The European Summer School Study Tour

The European study tour runs about every 2 years and is organised as part of the education elective unit EDF4211 Introduction to European Arts.

The idea behind this elective unit is to encounter influential and far-reaching European ideas that have affected European culture and society. In addition, we discover the very people who created these ideas. What better way to understand Europe’s progressive ideas than by visiting and experiencing them first hand in the very places where they originated?

This study tour takes place during the beautiful, but cold, European winter months of November and December. Europe has a magic at this time of year in the run-up to Christmas - music, festivals and fayers... This is an opportunity to recharge your batteries after a hard year, blow your mind with the most beautiful sights and sounds, enjoy wonderful food and company, and get fit as we walk kilometeres every day.

Warm clothes and really good walking shoes with a good tread (possibly for the snow) are a MUST.

Who is it for?

Students and teachers of the Arts, Jewish Studies, European Studies, Film Studies, Architecture, and Museum Studies. Those with little background in the above areas are also welcome.

Cost

Approximately $7,600 full price. This includes airfare and taxes, all accommodation (twin or triple-shared), single supplement (i.e. if you want a room to yourself) - price on request, sumptuous breakfasts, all land transportation in Europe, museum entrances, etc.

Not included: other meals, compusory personal insurance and individual spending money.

Students enrolled in this unit may apply for a scholarship from Monash International.

2009 study trip will include

The main focus for this Summer School is the arts and how they have expressed the human condition through architecture, musical styles, the visual arts, literature and film while reflecting the progress of European history over the past 20 centuries. While in Europe, we will trace the effects of mighty Empires whose history has affected the founding of modern Europe:

• The Roman Empire, which spread its tentacles across Western Europe, and The Venetian Republic
• The French Revolution and its impact on subsequent European/world society and politics
• The Renaissance and Reformation in England under the Tudors, through to the Industrial Revolution and beyond

All the time, we will see how the increasing secularisation of the Arts has mirrored what was happening in culture and society, while steadily shaping and commenting on the post-Renaissance world in which we live.

You will encounter the following monumental and beautiful cities during your 20 nights in Europe:

Rome [5 nights], Venice [5 nights], Paris [5 nights], London [5 nights]

The itinerary therefore cuts a swathe across Europe ~ starting in Italy, that power-house of modern European progressive thinking and the backbone of European culture and society; then Paris, home to great style in the arts from furniture to palaces, music to the visual arts and literature; finally to London, the city of Shakespeare and Dickens, Handel and Elgar, and the treasures of the British Museum.

Some of the important artistic styles that we will explore...

Classical Rome and its architecture, literature and sculpture, the High Renaissance in Rome, Venice and London, the Baroque in Italy, France and the England, Romanticism, Nationalism, Impressionism … and more besides

Some of the important characters that you will encounter along the way are …

Vergil, Ovid, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, Palestrina, Bernini, Hieronymus Bosch, Monteverdi, Palladio, Vivaldi, Jacques-Louis David, Delacroix, Rodin, Monet, Debussy, Purcell, Handel, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Shakespeare, Turner, Constable, …

Requirements for students enrolled in the unit

The learning content for this unit is organised into topics. For each topic, there are focus questions to be considered, and for each day, there is a focus relating to one of the topics.  The assessment includes a research essay on one of the artists/styles or development of an art form in a particular place [based on its socio-cultural setting] completed on return from Europe.  There are five compulsory lectures / meetings during semester 2, 2009, held prior to departure in November, 2009.