Support
I studied abroad in Cortona, Italy in the Spring of 2018. I am a statistics and fine studio arts major. During my semester, I was involved in an intensive art program where I traveled around different cities in Italy including Florence, Rome, Pisa, Siena, and many more studying the art and history of these areas. I was able to fully immerse myself in not only my own work, but also works that have been very influential throughout history. Through the grant I was able to travel to both Amsterdam and Paris and continue my education of art and focus on sexuality and color in two specific cities after the semester was done. I first spent three nights in Amsterdam. When we arrived it was King’s Day, a very popular holiday that attracts people from all over the world. I interacted with a lot of local people who were selling different things on every street including clothes, food and art. That night we went into the heart of the city to explore my topic, how sexuality and culture interact. One of the main reasons I chose Amsterdam as one of my cities to explore this topic is because of the fact that prostitution is legal and very public especially in the Red Light District. It was an interesting atmosphere because I assumed that it would be a dirty, uncomfortable and, heavily male dominated space but in reality most of the shows and viewings were surprisingly elegant and consent centered with a variety of different people there. The next day we went to an exhibit called the ROSO that featured a Banksy and Lichtenstein exhibit that was absolutely amazing. The colors in the Lichtenstein works have influenced the work that I have been working on for my Senior Year Experience project on sexuality and color. In Paris, we went to the Louvre and spent an entire day there. Here I focused on the more classical forms and view on sexuality. I saw paintings like The Grand Odalisque, The Intervention of the Sabine Women, and, at the time of our visit, they had a huge retrospective of Delacroix’s work that I was lucky enough to see. Through this grant I was able to see countless works and how those pieces interact with specific parts of that culture, like sexuality, and how that is portrayed in society.