Duke University Global Education Office for Undergraduates

Duke in Flanders: History of Art & Visual Culture

July 1 to August 11, 2012*

* See the Program Schedule page for a more detailed itinerary, including information regarding travel to and from the program site.

The Duke University Department of Art and Art History and the Global Education Office offer a six-week, two-course program in Ghent (Flanders) and Amsterdam (The Netherlands). This program introduces participants to a contextual study of Netherlandish art and visual culture from the Late Medieval to the Early Modern period.  Professor Hans J. Van Miegroet, Chair of the Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies directs the program.

The first two weeks of the program take place in Amsterdam, former international trading center of the Dutch Republic. The final four weeks of the program are based in Ghent, located in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, which has strong cultural, historical, and linguistic ties with the present-day Netherlands. Ghent is about thirty miles from Brussels, capital of the European Union and two hours away from Paris via high-speed train (Thalis).

Amsterdam offers the ideal environment for a contextual study of Netherlandish visual culture of the Early Modern period in a creative and intellectually stimulating manner.  The program concludes in Ghent, with its attractive medieval to post-modern scenery and its central location to major cities such as Paris, Lille, Brussels, Antwerp, and Cologne.  It is also a dynamic university town with a wide range of diverse cultural activities. Applicants may wish to consult the following comprehensive list of Dutch and Flemish art on the CODART web site.

For more information about the program, please also see the program website.

 

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Amsterdam


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Postcard from Abroad

Dear Global Education Office:

This past summer I was given the unique opportunity of participating in the Duke in Flanders summer study abroad program. Under the guidance of Professor Hans J. Van Miegroet, we studied visual culture in the Greater Netherlands and its underlying historical and socioeconomic assumptions from the Late Medieval to the Early Modern period. We spent the first two weeks living in Amsterdam and traveling to nearby cities such as Haarlem and Utrecht, and then moved to Ghent, Belgium where we spent our final four weeks.

Included in the program were visits to major museums, sites, private collections, a critical introduction to research strategies, and discussion sessions with leading scholars in the art history field such as Jan de Maere on art dealing and collecting. The academic experience I had under the guidance of Professor Van Miegroet was inspirational and furthered my excitement about my studies at Duke where I am currently a candidate for a Bachelor of Arts in International Comparative Studies. My focus is in Art History and I will also minor in Spanish.

I am spending the fall semester in New York City as a participant in the Duke in New York Arts & Media Program. The educational experiences I had this past summer inspired me to consider art business as a potential profession. I am currently an intern at Christie's, the worlds leading art business, in the Old Masters and 19th Century Department. I am incredibly thankful for having the opportunity to participate in the Duke in Flanders program as I have developed a passion and interest in a field I'm not sure I would have discovered otherwise.

This photo was taken in Ghent during the Ghent Music Festival-one of the biggest international music festivals in Europe.

-Anna Ruddle

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