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Rite of Spring
VISUAL ARTS JOURNAL
photo by Tom Huhn
While SVA has long offered short-term study-abroad opportunities as well as the opportunity for its students to spend a semester abroad through approved programs at other schools, this past spring it inaugurated a semester-long international program of its own: SVA in Rome. Open to all academically qualified undergraduates at the College, SVA in Rome offers “total immersion” in the history, art and architecture of the Italian capital, says Tom Huhn, chair of BFA Visual and Critical Studies. The curriculum consists of two studio courses, which take place in professional workspaces, and three humanities courses, which are taught on location at monuments, churches, museums, galleries and ruins. While not attending class or exploring Rome on their own, students stay in fully furnished apartments, which the College rents in advance. Huhn—who has directed SVA Arts Abroad programs in France, Turkey and Mexico—co-created the Rome program with faculty member Peter Hristoff. The two accompanied the first year’s group—14 students from four different majors—and jointly taught one of the humanities courses; the other two were taught by local art historians. The experience, Huhn says, was “Incredible. When you live in a place like Rome for an extended period of time—not just as a tourist but as a real resident and as a student—you come away with a deeper appreciation and understanding of Western art and art history and civilization.” SVA Admissions is currently evaluating applications for next spring’s program. [GH]
Special Treatment As MPS Art Therapy’s Special Projects coordinator, Val Sereno’s core objective is to provide SVA students in the program with the opportunity to hone their discipline in real-world clinical contexts. Often, though, Special Projects also serves as an art therapy advocate, promoting the practice to organizations that might not have considered using it. “Sometimes as a result of our collaborations, sites add an art therapist to the staff or make room for art therapy in their regular work with clients,” Sereno says. For instance, last spring, Lenox Hill Neighborhood House—which has worked with Special Projects for several years—invited MPS Art Therapy students to work for the first time in its Center for Alzheimer’s Respite Care for the Elderly (CARE). Lynne Mold, Lenox Hill’s director of visual and performing arts, initiated the new collaboration, and says that visual art and music are two of the best ways of working with CARE’s patients, most of whom have advanced dementia. Similarly, Francis Palazzolo (BFA 1985
Fine Arts), co-founder and creative director of Healing Arts Initiative’s Art Studio—which offers working space and materials for artists with mental illness— has been so impressed with the quality of MPS Art Therapy students’ work that he regularly recommends the College’s graduate program to his interns. Among those who enrolled in MPS Art Therapy on his recommendation: Suzanne Deisher (2014) and current student Daniel Cortorreal. “I myself have learned a lot from watching SVA students interact with our artists,” Palazzolo says. Since 2001, when SVA MPS Art Therapy began, more than 50 New York City institutions have worked with the department. Recent participating organizations include Life Is Precious, which offers suicide prevention services to Latina teens, and Friends in Deed, which offers counseling and support services to individuals suffering from terminal or chronic illnesses. For more information, visit arttherapyblog.sva.edu. [Jamie Keesling]