by Amy Borer
Features Editor
For many students who have fantasized about a European getaway, the dream of a lifetime becomes a reality this June when Ruth Trotter, associate professor of art, and Gerard Lavatori, associate professor of French, take a group of students on a trip to Paris, France.
The trip is being offered to all students who wish to go as a class taken for either two or four credits. If students desire, they can also partake in the trip without enrolling in the class or earning credits. For those who choose the credit option, the trip will fulfill the old humanities general education requirement or the new intercultural experience requirement, and art students can use the trip in lieu of the Art and Civilization: Modern and Contemporary requirement.
The 10-day trip will be geared around the course, Paris and the Modern City.
“We are interested in looking at artists and writers who used the city as a subject for their work,” said Trotter.
The course will focus on impressionist, realist, cubist, surrealist and contemporary artists and writers, including Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel; and Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac, André Breton, Guillaume Apollinaire and Charles Baudelaire.
Activities on the trip include visiting many of the sites described in the assigned readings, such as Notre Dame and Versailles. Other activities will include a tour of Giverny and Monet’s gardens and various walking trips to museums.
“The majority of the activities allow students to work individually and in small groups,” said Trotter.
Trotter and Lavatori hope to have about 25 students going on the trip, and so far there have been about 15 students planning to go. There have also been a number of faculty members interested in the trip.
The total cost of the trip is $1,500, which includes airfare, hotel, breakfasts, all transportation and passes to various museums. For those taking the class for credit, the cost does not include tuition, but Trotter stressed that students can enroll in the class for the spring semester so that their financial aid can be applied to it.
Students need not pay the entire cost of the trip in full, however they do need to commit to going on the trip by the end of December so that reservations can be made.
