about German Exchange student stranded in Logan by the volcano in Iceland. I've got my fingers crossed that the eruption will be history by the time we're flying to Europe in just a few weeks now.

Our last pre-departure meeting is coming up this Saturday at 2pm, again in v118, Chase Fine Arts Center. Here's the agenda:

Seven Color Contrasts Lecture

A Bauhaus Timeline

Review Arrivals

More Information about Materials, with an emphasis on Color

Questions

Local Transpotation

2010-04-08T08:09:00.000-07:00

Each trip participant will have a "Ticket2000" for the whole time we're in Germany. This is a monthly pass that will allow you to travel on all public transit in Essen seven days a week and all public transit in the larger VRR (Transit district Rhine/Ruhr) after 7pm each day and on weekends.

The details of how this ticket works are very complex, but I'll be giving you the short, simple version in Germany. We'll travel a lot together during the first days there and you'll learn most of what you need to know by example. You can visit the VRR website here and read (in English!) much more than most of you will care to know.

Here are some maps that might help you in learning the ropes:

A map of the Essen transit system with a circle to show where Steele is

and a map showing the entire Ruhr region, showing where Essen fits into the big picture. Your ticket will be valid after 7pm and weekends in this entire region.

I have a .pdf of an English language brochure that EVAG prints with a description of the Ticket2000 and I'm looking for a way to make that downloadable from this blog. I may just e-mail it each of you if that turns out to be the easiest solution.

Ticket2000 Brochure

2010-04-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

Let's see if this works. Click HERE and the link should download the brochure for you.

Course Reader

2010-04-06T16:06:00.000-07:00

The reader for the Art History course, ARTH4790, is on the shelves in the Bookstore! If you can, pick one up and get started reading before our meeting on Friday.

WLAN

2010-04-06T14:28:00.000-07:00

I've just received word that the Grend Guesthouse has a fully functional WIFI network in place now. Good news for those of you with wireless enabled devices.

Studentenausweis

2010-04-05T11:48:00.000-07:00

An important reminder for everyone: bring your USU student ID with you to Germany! With your student identity card, I can get you into museums at a GREATLY reduced entry fee. You'll find it useful in a hundred different ways and it will save you (as well as me) many Euros.

Berlin

2010-04-05T11:32:00.000-07:00

I still need to collect money from most of you that are participating in the Berlin Excursion. If you will remember, I told you all that I projected a total cost of $255. As it turns out, I ran a little over that total. The updated figure is $260, which I'd like to collect from each of you before we leave for Germany. I'll bring my records to our meeting this Friday and maybe I'll be able to squeeze some money out of you.

2nd Pre-departure Meeting

2010-04-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

We have our second pre-departure meeting this Friday at 11 am. we'll meet again in v118, the Seminar Room, just one door to the East of the Art Department main office. The agenda for this meeting will be as follows:

Bauhaus Film: Face of the 20th Century

Drawing Course
TA, Shelly Coleman
Syllabus

Information CD

Altered Books, presentation

Milbersthofen-München, Paul Klee

meeting reminder

2010-03-25T11:48:00.000-07:00

Our first pre-departure meeting will be this Saturday at 2pm in room v118 in the Chase Fine Arts Center. The room is on the first floor, just one door down from the main office. Here's my agenda:

1. Course Registration

2. Practical Issues
* money
* luggage
* weather
* safety in the Guesthouse
* telephone
* calendar

3. Your Arrival

* Specific information about your flight, including, dates, times, airline and flight number.

4. Bauhaus Film: Face of the 20th Century

5. Painting course objectives
* Gray or toned paper for the portfolio
* Five specific line/color relationships
* Fifteen more paintings that revolve around a specific theme
* Architecture
* Combining line and color, presentation

6. Painting Portfolio slide show

We'll be busy until 4 pm. What should you bring? Specific details about your flight to and from Germany, paper and pencil for some minimal note taking, a list of your desired courses. For those of you who have already contacted me because you can't attend, I'll be responding soon. I've had a series of 14 hour days this week and I'm running a little behind.

Course Registration

2010-03-18T08:58:00.000-07:00

Registration for summer study abroad courses is different from the procedure you use normally. Instead of registering on-line, you'll register through me and the Study Abroad office. I've got a form that looks like this:

and we'll work on filling it our at our first pre-departure meeting. Basically, we'll put a check mark in the box that corresponds to the course you want to be enrolled for. Almost every year there is some confusion with registration, so we'll want to go through it carefully and get it right. I'll go over the form with you at the meeting and answer any questions, but I'll remind you of a few things now. No student can be enrolled for more than 12 credits. You don't have to enroll for the maximum number of credits, but the cost of the trip isn't effected by your enrollment, even if you chose to enroll in NO courses. Highly unlikely.

What if you can't attend the first meeting on Saturday, March 27 at 2 pm? Simply stop by my office when it's convenient and I can take you through the registration process. For those of you who aren't living in Logan, send me an e-mail with the courses you THINK you need and we'll work it out.

I'll post again early next week with a meeting reminder and room number. I think we can use v118, but I'll confirm that on Monday.

Pre-departure Meetings

2010-03-13T16:11:00.001-08:00

The votes are in and I've set the meeting times. We'll have three different meetings at the following times:

Saturday March 27, 2 - 4 pm
Friday April 9, 11 - 1 pm
Saturday, April 24, 2 - 4 pm

I'm not sure where the meetings will take place, but I'll look for a good room and let you know. Check the previous post from earlier in the week for meeting agenda. Have a great Spring Break!

Final Info on flights

2010-03-11T11:20:00.000-08:00

For those of you still trying to make a decision on arrival in Germany and your return flight, I offer this info:

Our Teaching Assistant, Shelly, has made the following plans:

Flight to Germany:
May 8th

9:45-3:45 Delta 1544 to Atlanta
4:30-7:25AM (Sunday, May 9) Air France 3615 to Düsseldorf

Return flight:
June 12

9:20-1:15 Delta 1232
4:35-6:50 Delta 1926 to SLC

If you're traveling on the same flight as her, that will simplify things with the local transportation.

I'll need exact information from each of you about your travel plans before we leave. If you have it now, you're welcome to send it along by e-mail. Otherwise, I'll collect it all during April.

Berlin Excursion

2010-03-11T09:03:00.000-08:00

I've done all the planning for the Berlin Excurison. We leave Essen at 9:23 am on May 24 and return on the 27th at about 10:30 pm. We've got three nights booked at the BaxPax Hostel near the Friedrichstr. Bahnhof. Unfortunately NOT in the special 50 bed dormitory, instead I had to take two eight bed rooms. I say "unfortuantely" because it drove up the price a little. Instead of being able to plan it all for $255, the cost is actually $261.68. Let's call it an even $260. I'm happy to get the balance from those of you who are participating any time. If you're not clear on how much you still owe me, just ask: I'm keeping excellent records.

We'll have three and a half days in Berlin and I'll make schedule of events that might look something like this:

Monday Afternoon: Museum Insel including the Pergamon Museum, Bode Museum, Altes Museum and the Berlin Cathedral.
Tuesday: Bauhaus Archive, Museums of the Kulturforum, Reichstag at night
Wednesday: Charlottenburg, Berggruen Museum, Jewish Museum OR Checkpoint Charlie Museum
Thursday: Hamburger Bahnhof and galleries

But each of you should give some thought to the things you're most interested in. Get a Berlin tour guide from the library and make some plans of your own. There's a lot to do in three and a half days. Here's a city map showing museums and galleries:

Travel to Germany

2010-03-09T12:47:00.000-08:00

I've finally bought my ticket to Germany and if you haven't yet made a decision, you probably should soon. I don't think prices will come down any further now and they will start back up as we get closer to the actual departure date. I know that many of you are planning to spend some time in the UK before the Saturday arrival date in Germany and you'll probably find the cheapest flights are going to bring you into the Dortmund airport or Weeze. Check out my previous post for info about those airports.

For those of you flying directly into Düsseldorf, I'll be able to give you flight info for our TA, Shelly, by Friday afternoon. If you want, you could book the same flight as her and it will simplify organizing local transportation when you all arrive. I'll pass on the info to you as soon as I get it myself.

Pre-departure meetings

2010-03-09T12:11:00.000-08:00

I need to select dates and times for three pre-departure meetings during April. These will be two-hour meetings that deal with a lot of different topics. I'll paste in an outline below. But the big question for now is, what days/times are best? Attendance at the meetings isn't mandatory, but your presence is strongly encouraged. I understand that it may be difficult for you to attend each one, but you will be at a disadvantage if you have a lack of information about the program. I'll do everything I can to fill you in if you miss a meeting and naturally, you can also talk with other students who were there, but there is no substitute for attending and getting the whole picture.

I've set up a survey to the right of this post in the blog sidebar. Click on the time(s) you prefer and I'll gather the info. This weekend I'll set the times of the meetings.

Course Registration

Berlin schedule

Practical Issues

money
luggage
weather
safety in the Guesthouse
telephone
calendar

Your Arrival

When and where will I meet each student
go over directions on the CD

Materials
ART3270

color aid provided
buying mat board in Essen
razor knife
adhesive glue stick
straight edge
personal colored paper collection: minimum of 100 colors

ART4970

Reader
Journal

ART4200

Toned paper. Canson Paper is nice but expensive
Gouache, brushes, drawing tools

DRAWING

TBA: Shelly will be leading this part of the meeting

GENERAL

Drawing Boards, foamcore about 18x22
paper cut to 16 x 20 , consider toned paper
Masking tape
graphite pencil, charcoal, conte crayon or similar line tool
brushes, mostly watercolor brushes in a variety of sizes
waterbase paints: gouache OR watercolorOR acrylic, etc.
palette/trays/saucers/water container
a german language book to alter
PVA glue

Bauhaus Film: Less is More

Seven Color Contrasts lecture

The Information CD

Assignments

Complete list on the CD

Altered Books, presentation

Painting Portfolio

Painting Journal, show sample journal

Bauhaus Journal

Color Journal, example

Color Collages

Landeskunde

Public Transit
Ticket 2000
Schwarzfahren
NRW Tickets
Steele
Laundry
Food
Museum Etiquette
Photography
writing instruments
Weather

Journal entries

Altered Book

Bauhaus Second Film: Face of the 20th Century

Painting course objectives

Gray or toned paper for the portfolio
Five specific line/color relationships
Fifteen more paintings that revolve around a specific theme
Architecture
Combining line and color, presentation

Arrivals Follow Up

Schedule in Essen

2010-03-05T08:11:00.000-08:00

I've got a first draft of our schedule in Essen for the summer that will be of interest to most of you who are planning to travel during our free time. The image above is way too small to read, but if you click on it, it should open in a window by itself at a size you can read easily. A lot of the details will change according to circumstances, but the timing of major events, such as our break for Berlin, won't change. I've also scheduled a three day weekend for June 4, 5, 6, and that won't change. As I find out more about events locally, I may swap a trip to Düsseldorf for a trip to Köln in order to take advantage of a special exhibition, and that kind of change sometimes requires changing the timing of assignments and so forth. Not anything we need to worry about now.

Another component of the schedule that I haven't included yet is the "extracurricular" events that typically take place in the evening. This would include stuff like visits to artist's studios, gallery receptions, World Cup soccer events. I have to work out these details with people once we're actually in Germany.

I've got two (or maybe three) other pieces of information I want to share with you, and I'll do it in separate posts, either later today or over the weekend.

Travel Update

2010-02-16T10:42:00.000-08:00

In my last post I suggested to trip participants that they should plan on arriving in Düsseldorf before noon on Sunday, May 9. My plans have changed slightly and I'm going move that target back a few hours to 2 pm local time. Normally I can arrive in Germany a day before the student group arrives, buy tickets and make other arrangements and then meet them on Sunday morning. This year I'm going to need to attend the USU graduation on Saturday and I won't be able to do things the way I have in the past. Instead, I'll probably arrive at the same time as each of you. I'll have to make up the lost time on Monday, but we should be back on track by Tuesday. I'm still working out the details, but I hope to have it all finalized in a few more days.

In the meantime, I can announce and introduce the TA who will be helping me this year in Germany. I've asked Shelly Coleman to take the position and she's agreed. You can learn more about her here. Shelly knows her way around Germany and I may even have her escort a group of students to the Guest House in Steele. Check back here for details in a few days.

Coinciding with the time we'll be in Germany will be the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Most games will be televised and some of you may want to watch the games at a Public Viewing opportunity. We did that in 2006 and it was a lot of fun. You can read more about the phenomenon of Public Viewing here. I don't think Germany is favored to win the World Cup this year, but the games will be an experience no matter who wins.

Folkwang Museum

2010-01-29T11:17:00.000-08:00

The Folkwang Museum in Essen is one of Germany's most important collections of Modern and contemporary art. The building has been closed for over two years as renovations and additions were made and this weekend the new building will finally open to the public. We'll visit the Folkwang early in our stay in Essen and some of you may want to learn a little about it and its collection. There's a great video piece about the new building on the ZDF website, but I can't embed the video here. Instead you'll have to follow this link to view it.

You can also visit the official Folkwang Museum Website. Plenty of the content is offered in English.

Stammtisch

2010-01-13T09:30:00.000-08:00

I've finally gotten approval to collect money directly from students to plan the Berlin Excursion and I'll be starting work on it this week. The University naturally is wary of a situation in which faculty are taking money from students, but this is a special circumstance and I've gotten special approval. Naturally, I will not be making any profit in my role as facilitator, but I will demand a window seat on the train to and from Berlin. As a quick reminder, the trip to Berlin will cost ABOUT $275.00 and will include round trip train travel, a three day transit pass in Berlin, a museum pass and a hostel bed.

I'm calling a meeting of ALL participants for the week of January 25-29. The meeting is NOT MANDATORY, but if you can attend, it will be to your advantage. The purpose of the meeting is to provide an opportunity for each of you to meet one another. You'll also be able to ask questions and I'll be able to get a list of people who want to participate in the Berlin Excursion.

I'm not sure what the best time for a one hour social meeting is. If you have suggestions: evening after 5, Saturday, noon on Wednesday, for example, please e-mail them to me. I'll pick a time that works for the most people and set it up. We'll have some light refreshments and I'll pick a comfortable room to meet in.

Kulturhauptstadt 2010

2009-12-06T14:09:00.000-08:00

The European Union selects a city each year to be its "Cultural Capital." Of course, the real cultural capitals, London, Berlin, Paris, Rome and so forth are never chosen for this honor. It always goes to a mid-size city and for 2010, Essen will be the Cultural Capital of Europe with activities are scheduled throughout the year. I'm sure we'll be participating in many of the concerts, exhibitions and performances that are planned, but for now I'll just post the Official YouTube Promotional Video for the Ruhrgebiet. There are hundreds of other videos that you could find if you searched with some terms like, "Essen, Ruhr, Kulturhauptstadt..." but this is a really good one and quite short.

I've gotten an update from the Study Abroad office on the application process and the trip is not full yet. If you know anyone who is still interested, encourage them to apply. There are only two openings now and they won't last long.

Course Info

2009-10-26T11:21:00.000-07:00

Erik Olson, Der Telefonmast, 2008

I've spoken with a couple of students recently who had questions about the specific courses and course numbers that would be offered this Spring during the Study Abroad program in Germany. I'll put the four course areas below along with the choices each student will have as they register. Some of these courses have prerequisites that you haven't taken yet, but I can waive all prerequisites for the Study Abroad program.

We want to register each of you for course numbers that you can use toward your major and we have some flexibility beyond the obvious options shown. I can, for example, sign you up for as many as 6 credits in ART4200 or a total of 9 in ART6200. There is a total limit though and no one can be enrolled for more than 12 credits total.

Drawing:
ART1110, Drawing I
ART2410, Drawing II
ART4270, Special Topics in Drawing and Painting
ART6200, Graduate Painting Studio

Color:
ART3270, Color; Theory and Practice
ART6200, Graduate Painting Studio

Art History:
ART4790, Art History Seminar and Special Problems: Artists and Theory of the Bauhaus
ART6790, Art History Seminar and Special Problems: Artists and Theory of the Bauhaus

Painting:
ART4200, Advanced Painting Studio
ART6200, Graduate Painting Studio

Typical Week

2009-10-14T10:43:00.000-07:00

At my most recent info meeting with students, one person asked about what the daily schedule might be during the Summer Semester in Germany program. I decided to post one of the calendars I developed for a previous year so you could get a clear picture of how we'll all be spending our time.

As you can see from the images above, I divide most days into a morning activity and an afternoon activity, with a break in between for lunch. On the first day of classes, Monday, I scheduled an Art History lecture for the morning followed by a walk around the "village" of Steele to orient people. We visit the bank, the local Internet Cafe, grocery store, post office, etc. After a lunch break, we take the train downtown and walk around Essen, with a special emphasis on the art supply stores. Most people are a little jet lagged, so Monday is usually a short day and we're finished by 2 or 3pm.

Tuesday we focus on Color in the morning and Painting in the afternoon. Color typically means we're in the classroom working through some of the color exercises in Josef Alber's book and for Painting we're outside working on-site in one of a variety of locations. On Wednesday of that first week I split the morning session to be able to cover some material in both Color and Art History to prepare for our first museum visit that afternoon. When we visit a museum we won't be moving through it as a group. Instead, students keep a journal with specific entry topics. Typically I'll set a mid-point meeting time while we're at the museum so that everyone can share their experiences up to that point and I can help people find stuff they've missed.

Thursday I turn the group over to my TA who will be leading the Drawing class. I arrive after lunch and spend the afternoon focused on the Painting curriculum. On Friday we leave after 9 am for a full day in Düsseldorf, visiting at least two different museums there.

You can see by looking at the schedule for the following weeks that less and less time is devoted to lecture (i.e., Art History) and we spend relatively more time traveling and visiting museums. And don't forget, this schedule is for a previous year. The schedule for the 2010 trip will be different in it's specifics but similar in content.

Düsseldorf am Rhein

2009-10-04T14:04:00.000-07:00

Düsseldorf is the capital of the state of North-Rhine Westfalen and is twenty minutes south of Essen along the Rhine river. Whereas Essen is a city built for getting things done, Düsseldorf has a more tourist oriented economy. It's home to several world class museums of Art and its Altstadt boasts hundreds of restaurants and cafes. As a participant in the Summer Semester in Germany program, you will have a monthly transit ticket that allows you to travel to Düsseldorf and back any evening and on weekends for free.

Among the many popular places to visit in Düsseldorf, the promenade along the Rhine is certainly one of the favorites. At one end is the Tonhalle, a concert hall for the resident symphony orchestra, at the other end is the new state government center, known for its distinctive architecture. In between are galleries, shops, outdoor dining, museums devoted to (among others) mustard, shipping along the Rhine and ceramic artifacts from around the world.

With a big international community, Düsseldorf also offers English language films at several different cinemas and boat trips either up or down the Rhine. We'll make at least two group trips to Düsseldorf, focusing on museums important to our curriculum, but most students will take advantage of the free transit pass to visit often during the five weeks we'll all be in Germany.

Affordable Costs

2009-09-17T13:53:00.000-07:00

I met with a group of students today who were all interested in the Study Abroad trip to Germany. I was up to the point where I was going to mention the application of loans and scholarships to study abroad costs. Then the fire alarm went off and we all had to go sit on the grass in front of the building. So, I've decided to post a section of the official Study Abroad Video that deals with costs. The film is directed by Andy Lorimar who received a Telly Award for the film. You can see the whole film at the Study Abroad website (link on Auslandssemster, just to the right of this post.) This section deals with costs and tells you that in most cases, scholarships and loans ARE applicable to your study abroad costs. Remember that the film deals with ALL study abroad programs at USU, including the ISEP programs that last for a full 16 week semester. So, not all of the information is applicable to the Summer Semester in Germany program.

Enjoy the film. Contact me with questions. Many thanks to Andy.

Extra Curricular

2009-09-16T11:16:00.001-07:00

In addition to the standard curriculum I wrote about last week, the Summer Semester in Germany program is designed to take advantage of opportunities that occur spontaneously. On the last trip that included visits with three different local artists during the first week of our stay. I saved photos of the visits below as a slide show.

First we visited the studio of Dorothea Hülder, a painter who works in acrylic producing very high intensity color images. The next day we visited Roger Rigorth, an environmental artist from Darmstadt, who was working on an outdoor sculpture in Gelsenkirchen. He had a large scaffold built around his sculpture site and we were able to help him in executing some of the weaving that was required. Our third visit was to an opening reception for an artist from Hamburg, currently living in Essen. His name is Jens Meyer and his work is primarily made with fabric stretched over a steel armature. The last images in the slide show below were taken at Zeche Zollverein, a former industrial site that has been redeveloped as a cultural center.

Many thanks to Brandt who took all the photos.

2010 trip

2009-08-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

I'm currently developing plans for the Utah State University Art Department Study Abroad trip to Germany in 2010. Dates aren't firm yet, but the trip will be five weeks, probably leaving the US around May 9 and returning in the second week of June. Costs are also still being determined, but will probably fall somewhere between $2700 and $2800 for twelve credits. You can keep up to date with all the latest developments by visiting this page often or subscribing to the blog by e-mail.