Exchange Programs

Travel Tales from the Team: Pauline

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At International Arts & Artists, we love hearing about the incredible experiences our exchange visitors have during their programs! From exploring new cities to experiencing different cultures, exchanges expand our understanding of the world around us. We know all about the power of exchanges — in fact, many of our team members have studied, worked, or lived abroad! So, we’re launching a new blog series called “Travel Tales from the Team” where we’ll share more about our own travel experiences.

Meet Pauline, our incredible fall intern! A student at the Sciences Po Rennes, Pauline is majoring in Politics & Society in a dual French/German curriculum. She also spent her fall semester studying abroad at American University through the Exchange Visitor Program. In her spare time, Pauline loves exploring new museums, discovering new street art, and listening to as much French rap music as she can!

Keep reading for more on what Pauline had to say about her experiences traveling and living abroad!

Have you ever lived abroad for an extended period of time?

Yes, several times! I was born in Germany to a German father and a French mother, and was always brought up in this bi-national environment. I lived the 6 first years of my life in Cologne, Germany, before moving to the west coast of France with my family where I lived for 12 years. I now study in a French/German curriculum and have had the opportunity to live, study, and work in Bavaria, Germany. Even though I’m half-German and spoke German at a high level when I arrived, I still noticed some cultural differences and needed to adapt myself to that environment and communication context.

Since I was socialized as a French kid, going to school there, interacting and sharing contents with French classmates, learning about French history and eating French food, listening to French music and watching French movies, going to Germany kind of made me realize how “French” I actually was or had become over the years. Even though I was “The German” in France, I was “The French” in Germany.

I studied in Brittany, France, for 3 years before that. This fall, I studied International Law & Organizations at American University and interned in Washington, DC, for one semester. After that, I went back to Germany for one semester in order to complete my Master’s degree and then I’ll have to decide if I am going back to France or not for my second Master’s program. America is the third country I’ve lived in for an extended period of time, and it’s always a great experience to live and study in different environments! The academia, work, and everyday culture are quite different, even in countries that are part of the so-called “Western” world.

What was the first place you traveled to outside of the country?

The first place I went outside Germany was France, and we went there every summer after I was born. But since I consider France to be my home country, I guess that doesn’t really count! I visited Turkey and the Dominican Republic when I was younger, but since then I traveled mostly in Europe. By now, I visited 14 European countries! I am using the chance I have to be a European citizen and to be able to move freely in the Schengen area without having to ask for a visa or to change my currency. It’s also very easy to find cheap ways of travelling, for instance by taking long-distance buses or trains or low-cost flights. When I travel inside a country, I also use a lot of car-sharing to reduce my expenses – it’s also a great way to meet people you probably wouldn't have met otherwise!

Do you have a favorite place that you’ve traveled abroad?

I really enjoyed most of my travels, so it’s hard to pick a favorite place! I would say that instead of places, I mostly enjoy specific moments within each of my travels. If I had to choose a favorite however, I would say that I particularly enjoyed discovering Budapest, the capital city of Hungary. I went there for one week last November and was really amazed by the beauty and the energy of this city. Going for a night walk along the Danube River and looking at the monuments is absolutely breathtaking. The people are very friendly and the whole history (ancient and recent) is very well reflected in the city and its inhabitants. Budapest is also an important center for music, film, theatre, dance, and visual art. You can find a vibrant underground culture, and a great number of museums and galleries, plenty of temporary exhibitions in the most unlikely of settings!

What did you learn about yourself while abroad?

I love to travel and to live in other places, because it puts you out of your comfort zone. Being abroad and far away from your common environment, your family, your friends, or the place you like to go forces you to explore new things, even if they don’t look appealing to you in the first place. I think that it’s very important to learn to question one’s own cultural customs and challenge one’s own beliefs. It’s also a good way to reconnect with oneself and take some time to reflect about what you want to do and the kind of people you want around you.

Is there a place you’ve always wanted to go?

I would love to go to Asia, because I’ve never been on that continent and am very puzzled by it. I would like to discover the landscapes, the food, and especially the difference in mindset. For now, I pretty much stayed in the “Western” world, so even if there are a lot of differences between Europe and the United States, I guess that it would be a completely different experience that would challenge me again to reflect on how my view of the world was constructed.

What advice do you have for people traveling or looking to travel abroad?

My best advice is to try and meet as many local people as possible. Doing an exchange program and staying with people from your home country makes no real sense, and you will improve both your languages skills and your understanding of the other’s culture much more if you try to blend with the locals. Instead of trying to recreate the environment you are used to be in or looking for things resembling what you already know, try to embrace the way of life of the locals! What do they do to have fun? How is their relationship to food, family, or work? These are the questions that I think can help you get the most “un-touristic” experience of a place.

Roaming Through Rome with IA&A at Hillyer

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This past spring, International Arts & Artists (IA&A) had the opportunity to travel to Rome through a Sister Cities Grant funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. While in Italy, we met with artists, galleries, nonprofits, and universities with the aim of promoting artistic collaboration and exchange between Rome and Washington, DC.

This week, Allison Nance from IA&A at Hillyer shares her experience in Rome and highlights how this trip helped advance her program’s goals and projects.

Visiting Italy has been a life-long goal of mine, as my great-grandparents immigrated to the United States several generations ago. To visit Rome in the context of promoting the importance of artistic exchange, well, I can certainly check off this bucket list item and then some! There is an idealized view of Italy that many of us American’s have (“la dolce vita”, Under the Tuscan Sun, pasta, wine, etc). Of course, there was delicious food and wine – thank you Imen for cooking that incredible fresh seafood pasta dish! – but as a country with a deep history that is contemporary and dynamic, there was much to take in and learn. Several months after returning home, I think I’m still absorbing it all.

As Director of IA&A at Hillyer, a contemporary exhibition space in Washington, DC, I have had the privilege to work with the Italian Cultural Institute and the Embassy of Italy to develop and present programs that bring Italian language and culture to our local audience. This trip was a unique opportunity to strengthen these relationships. The Director of the Italian Cultural Institute, Emanuele Amendola, as well as Renato Mirraco, former Cultural Attaché at the Embassy of Italy, introduced me to several artists, gallery owners, and nonprofit leaders living in Rome. Having these contacts made for a robust and fulfilling trip that has resulted in new, ongoing projects reaching into the next year. This project gave myself and two DC-based artists the opportunity to not only learn about the contemporary art scene in Rome but also to introduce DC’s rich artistic community to our counterparts in Rome.

As mentioned in previous blog posts from Stephanie, Rex, and IA&A’s Cultural Exchange Programs, we were able to present at a conference on the importance of international cultural exchange and how these exchanges have a lasting, positive impact on our local and international creative communities. We partnered with Sala 1, a nonprofit research center for contemporary art, architecture, performance, and music, to present this conference. Through this collaboration, we were able to meet four artists who were exhibiting at Sala 1, and this then led to presenting their work at Hillyer this past August. In addition, this coming spring I will be curating an exhibition in Rome at Sala 1 featuring the work of one of the artists who traveled with us in May, Stephanie Williams, along with two other DC-based artists, interdisciplinary artist Naoko Wowsugi and poet Elizabeth Acevedo. The exhibition will bring together different mediums to share work on gender, race, ethnicity, and the immigrant experience in America.

While we in Rome this May, one of the artists I conducted a studio visit with was Pietro Ruffo. Pietro has an incredible studio at Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, a former pasta factory that was built in 1905 and later converted into artist studios in 2004. It was great to see him at work, introduce him and other artists to our DC artists, and to make this connection. Through a new Sister Cities Grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, we are partnering with the Italian Cultural Institute to bring Pietro to the United States in May of 2019 for a solo exhibition at Hillyer.

Visiting Rome was exciting, and it’s hard to put into words how surreal it feels to turn a corner and be faced with the Colosseum or the Pantheon, or any number of ruins that are casually interspersed with daily life of a modern city. And while all of that was wonderful, my best memories, those that will stay with me, are meeting so many artists, curators, and new friends, who welcomed us into their homes to share a meal. While I speak little Italian, and sometimes language can seem to be an insurmountable barrier, coming together with these people to talk about art over a glass of wine or a quick espresso is the only language we needed to connect.

I look forward to see how all of these connections will come together and play out in the years to come. Ciao!

 

This blog post was produced as part of a grant funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

 

Roaming Through Rome with IA&A’s Cultural Exchange Programs

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This past spring, International Arts & Artists (IA&A) had the opportunity to travel to Rome through a Sister Cities Grant funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. While in Italy, we met with artists, galleries, nonprofits, and universities with the aim of promoting artistic collaboration and exchange between Rome and Washington, DC.

This week, Jennifer Schrock and Chris Sciotto from IA&A’s Cultural Exchange Programs share more about from their experience in Rome and highlight how this trip helped advance their program’s goals and projects.   

There’s more to IA&A’s Cultural Exchange Programs than just J-1 visa sponsorship! We’re always seeking out new ways to build cross-cultural understanding through exchanges and partnerships in the arts. Our Exchange Visitor Program supports the next generation of creative leaders through internships, training programs, and other special projects in the arts. We’re also helping American museums and cultural organizations engage in more international work through our International Partnership Initiative. So when the opportunity arose to join our colleagues from IA&A at Hillyer in Rome this past spring, we jumped at the chance to further our program’s goals!

As we prepared for our trip to Rome, we outlined three distinct goals for our trip. Given the scope of our work, we were focused on promoting exchange programs, identifying potential partners for future exchanges, and hearing the perspectives of Italian students and artists who might be interested in participating in exchange programs. Of course, we were also excited to practice what we preach! We wanted to learn more about our sister city and the Romans who give it life.

We kicked off our week with “Exchange Ideas”, a conference co-presented by IA&A, the U.S. Embassy in Rome, and Sala 1, a nonprofit research center for contemporary art, architecture, performance, and music. Speaking at “Exchange Ideas” gave us the opportunity to highlight the benefits of and advocate for people-to-people exchanges. We were excited to speak with attendees afterwards and received great questions about exchanges from high school-aged students who were already thinking about interning abroad!

In addition to the conference, the networks we developed and organizations we learned of during our meetings revealed a number of potential partners for collaborative programming and exchanges. In sharing information about the Exchange Visitor Program with university career counselors, we received valuable feedback about when and where informational resources can make vital differences in a student’s ability to participate in an internship abroad. Throughout our trip, we also distributed a number of copies of our report Art in Context: The Current State of International Engagement.

While we were pleased to have made real headway on our objectives, speaking with university staff highlighted a gap that we would have loved more time to address. One thing we learned is that, in the broader context of finding internships abroad, the importance of applying for visa in preparation is not always made clear to students. We would have liked an opportunity to host an information-sharing session for educators, mentors, students, and other interested audiences to discuss the logistical considerations of participating in an exchange program.

Perhaps one of the most surprising things our team learned while speaking with some of Rome’s contemporary artists was the degree to which the city’s history and tradition of fine art, and the responsibility of maintaining that tradition, weigh on the creative consciousness of Roman artists. Of course, it was no surprise that a tradition of such importance and influence could seem imposing to contemporary creatives; as Americans, with a much shorter historical experience as a nation and a substantially younger culture, such a thought had not occurred to some of us before. IA&A’s Cultural Exchange Programs has been thinking of ways to incorporate the insight we gained from our discussions with artists into our public programs and we’re excited to use this element of creative identity in IA&A’s Art in Context programming series.

Overall, our trip to Rome was a great chance to further develop the relationship between American and Italian artists and cultural organizations, as well as to lay the foundations for future work. From facilitating reciprocal exchanges to collaborative programming, there’s no shortage of opportunities! We came away from our trip confident that personal relationships are the driving force behind lasting and meaningful international relationships. Parts of the trip would not have been possible without help from our contacts in Italy, including some alumni from our Exchange Visitor Program. This experience further reinforced the findings from Art in Context: The Current State of International Engagement regarding the value of personal relationships. We look forward to further developing our relationships with our new friends and partners!

 

This blog post was produced as part of a grant funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

 

Roaming Through Rome with Stephanie

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This past spring, International Arts & Artists (IA&A) had the opportunity to travel to Rome through a Sister Cities Grant funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. While in Italy, we met with artists, galleries, nonprofits, and universities with the aim of promoting artistic collaboration and exchange between Rome and Washington, DC.

Throughout the month of September, we’ll be sharing stories from our experience in Rome. You’ll hear from IA&A at Hillyer and IA&A’s Cultural Exchange Programs on how this trip helped advance our programs’ goals and projects, as well as two DC-based artists who joined us on the trip.

Meet Stephanie J. Williams, a multimedia artist who looks to the storytelling capability of material. An alum of RISD, her work has been shown locally, nationally, and internationally. Through installations and stop-motion animation, her work addresses how the established and self-made mythology helps us understand the world around us. She explores how power structures are built and how these structures establish legitimacies of taste, which in turn affect our ideas about identity.

Stephanie was one of the DC-based artists that joined us on our incredible trip to Rome. While there, she visited galleries, exhibition spaces, and other artists’ studios to learn more about the arts and creative work in the city. She also spoke at “Exchange Ideas,” a conference co-presented by IA&A, the U.S. Embassy in Rome, and Sala 1. Stephanie shared how IA&A at Hillyer has supported her artistic career and the impact of cultural exchange on her work.

We caught up with Stephanie over gelato to learn more about her experience in Rome, what surprised her the most, and how the trip has impacted her creative practice.

You were recently in Rome with IA&A for a cultural exchange trip supported by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. What were your goals for the trip? Of these, was there anything in particular you would have liked more time to continue pursuing?

My goals wherever I travel are the same: to meet as many makers of culture as possible and participate in an exchange of ideas. That was something that was such a large part of this trip, especially within Rome’s DIY venues. Even though the week was generous, I wish that I had arranged to stay longer, explore and perhaps collaborate more directly with the artists’ spaces that we visited with.

What aspects of your own cultural experiences and their impact on your work were you most excited to share with your counterparts in Rome?

Many of the artists that I’ve met this year have been focusing in on origin stories, genealogy, and immigration. I find myself wondering who has the power to control the narratives of culture that become historical record. There are so many gaps in my knowledge that form my perspective as an American that I wonder, if anything that has been constructed is capable of being deconstructed, what fictions have I held as truth.

What surprised you most about the contemporary arts and artists of Rome?

How much context affects the focus of the work. Many of the artists we spoke with were reacting to the canon of figurative art. In made me look inward.

What are some new projects or directions in your work that you are excited to explore? Has your experience in Italy had a noticeable impact on your current practice or the work you have planned for the foreseeable future?

I’m sure that is has but that hasn’t been made clear to me yet. It’s been a travel-heavy year for me. So many changes, a new job, along with travels throughout Southeast Asia in addition to Rome. It’s been difficult to see how these new experiences are pushing the work.

Overall, what are some of the most significant takeaways from your experience in Rome?

There were so many pieces that I had grown up seeing in textbooks that form so many hierarchies of taste, that in person seemed so human. I really felt the atmosphere in Rome, everything from the food, the coffee, to what Allison called the “casual ruins” surrounding everything. The atmosphere was so much older and settled in Rome. It’s a special place.

 

This blog post was produced as part of a grant funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

 

Roaming Through Rome with Rex

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This past spring, International Arts & Artists (IA&A) had the opportunity to travel to Rome through a Sister Cities Grant funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. While in Italy, we met with artists, galleries, nonprofits, and universities with the aim of promoting artistic collaboration and exchange between Rome and Washington, DC.

Throughout the month of September, we’ll be sharing stories from our experience in Rome. You’ll hear from IA&A at Hillyer and IA&A’s Cultural Exchange Programs on how this trip helped advance our programs’ goals and projects, as well as two DC-based artists who joined us on the trip.

Meet Alexandra (Rex) Delafkaran, a San Francisco transplant living and engaging as an interdisciplinary artist, dancer, curator, and administrator in Washington, DC. An alum of the San Francisco Art Institute, Rex has exhibited in galleries across the country including “Tender Bits,” a recent solo show at IA&A at Hillyer that explored the relationship between cultural practices, desire, and utility. She is currently a participating guest writer at the local online art writing publication DIRT and curating projects of her own.

Rex was one of the DC-based artists that joined us on this incredible trip to Rome. While there, she visited galleries, exhibition spaces, and other artists’ studios to learn more about the arts and creative work in the city. She also spoke at “Exchange Ideas,” a conference co-presented by IA&A, the U.S. Embassy in Rome, and Sala 1. Rex shared how IA&A at Hillyer has supported her artistic career and the impact of cultural exchange on her work.

We caught up with Rex over espresso to learn more about her work, her experience in Rome, and what’s next for this incredible artist.

How did you come to focus on language and identity as a theme throughout your works and across mediums?

After having moved across the country from California to DC, I began studying Farsi. I started attempting to write in partial English and Farsi as a practice, which was unexpectedly thrilling, and those began transforming into movement scores, which then became performances. Those elements of text then made their way into the ceramic sculptures I was working on, taking the notions of physical utility and intimacy and relating them directly to language. It kind of blew my mind, how much it all was coming together. Then in 2016 when the first iteration of the Muslim ban came to surface, the anger and disappointment and confusion I felt in response was completely overwhelming. Ultimately I think it was a noticeable catalyst in this direction of my work. I began researching the history of Iran and the areas where my family is from, and began looking for more information about the relationship between the United States and Iran, ancient Iranian art, and cultural practices that appear in both places. Language is the intermediary in this process of questioning the relationship between my sexuality, cultural background, familial history, and hyphen American identity, and the relationship those have to my immediate and extended community. I’m in an excavation of sorts, a dig, and I am standing on the edge of a large pit with a pile of dirt next to me and clay under my nails.

How does your involvement in performance art affect your creation of visual arts, and vice versa?

My practice has come to teach me that they both must coexist. I have danced and moved creatively my whole life, and that I think directly affects all the art I make and the way my ideas manifest. What does the piece feel like to make, hold, move; how do these ideas and this research manifest physically in the world, in my body? The two practices flow in and through each other dynamically. It’s actually a really sweet experience to realize “Oh this isn’t supposed to be a sculpture, it’s a performance!”

You mention seeking out means of starting conversations and provoking thought with your works. What kind of conversations did you wish to start with your recent exhibition at IA&A at Hillyer?

I think the extremely engaging and powerful aspect of working in conceptual art is that while I have been circling in my own little world about the work and its connections to art and culture and reality, there is room for so much dialogue. I want people to tell me how they feel about it, what do all these symbols do together? Do the chains feel violent to you? What is your relationship to flags? How do you feel about ceramic phalluses strapped to cinder blocks?

You were recently in Rome with IA&A for a cultural exchange trip supported by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. What were your goals for the trip? Of these, was there anything in particular you would have liked more time to continue pursuing?

The sister cities trip was an incredible experience for me as person and as an artist. Going into the trip I was the most excited to film performances in historic areas in response to their architecture, and I really feel like I was able to get some exciting documentation from those moments. What I was surprised by was how moving the historically charged architecture and public spaces were. At the end I found myself wanting to make more site specific, longer movement explorations. We also saw so many artists’ studios, I was surprised as to how inspired I was to make more sculpture when I got back to the United States. The incredible attention to history and craft was impactful and certainly affected my perspective on what it can mean to be an “artist” in other parts of the world.

What aspects of your own cultural experiences and their impact on your work were you most excited to share with your counterparts in Rome?

It was so exciting and fruitful to share my experience as a queer Iranian-American person with some of the artists we met. They expressed a lot of curiosity about why my identity felt like such a site for investigation for me, and that made me pay particular attention to who each artist is, what their relationship is to Rome culturally and socioeconomically. I wish I had more time to get an understanding of their relationship to the Middle East and Islam actually, especially based on their government’s stance on refugee asylum and immigration. Seeing how other people work was so eye opening, the experience makes me want to talk more and collaborate with international artists absolutely.

What surprised you most about the contemporary arts and artists of Rome?

I think the focus on craft and tradition. Hearing about the effects of living in an art historical site like Rome for young contemporary artists was fascinating and unfamiliar. That experience seems to clearly influence the forms and conceptual nature of the work there. It was surprising that the concept matter that seems so omnipresent in the contemporary arts that I see in the DC art scene had such a different aesthetic and priority in Rome.

Based on your recent experience in Italy, what roles do language and identity serve in the work of artists you met with in Rome? Has this affected your own strategies for sparking communication through art?

Absolutely. I think a lot of my work revolves around language already, and being in Rome surrounded by a literal different language, as well as different visual physical language was very affecting. I found that visual and physical language was the most engaging! The physicality of grand frescos, epic sculpture, fountains, piazzas, papal chapels - these felt like they were communicating so much. It sparked a reminder as to the power of curated and public spaces, and its relationship to the bodies and identities around and within them!

What are some new projects or directions in your work that you are excited to explore? Has your experience in Italy had a noticeable impact on your current practice or the work you have planned for the foreseeable future?

I am really excited about the flag series that is featured in my solo exhibition “Tender Bits,” “Flags for when you don’t know where you are.” It feels like I'm on the cusp of a new body of textile work based on that series, and I am really looking forward to working larger on these upcoming pieces as well. I also am hoping to explore some new ways of working with sculpture. I feel like I am still in awe of the reverence I experienced in public space in Rome, as well as the way the artists spoke about their craft and the aesthetics of beauty. I want to see what happens to the work I am making when I re-frame or re teach. This applies to movement as well, in my dance work I think these ideas are already surfacing in new ways.

Overall, what are some of the most significant takeaways from your experience in Rome?

It is possible to make room for awe and splendor in art alongside criticism. Physical experiences of international spaces can be listened to as richly and intently as an artist talk, new friend or unfamiliar languages. I was also reminded the power of collaboration and dialogue, and the importance on regularly stepping out of my artistic, political, and social comfort zones.

 

This blog post was produced as part of a grant funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Roaming through Rome with IA&A

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Accra. Seoul. Sunderland. Brasilia. What do these cities all have in common? They are all sister cities with Washington, DC! These partnerships give Washington, DC, the chance to share its culture, history, and challenges with its 14 sister cities around the world.

Rome, Italy, has been a sister city since 2011 and regularly cooperates with Washington, DC, on a range of cultural, economic, social, and educational projects. Several of these projects are supported by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which offers special Sister Cities Grants to support and strengthen the cultural bonds between Washington, DC, and Rome. Through this grant, IA&A recently had the opportunity to travel to Rome with a group of artists and arts professionals to promote artistic collaboration and engagement between the two sister cities.

From the moment we stepped off the plane, our time in Rome was a whirlwind of meetings, visits, and, of course, plenty of espresso! During our trip, we visited studios, exhibition spaces, galleries, and museums to learn more about the arts and creative industries in Rome. We also met with Rome-based artists, curators, and academics, as well as several alumni of our Exchange Visitor Program.

The highlight of our visit to Rome was participating in “Exchange Ideas”, a conference co-presented by IA&A, the U.S. Embassy in Rome, and Sala 1, a nonprofit research center for contemporary art, architecture, performance, and music. Hosted by Sala 1, the conference focused on how IA&A supports creative communities through local and international partnerships. Representatives from IA&A at Hillyer and IA&A’s Cultural Exchange Programs described our organization’s mission and programs, sharing stories of how our work supports the arts locally, nationally, and internationally. The conference also highlighted the work of two DC-based artists, Stephanie Williams and Alexandra “Rex” Delafkaran, who shared how IA&A at Hillyer has supported their artistic careers.

This cultural exchange was an incredible opportunity for IA&A to network with our counterparts in Rome and to develop the foundation for future collaborations between Washington, DC, and Rome. We came away from our visit eager to build on the connections we made and with plenty of ideas for future projects between our two cities!

Throughout the month of September, we’ll be sharing our experience in Rome through a series of posts right here on the blog. Team members from both IA&A at Hillyer and IA&A’s Cultural Exchange Programs will share more about their experience in Rome and how this trip helped to advance their programs’ goals and projects. You’ll also hear from Stephanie and Rex, who will share more about what they learned in Rome and how this cultural exchange has impacted their artistic practice. Ciao for now!

 

This blog post was produced as part of a grant funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

 

The Art of an Enlightening Exchange

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In the historic Neve Tzedek quarter of Tel Aviv, Anat Meidan has quite literally brought history home. A curator, art collector, and researcher, Anat and her husband turned their home into a private museum that displays the Art Nouveau and Art Deco art that they have spent the past thirty years collecting and restoring.

Among the many works in the collection is a portrait of Misia Natanson Sert, painted in 1905 by Charles Picart Le Doux, a student of Renoir. Anat has always been fascinated with the portrait and wanted to learn more about Misia and her life. She decided to travel to the Frick Collection in New York to pursue in-depth research on the Natanson family’s collection and Misia’s role as an art collector. The Frick Art Reference Library, which serves as one of the world’s most complete resources for the study of Western art, seemed like the perfect resource for learning more about Misia.

Anat was awarded a fellowship from the Center for the History of Collecting, established at the Frick Art Reference Library in 2007 to encourage and support the study of the formation of collections of fine and decorative arts. Each year, the Center offers short- and long-term fellowships that provide support to pre-doctoral and post-doctoral researchers, as well as senior scholars. International Arts & Artists is proud to support the Frick Collection and provide J-1 visa sponsorship for international researchers like Anat participating Center’s fellowship program. The wealth of material at the Frick Art Reference Library allowed Anat to research the history and importance of Misia, as well as the impressive private collection Misia and her husband amassed.

We recently caught up with Anat to hear more about her research, her time at the Frick Collection, and what she uncovered about Misia.

What impact has your exchange experience at the Frick Collection had on your life and your research on the Natanson’s collection?

It was a privilege to have been given the opportunity to work at the Frick alongside such committed and dedicated colleagues, who were ready to share with me their professional knowledge and expertise. I feel enriched by the experience and will cherish these days for the rest of my life. The ten weeks I spent at the Frick Collection Library filled me with immense pride and satisfaction at what I was able to achieve. Although I could not complete my research in the time I had at my disposal, I managed to do better than I had expected at the outset and I would very much like to return to the Frick to continue my work.

The initial impetus of my research at the Frick Collection came from a painting from my private collection. It is a portrait of Misia Natanson Sert (1872-1950) painted by Picart Le Doux (1905), and from the moment I acquired the painting I have been intrigued by Misia and her colorful life in Paris. The title of my research is: “Misia Natanson Sert – The Mystery and Mastery of an Art Collector.” Prior to embarking upon my research at the Frick, I already had an extensive knowledge about the fascinating life of Misia who was the muse for painters, writers, and composers who were attracted to her and sought out her close, intimate attention, and company. I also knew about the private collection of paintings she and her husband Thadée Natanson (1868-1951) had built up during twelve years of their marriage and which had a great influence on the artistic scene of late 19thcentury Paris. Their collection, which had to be sold due to financial difficulties, consisted of 65 paintings and was auctioned at Hotel Drouot in Paris on June 13, 1908. Until I actually held the sale catalogue from the 1908 auction which is in the Frick Collection Library, I had no knowledge of all the paintings the Natansons had in their collection. This information was of great importance to me and had a significant impact upon my research. After ten weeks at the Frick Collection Library I had managed to locate, identify, or trace 53 of the paintings, which are either in the possession of major museums and art collections throughout the world (11 are in the United States), private collections, or whose current whereabouts are unknown. This is an important achievement, being one of the main objectives of my research. My exchange experience at the Frick Collection has had a strong, important impact on my life as a researcher and collector. It has encouraged me to pursue different directions: to write a book, to tell the story of the Natanson’s collection, and/or propose an idea for an exhibition.

What is your favorite memory from your exchange program?

My favorite memory from my exchange program is the exciting moment in which I discovered that one of the paintings that had belonged to the Natansons (Lot no. 21 by Cezanne) was stolen from a museum in Oxford on New Year’s Eve in the year 2000, in a daring robbery. It has not been seen since and as far as I can tell this was “breaking news.”

What was your favorite cultural activity to do in New York?

I enjoyed visiting the museums, and going to dance performances and concerts. I was even photographed next to paintings of Misia herself or next to those from her collection.

What advice can you offer to future exchange visitors coming to the United States?

Enjoy it to the utmost. One should know how to combine research program with what city can offer to the visitor.

What does cultural exchange mean to you?

Even though this is not the first time I’ve been to New York, the long period of stay enabled me to get know the city in depth, to do things when it was convenient for me, with no pressure of time. I had the feeling that New York became friendlier to me, or that I became friendlier towards the city.

Travel Tales from the Team: Erin

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At International Arts & Artists, we love hearing about the incredible experiences our exchange visitors have during their programs! From exploring new cities to experiencing different cultures, exchanges expand our understanding of the world around us. We know all about the power of exchanges — in fact, many of our team members have studied, worked, or lived abroad! So, we’re launching a new blog series called “Travel Tales from the Team,” where we’ll share more about our own travel experiences.

First up is Erin, our amazing summer intern! A senior at the George Washington University in Washington, DC, Erin is studying International Affairs and minoring in Spanish and Theatre. In her spare time, she’s involved with student theatre, and also enjoys reading and painting recycled glass bottles. Fun Fact: Erin absolutely loves sloths, and has several sloth-themed decorations in her apartment!

Keep reading for more on what Erin had to say about her experiences traveling abroad!

Have you ever lived abroad for an extended period of time?

I’ve traveled abroad for vacation, a service trip, and an exchange program, but I have yet to work or live abroad for an extended period of time. The closest I’ve come is when I lived with a family in Madrid for a two-week exchange program in high school. I also spent a week working as a translator in clinics for Haitian refugees in the Dominican Republic a few years ago.

Do you have a favorite place that you’ve traveled abroad?

Probably a tie between the Aran Islands/Galway, Ireland, and Madrid, Spain.

What did you learn about yourself while abroad?

I learned that I can be more adventurous than I think, and my travels push me to live outside my comfort zone more often. I also love learning more about the culture and trying the local food of wherever I’m visiting.

Do you have a favorite memory of your time abroad?

I have had very different experiences abroad, so it’s hard to say. Spending time with my family in Edinburgh, helping nurses communicate with people in the Dominican Republic, visiting the Reina Sofia, and seeing Stonehenge to name a few.

Is there a place you’ve always wanted to go?

There are so many places I want to travel! I want to check off at least one place in every major area of the world, and so far I only have North America, Central America, and Europe.

What advice do you have for people traveling or looking to travel abroad?

My advice would probably be to look for authentic places to stay and visit. Exploring the more local areas of a place is so much more interesting and fulfilling than just sticking with the tourist areas. Also, choose your traveling companions wisely; travel with people you want to experience new things and go on adventures with.

Building a Future Through New Experiences

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Jannis Acbard has always been fascinated with the design process and exploring new countries. While pursuing a degree in landscape and garden architecture, New York always stood out as the perfect place to gain work experience in a new and fast-paced environment. Thanks to his exchange program, Jannis was able to live in New York while interning with Joanna Pertz Landscape Architecture (JPLA).

During his internship, he worked on a variety of tasks, including drafting landscape plans, writing maintenance and planting reports, and assisting with on-site planting and installation. JPLA allowed Jannis to be part of a design team, improve his English, and gain skills necessary to further his studies and career in landscape architecture.

We recently caught up with Jannis to hear more about his internship and his time in New York!

What impact has your exchange experience had on your life and your career?

​I gained a lot of experience working at JPLA working with the most familiar programs (Photoshop, InDesign, AutoCAD) to me. This made me better and faster at working with these programs. It also gave me a nice life experience of living by myself and living in another country.

What is your favorite memory from your exchange program?

​Living in an entire new city outside of Europe. Getting to experience a totally different lifestyle and pace of life. It has been a really nice time getting to explore everything that NYC had to offer and I never had enough of it.

What was your favorite cultural activity to do in New York?

​I enjoyed visiting museums and architectural landmarks. Besides that I always enjoyed just walking and discovering new things in my neighborhood or in another part of the city.

What advice can you offer to future exchange visitors coming to the United States?

​If you are going to the United States, be sure to plan everything way ahead and have a second plan in case anything doesn’t go as planned. If you come from Europe, it will be quite the opposite for you when visiting but everything is so nice there!

What does cultural exchange mean to you?

​It means getting to experience a different culture of an entire new city and country. Discovering the way of living, the way people are and live, and tasting the food and culture.

Ancient Ceramics in New England

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Hailing from Canada, Mia Riley is an emerging ceramic artist who has called many Albertan cities, towns, and tents her home. She often finds inspiration in the transience and landscapes within her life, having moved and lived in various places across western Canada. A graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design, Mia has also completed several residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, researching wood kiln building, alternative making processes, and the natural disasters that have affected her home province in the last decade.

For the past eight months, Mia has been interning with Harvard University’s Ceramics Program as part of IA&A’s Exchange Visitor Program. During her program, she had the opportunity to explore her own art practice and gain hands-on experience running studio operations. As an added bonus, Mia was also the winner of IA&A’s first-ever photo contest!

We recently caught up with Mia and Kathy King, Director of Education for the Ceramics Program, to learn more about the program and Mia’s exchange experience!

Kathy, can you tell us a bit more about the Ceramics Program at Harvard University?

The Ceramics Program falls under the umbrella of the Office for the Arts at Harvard that includes theater, dance, music and the visual arts. Our program in unique in that, for almost 50 years, we have served both the Harvard and the Boston-area communities. We provide non-credit courses three semesters a year and in any of these classes you might be sitting next to a Harvard Professor, staff, graduate or undergraduate student or someone who lives down the street! Our courses span everything from using the potter’s wheel, sculpting from a model, glaze chemistry or printing ceramic forms with a 3D printer. In addition to the courses offered, we work with different courses and departments within Harvard. Last year, we worked with the Graduate School of Design, the School of Engineering, Departments of Anthropology, Humanities, Art History and Architecture, the Graduate School of Education as well as our fine arts equivalent – Visual Environmental Studies. There are so many ways that we intersect with the ceramic medium, whether it is looking at examples of ancient vessels in an Anthropology or Art History course to designing new ways to use ceramics in architectural applications at the Graduate School of Design. We also work with the curators and conservation scientists at the Harvard Art Museum and the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture whereby we may be asked to replicate the techniques used in a ceramic form being studied.

Mia, why did you choose the Ceramics Program at Harvard for your exchange?

I was originally interested in the traineeship at the Ceramics Program at Harvard because I wanted the chance to connect with the American ceramics community. The program has ultimately provided me the opportunity to gain access to studio facilities where I can explore my own art practice and gain hands-on experience running studio operations. I have also had the chance to collaborate on projects with academic faculty and have gained many new friendships and connections.

Mia, what projects have you been working on during your internship?

One of the things I have been most excited to work on has been the animal head vessel project, which is featured in some the photos I have included in the profile. Many branches of this project have arisen out of an exhibition on ancient animal drinking vessels that will be exhibited at Harvard later this year. My role has been to assist in a workshop with anthropology students in making replicas of these vessels, design a child friendly craft for Harvard’s upcoming Arts First Festival, and create replicas that will potentially be used as teaching tools for the exhibition. This project has furthered my interest in ancient ceramics history and process, which was one of the aspects of my undergraduate studies. Also, I have enjoyed the access to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, where I have visited regularly to study these objects.

What has been your favorite part about interning with the Ceramics Program?

My favorite part about my internship has been meeting new artists and sharing our experiences. Because the Harvard studio is home to a large number of artists, professionals and students at many stages of their careers, I have had the chance to meet and exchange ideas on many levels. It has inspired me to see how ceramic art and pottery can exist in many different aspects in one’s life and career. I have loved being able to participate in all of the workshops we have held this year with world renowned artists such as Walter Keeler, Sunshine Cobb, Jason Burnett, and Bai Ming.

Kathy, what have been some of your favorite things about hosting an exchange visitor?

Mia brought with her energy and passion about working in ceramics and the technical knowledge that allowed her to jump right into our wide array of activities within the program. Mia was invited to give a lecture on her work and her life in Canada to our community and that conversation of how our cultures differ that has been on-going in the studio – whether it be art making, educational systems or even food!

What has Mia contributed to the Ceramics Program?

Mia has contributed her talents and assistance and we will be hard-pressed to find someone who was able to integrate into our community with such ease. Her wonderful sense of humor and friendly disposition paired with her skills as an artist has proven Mia as an effective educator as well. She has been a Teaching Assistant for a number of different classes and has assisted students in their own making, firing of kilns and helping with glazing work. She treats everyone equally and fairly – whether they are 20 or 80 years old, a beginning student to a master.

Kathy, what were some of the cultural activities that Mia got to participate in during her exchange program?

Mia is an avid outdoors-person as well as art lover! She has been active in exploring New England’s museums, historical sites as well as its wilderness. Mia has attended all our exhibitions, lectures and workshops by visiting artists at our program from China, the UK to all over the U.S. and has been integral to being able to get to know these artists behind the scenes as well.

Mia, what have you been able to get out of this internship that you couldn’t get elsewhere?

The work that I have been able to do in collaboration with other departments at Harvard has been very rewarding. Being able to assist students from the Graduate School of Design on architectural ceramics projects, teach students from the art history department about ceramics making techniques and many other projects have given me a lot to think about in terms of bringing makers and artists into the academic world. I have been inspired by the work that my supervisor, Kathy King, has been doing to make these connections possible and has opened my eyes to the new ways in which ceramics can be incorporated into academic studies and research. In the future I would like to continue working on these types of projects and am looking forward to seeing how I might initiate these collaborations once I return to Canada.

What advice can you offer to future exchange visitors coming to the United States?

I’d like to let future interns and trainees know that they will get the most out of their experience if they are proactive in pursuing learning through their experience. Being engaged and enthusiastic from the start will show your host that you are eager for new opportunities and challenges, and may lead to taking on further responsibilities. During your working hours make sure you ask questions and highlight your specific areas of interest. As well, take use of your time outside of work to explore a new place and participate in arts and culture activities, such as visiting museums, attending special festivals and events and go out with friends!

Finally, as IA&A’s first-ever photo contest winner, what do you plan to spend your Amazon gift card on?

New work boots for the studio!

Learn more about the Ceramics Program at Harvard here and follow Mia Riley on Instagram!