ARTS1115 · Fine Arts

Imagination and Creativity in Irish Landscapes

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

This hands-on study abroad course is open to students of all levels of artistic background and areas of concentration. This course comprises a uniquely immersive and field-based study at the Burren College of Art--based within the renovated remains of a sixteenth-century castle on the west coast of Ireland. The surrounding landscape is the Burren, a one-of-a-kind ecological land mass of limestone, formed under an ancient ocean, and fostering ecosystems containing flora and fauna unique to the area. Culturally, the region is home to numerous unearthed remains of historical dwellings, tombs, and artifacts, which further sculpt the terrain. Through individual and collaborative creative projects using a variety of media, students use the terrain to investigate, question and expand upon firsthand observation and analysis of relationships between cultural and natural systems. Course content will consist of trips to regional sites, field based research, creative workshops, lectures and art production supported by local ecologists, artists, story-tellers and historians.