There is a difference between being a tourist and being a traveler. Professor Elizabeth Snipes, who regularly leads study tours for Lander’s Department of Art + Design, wants students to be travelers.
“Being a traveler means being more of a participant, seeking experiences and engaging with a new culture,” she said. “As a tourist, you’re passively observing—maybe even having a tour guide who’s curating an experience for you.”
Being a tourist, enjoying new places and experiences by a few degrees of separation, is not what prepares students for real life. Instead, participating in cultural events, speaking with locals in another country and navigating busy streets all contribute to helping students learn valuable lessons about how to navigate their adult lives.
That’s why Snipes is an advocate for study tours and study abroad opportunities. And that’s why, with her colleagues Sandy Shore and Haley Floyd, she’s led her own trips to Europe: to Amsterdam, Greece, Italy, Paris, Prague and Barcelona. These trips include excursions to the Venice Biennale, a cultural exhibition of art, architecture, dance and design, among other artistic disciplines, where students have the opportunity to experience contemporary art and design. First organized in 1895, the Venice Biennale is the oldest international exhibition in the world. Snipes and Floyd just recently returned from their most recent study tour to Venice for the 2024 Biennale with students, alumni and their fellow art professors.
Of course, it’s important for students to have exposure to some of the great artists in human history. Michelangelo, da Vinci, van Gogh and Matisse may come to mind here. Yet, taking a trip to the Venice Biennale “provides exposure to different artists from all over the world,” said Snipes. “It gives them a true global perspective, and to see contemporary artists who are living and working right now, and responding to the same world our students are living in.”
Snipes isn’t the only professor in the Department of Art + Design to provide enriching experiences for art majors. Professor Jon Holloway, who specializes in photography, routinely leads domestic study tours to places like Montana and Colorado, where students can take their classroom learning (and their camera equipment) to new heights.
Meanwhile, Professor Doug McAbee, who specializes in sculpture, has led summer trips to the South Carolina coast, where students practice creating ephemeral art—that is, projects that only last for a specific period of time before they’re washed away by the tides. Their sand sculptures have drawn the attention of thousands of beach-goers as well as the local media.
In fact, the Department of Art + Design believes in the benefits of travel as education so much that the department’s entire faculty have led trips in recent years, be they to the coast, another state, or the other side of the globe. After a rough tally, Snipes accounted for a total of 26 unique travel opportunities led by professors in the department over the last 14 years, including weekend trips not for credit.
It doesn’t matter how far they go, geographically, or how long the trip lasts. When students return to the studio space at Lander, they are often inspired by their travels to consider new techniques and media, and to explore different colors, textures and space. Their professors enjoy watching as they wrestle with new questions and challenges, and find new pathways in their creative processes they hadn’t considered before.
Some of them even set more ambitious goals for their artwork, submitting new pieces to juried shows and exhibitions. Others have considered residencies and graduate school after returning from a study tour. For Snipes, this on its own is enough to make these trips worth taking: seeing students come to terms with the world of possibilities that awaits them after they graduate.
But the trips also give students space to bond outside of a traditional class setting. While they spend a lot of time together on campus—learning and creating—just one trip away from Lander shows them how little they truly know one another. Snipes believes these are crucial learning moments for students, too.
“Friend groups that might travel together start to intermingle and that changes the dynamic of our art and design majors in positive ways” said Snipes. “The sense of community in the department is totally different after returning from our trips together.”
To learn more about Lander’s art and design degree programs, visit www.lander.edu/art. To learn more about studying abroad while at Lander, visit www.lander.edu/studyabroad.
Art Travel Story by University Relations