Axe ’Em, Jacks!
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Stephen F. Austin State University students in the School of Art traveled to Florence, Siena, Arezzo and Rome, Italy, to study art first hand and develop the School of Art’s ongoing exchange program with Libera Accademia di Belle Arti (LABA), an art school in Florence.
Led by Dr. Jill Carrington, professor of art, and Fabio Rinaldi from the Study Abroad Association, students visited numerous churches and monuments, including the Uffizi Gallery and the Cathedral and Baptistery of Florence and the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. During their travels, the students completed the course “Renaissance Art in Italy Up Close,” taught by Carrington.
“The first time we stepped into a major church, it hit me that I was in Italy,” said Brianna Bender, senior from Celina “Seeing these sculptures, paintings and architectural marvels in images doesn’t begin to hold a candle to the scale and beauty (of them in person). There’s something so undeniably human about all these magnificent works that it makes me appreciate all the more what we as art students strive to accomplish.”
Crowley sophomore Joy King said her most memorable moments happened when the group went to Venice on a free day. “I was amazed by the streets of water, the gondola ride and being able to experience Titian’s ‘Assumption of the Virgin’ (a large altarpiece).”
The trip expanded SFA’s exchange with LABA. Since 2015, LABA has hosted two SFA students for two weeks every other May, and the SFA School of Art has hosted two LABA students for two weeks every other September, except during the COVID pandemic.
SFA students and faculty enjoyed learning more about LABA firsthand by touring LABA facilities, making friends with the five LABA students who will visit SFA in September and visiting Renaissance frescoes not open to the general public, according to Carrington.
For more information about the School of Art, call (936) 468-4804.