Italy: Umbria - Drawing and Printmaking in an Italian Hill Town

This is an incomparable opportunity to explore painting, printmaking, drawing, and journal keeping while living and working in a traditional Umbrian hill town.

PROGRAM DATES: JUNE 14 TO JULY 6, 2025
APPLICATION AND NEED-BASED SCHOLARSHIP DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 15, 2025

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

This intensive 3-week program is designed to help students interpret the landscape of central Italy through various media, integrating its rich art and historical heritage into a meaningful experience. Students will experience the culture, language, and rhythm of everyday life in this hillside town while working independently under the expert guidance of MICA instructors. As a community of artists, students will explore drawing, painting, and printmaking in a 6-credit studio elective course, providing them with the inspiration for creative expression while developing a sense of space in this enchanting, eclectic location.
Students, faculty, and visiting artists live, dine, and work together in the walled medieval hill town of Monte Castello di Vibio in Umbria, providing rich opportunities to connect with others to discuss their work and aspirations. ICARTS, the International Center for the Arts Studio School, co-hosts the MICA program and provides onsite support and logistical coordination. In this environment, participants find equilibrium between the old and the new, a balance between solitude and community in which focused, intensive work and dynamic interactions occur between students and faculty. A blend of lectures, visiting artists, and field trips to cities such as Florence, Perugia, and Assisi will complement working outdoors and in the studio. A sketchbook and journal will be a crucial focus of exploration. These investigations, from observational landscape painting to personal interpretation based on unique local imagery, will form the core of the program's studio work.

In practice, 6-hour daily classes Monday - Thursday are spent drawing and painting outdoors around the arts center, formerly a convent, then in a shared printmaking studio or individual studios, where students will develop a sustained approach to working independently. Studio spaces will supply participants with easels, tables, and drawing boards. The library provides a trove of art and design books and wifi. If students care to bring a laptop, it's the perfect space to sit and work. Each morning, an excellent buffet breakfast prepares students for the day, and a delicious Italian dinner ends the day beautifully. Students are on their own for lunch and can find tasty fare at the local cafe, bakery, or market. Brunch and dinner are given on Saturdays and Sundays. On Friday trips, students dine on their own at their pleasure. Dining recommendations will be offered.

At the end of the program, students participate in a group exhibition showcasing the work they produced during their experience. The exhibition is held in the ICA studio building gallery, and the local community attends this event to celebrate the student's accomplishments.

ABOUT THE FACULTY

Cornel Rubino is the winner of the Society of Publication Designers and Communication Arts Award and the Abby Award for Artist of the Year In Atlanta, among others. He is a longtime contributor to The New Yorker magazine, and his editorial clients include The Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, and other national magazines. His drawing installations cover topics as varied as Loneliness, Isolation, Cruelty, the Disabled, and the Homeless. His works are in numerous museums, corporate, and private collections, including the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, P.S. 1, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Atlanta; Museum of American Illustration, New York; and the Museum of the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy. As a MICA FYE faculty member, he has taught Forum/Visual Thinking, Drawing, Painting, and Sculptural Forms. As a member of the illustration faculty, he taught illustration from first year to senior thesis. He has created numerous posters for clients, including International Habitat for Humanity, the EOS Orchestra at Lincoln Center, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and the American Institute of Graphic Artists. He has lectured on Picasso at the High Museum of Art, Master Drawings from the Worcester Art Museum at the Michael C. Carlos Museum, Neurology and Beauty in Art at the Walters Art Museum, and his work at Johns Hopkins University.

Robert Tillman is a member of the full-time faculty at Maryland Institute College of Art, where he teaches courses in drawing and printmaking. He has exhibited his art throughout the US at sites including the Baltimore Museum, the Contemporary Museum, the St. Louis Center of Contemporary Art, and the Kansas City Art Institute. He has shown his work internationally, including as an invited participant at the 12th Print Triennial in Tallinn, Estonia, and the 3rd IMPACT Print Conference in Capetown, South Africa. He co-founded the award-winning website Printeresting, where he produced several exhibitions and publications about contemporary print practice with his fellow editors. He has been a Guest Artist or Guest Critic at many educational institutions, including The Rhode Island School of Design, The University of Pennsylvania, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Columbia University, San Francisco State University, and Kent State University.

PROGRAM FEES

$8500 (Estimate Only). The program fee (which does not include international airfare, travelers' insurance, incidentals, and personal expenses) includes tuition for 6 undergraduate credits (total) for studio electives or 3 for Painting and 3 in Printmaking, housing for the duration of the program, and some meals. Some programs do not provide meals—please consult the program's coordinator for further details.

All MICA faculty-led programs are self-funded and require student participation to operate. After an exhaustive application cycle, if the required number of students enrolled in the program is not met, the Office of International Education reserves the right to cancel the program at any time. Students should never buy airfare or plan to travel to the host country until instructed to do so by the Office of International Education or the faculty program coordinator.

NON-REFUNDABLE COMMITMENT DEPOSIT

After being accepted into the program, a $300, non-refundable deposit is required, and this fee cannot be waived. It's important to note that this deposit is non-refundable. Upon acceptance, students will receive an email outlining the next steps in the official matriculation process, which include submitting this non-refundable deposit via Nelnet, MICA's preferred online payment service. In partnership with MICA Student Accounts, Nelnet has payment plan options available to help students and their families pay for their MICA faculty-led summer program in monthly increments - please consult MICA Student Accounts for more details on payment plan options.

Accepted students will also receive regular, critical follow-up emails with instructions on proceeding with their official enrollment into the program. Students must check their MICA emails regularly throughout the remainder of the semester for essential communications from faculty and study abroad staff. MICA Global Pathways programs are self-funded and require sufficient enrollment to operate. If the program receives more applications than needed, the Office of International Education reserves the right to create and manage a waitlist.

CANCELLATION POLICY

We ask that all applicants carefully consider and commit to participate or not shortly after being accepted to the program. Students should be financially prepared to cover the entire program and travel expenses out of pocket, regardless of whether they receive a need-based scholarship. There is no guarantee of receiving a scholarship; even if awarded, it will only cover a small percentage of the total cost.

On Wednesday, February 28, a non-refundable acceptance deposit of $300 will be due in Nelnet, along with the student's total commitment to participate. Applicants who have submitted the $300 deposit will have until Thursday, February 29, 2024, to cancel without penalty. After that, the Office of International Education will start making payments on each student's behalf to international and domestic program and service vendors (e.g., student residence, transportation, excursions, museum passes, materials) once students have been accepted to the program.

Refund amounts are at the sole discretion of the Office of International Education in consultation with MICA Student Accounts and Financial Aid. If a student withdraws their application after Thursday, February 29, they will be responsible for a $300 withdrawal penalty (the non-refundable program deposit) and any or all costs that may have been spent or committed on their behalf. All applicants will sign an agreement acknowledging this policy in the program application. For further inquiries about this policy or to withdraw an application before the deadline, email Mike Rini at mrini@mica.edu.

SCHOLARSHIPS

Scholarship opportunities are available to need-based undergraduate applicants in all majors. At this time, there are no need-based scholarships available for graduate students. The scholarship application can be found in the program's application, and students can opt to apply or not apply for a need-based scholarship. Additional scholarships are offered through professional and external organizations supporting study abroad can be found here. Please pay attention to external scholarship deadlines, requirements, and disbursement timelines related to committing to this program. External scholarship deadlines and decision timelines may not correspond with the timeline of this program. In short, the Office of International Education cannot wait to learn if a student has/has not been awarded a scholarship outside of MICA and how it will impact a student's decision to commit or not commit to this program.

Note: Applying for a MICA need-based scholarship does not automatically mean that a student will be awarded one; scholarships are competitive and based on a compelling scholarship statement provided by the student in the program application. Award amounts for Global Pathways programs are not designed to pay the prospective student's entire program fee, including airfare, transportation, and onsite activities. However, these scholarships are being offered to help students and their families subsidize only a part of the total costs associated with their program, providing valuable support. All prospective applicants should be prepared financially to assume the total cost of their summer study abroad program fees from the outset if they are not awarded a need-based scholarship. The scholarship application deadline is February 15, 2025. For more information about program applications and scholarships, contact Mike Rini in the Office of International Education (mrini@mica.edu).