The UGA Cortona program builds community. Yes, it teaches disciplines like art history, photography, painting, ceramics, printmaking, drawing, metals and book arts, but that’s only part of the story. A student studying in the program is given the opportunity to see great art in situ in a wide variety of Italian places and also to make art of their own. It’s the where of making that art that makes all the difference.
While in Cortona, the students live all together in a residential center near the top of the town’s steep hill. The facilities for all the disciplines mentioned above are either in that same building or in one right next door, so they are together much of the time – living, making art, reading, learning, discussing and socializing.
Some of that engagement continues down the hill in Cortona’s “downtown” where shops, restaurants, bars (Italian bars ), wine shops, some small grocery stores and other services are concentrated. Students frequently traverse “the hill,” walking up and down Via Santa Margherita’s steep slope between town and campus.
With all of that in mind, the shock and sadness that hung in the air as the students packed up and left Cortona was not only real, but understandable. The 19 students had spent a month living, exploring, making and learning together and now it was to end after only 1/3 of the semester’s appointed time.
Tears were shed, and not just by the students. Those of us who came here to teach them felt their departure in a visceral way. The students in my photography class had just reached what I like to call “escape velocity” – they were ready to really fly and begin to translate their feelings about being here into photographs.
And just like that, they were gone.
