Maymester 2007

May 12th - 26th

The Grand Tour

Paris-Amsterdam-Bruges-Cologne-Heidelberg

$3,195

Courses Offered:

HIST 450 (The City European in History): Philip WHALEN
ENGL 497 (Literature, Language, Location): Dan ENNIS
ARTH 392 (Critiquing the Museum): Arne FLATEN

Applications and $400.00 deposit due at the International Studies Office, Laurel Hall, between 1 December. 2006 and 31 Jan. 2007.
Contact Geoff Parsons; parsons@coastal.edu or (843) 349-2054

Paris provides an opportunity to visit the perfect city- beautiful, romantic, and imbued with vitality and culture. We will visit its museums, monuments, cafés, parks, bridges, theaters, cemeteries, restaurants, and famous underground Metro. Important sites visited include: Notre Dame Cathedral, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Orsay, Cluny and Carnavalet Museums, the Opera, the Invalides, and the Champs-Elysées. Versailles is one of the most visited palaces in Europe. Louis XIV's powerful court set the European standard for elite culture for several hundred years. Versailles represents the apotheosis of royal indulgence, state propaganda, and over-the-top décor.

Amsterdam today looks much as it did in its Golden Age, the 1600s. Amsterdam was among the wealthiest cities in seventeenth-century Europe. Built around canals, the city still retains much of the flavor of that age. Most of the civic buildings and residences have been in continuous use since the 1600s. Artists such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, Frans Hals and Judith Leyster captured the spirit of that age in evocative portraits, cityscapes, harbor scenes, and still lives.

Considered the northern equivalent of Florence in the 15th and 16th centuries, Bruges is one of the most perfectly preserved medieval towns in Western Europe. Along the city's intimate cobbled streets, winding canals, and numerous squares are found some of the finest collections of Flemish art.

Cologne's medieval buildings are unsurpassed. Built during the era of the Holy Roman Empire, the Dom Cathedral is the tallest Gothic building in Europe. For contrast, right next door, is the Ludwig Museum, which houses one of Germany's premier collections of modern art- filled with paintings by Kirchner, Dix, Picasso, Beckmann, and Warhol.

Heidelberg is the home to the oldest university on German soil. Representing the ideal German landscape, the city of Heidelberg is majestically nestled between wooden hills on the banks of the swift-flowing Neckar. Ever since the days of the Grand Tour, it has seduced more travelers than any other northern German city. There, we will visit the University Museum, Museum of Ancient Art, and Sculpture Park amidst the Old Town's sixteenth and seventeenth-century architecture.

Students taking Dr. Ennis' "Literature, Language and Location" (ENGL497) will be introduced to the rich tradition of travel literature composed by young men and women of the eighteenth and nineteenth century who were taking their own “Grand Tour.” Following in their footsteps, we’ll try to understand why the English and Americans have, for centuries, viewed a trip through the capitals of Europe as an appropriate and pleasurable way to “round out” one’s education, and why they invariably wrote about their trips. The word “tourist” was first coined to describe people who were taking the “Grand Tour,” so this trip takes you not just into the heart of Old Europe, but also reproduces the very experience that gave rise to our modern conception of tourism.

Students taking Dr. Whalen's "The City in European" (HIST450) will explore how various cities have contributed to dominant patterns and forms of urban European culture. Readings are coordinated with daily outings and will ask students to think about how those cities continue to inform our ideas concerning: the evolution of urban architecture and design; the negotiated use of public space; patterns of socio-economic distribution; the conditions that foster the growth of urban popular and elite cultures; as well as how these are packaged for tourist consumption today.

Dr. Arne Flaten's "Critiquing the Museum" (ARTH392) explores ancient, classical and modern collections displayed in museums in Paris (Musée d'Orsay, Louvre, Picasso Museum, l'Orangerie, Musée Cluny, and the palace-museum Versailles), Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, Rembrandt House Museum, Willet-Holthuysen House), and various monuments, churches and museums in Bruges, Cologne and Heidelberg. These cities also provide an extraordinary overview of the architectural and artistic themes and innovations that have shaped Western Heritage, and as such the cities themselves function as "living museums." Course readings and discussions will address the aesthetics and function of the museum, the business and economics of museums, the role museums play in society, how interior and exterior spaces shape museum experiences, and the ethics of museum collections in an age of litigation and repatriation.

Itinerary

Sat., May 12 Travel to Amsterdam

Sun., May 13 Amsterdam: Rijks Museum and evening walk.

Mon., May 14 Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum and Botanical Gardens.

Tues., May 15 Day trip to Bruges: Town Hall Gothic Chamber, Renaissance Hall

Wed., May 16 Amsterdam: Dutch Resistance Museum and evening Theater.

Thur., May 17 Travel to Heidelberg via visit to Cologne's Cathedral

Fri., May 18 Heidelberg: University Museum, Museum of Ancient Art, and Sculpture Park

Sat., May 19 Travel to Paris via visit to Reims Cathedral

Sun., May 20 Paris: Musée d'Orsay, Invalides and Arch de Triomphe, Comédie Française option in the evening.

Mon., May 21 Paris: Notre Dame, Sainte Chapel, and evening trip to the Eiffel Tower. Ride Bus # 69 back to Hotel.

Tues., May 22 Visit to Versailles- early start; big crowds. Evening Bastille Opera or the Opera Comique option.

Wed., May 23 Paris: Tuileries Garden and Louvre Museum. Group dinner. Evening Bateaux Mouches ride along the Seine.

Thur., May 24 Paris: Père-Lachaisse OR Arena of Lutecia. FREE AFTERNOON

Fri., May 25 Paris: Musée Carnavalet; Picasso Museum; and Jewish Quarter

Sat., May 26 Return to MYRTLE BEACH, USA via CHARLESTON.