Interested in studying abroad? If you’re an aspiring creative, one trip worth taking is the Venice Biennale in Italy.
“This is a pilgrimage every artist needs to make. Period,” said Shanti Thankur, a professor in the Film and Animation department and one of the trip’s two co-leaders. “You’re just challenged to expand what you think you know.”
Every two years, Venice, Italy hosts the Biennale, a forum where artists from all over the world can exhibit their work. Many mediums are represented, including sound exhibits, sculptures, paintings, film and more.
The event takes place primarily in two buildings: the Arisenale and the Giardini, Italian for gardens. However, that’s not all there is to see. Over 200 pop-ups display their exhibits throughout Venice, where students can take water buses, called Vaporetto, to see everything. Students should also expect a lot of walking, since cars and bicycles are not allowed in Venice. They will be immersed in art for 8 to 12 hours a day. Every morning, the group convenes to discuss and share what they saw.
Vicki Colt, a second year Fine Arts Studio graduate student, reflected fondly on her experiences in Venice.
“We saw more art than most people saw in a lifetime, but we also explored an historic and beautiful city, ate amazing food on the canal every day, stuck our toes in the sea, and came home as friends that shared this amazing adventure,” Colt said.
The trip is planned to accommodate students’ budgets; at $3100, it is one of the least expensive study abroad trips offered at RIT. The trip fee covered lodging, breakfast, entrance to all Biennale events, tickets to the Academia, Guggenheim, 12 civic museums in Venice, water bus passes for transportation, two group meals as well as some informational materials. The tuition for the class is included in the fall semester, so there is no summer tuition. Students are responsible for covering their own airfare and other meals.
Students don’t have to be College of Art and Design students, either. Anyone who has a passion for art and creativity is eligible.
The program doesn’t look for a portfolio. What it looks for instead is someone who loves the arts, and ideally someone who is a second year student or above, or a grad student. The program is also open to NTID students, and two interpreters are eligible to come on the trip.
After the study abroad program, students take a fall class where they create artwork inspired by the trip. In the past, students have made paintings, sculptures and animations; one student even performed a tap dance and shot a video of herself doing it. These works are shown in October during an exhibit for students who went on the trip. Students can view them from Thursday, Oct. 22 to Saturday, Nov. 21 in the Grid Space within RIT’s University Gallery at Booth Hall 2700.
According to Ceian Thomas, a second year MFA student in Film and Animation, “….this is a very soul-searching experience. This trip always had me asking myself, “Why is it that I do what I do? What is my sole reason for making art?”
Thomas was especially inspired by various sculptures and paintings from the Great Britain pavilion and the Equatorial Guinea pavilion.
“Both highlighted artists and art that focused heavily on people that look like me, and has given me inspiration on designs for backgrounds, costumes, characters, and props for future stories I might want to tell,” Thomas noted.
Colt, on the other hand, described being inspired by the many different mediums, subject matters and materials the artists presented. One exhibit she really liked was Khaled Sabsabi’s Khalil, a multimedia experience where the viewer walked into a giant abstract painting that was raised off the floor and in the round.
Colt described being impacted by the size of the exhibits. “The Arsenale must have been about four stories tall and there were paintings that started in the rafters and puddled on the floor.”
Some of the other unique exhibits included an entirely sound-oriented exhibit in the Giardini. In a past year, there was even a tactile exhibit with fur hanging from the walls and a ceiling that created a cocoon-like experience.
Ultimately, the impact of the trip stayed with Colt long after she left, helping her revitalize her creative process and define the direction of her work.
“In years to come I will look back and see this trip as a turning point in my creative pursuits…. Being amidst such a vast display of contemporary art seems to have given me a solid footing for the work I intend to create. Above all, it inspired me to get back into my studio and start making.”
