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The program cost is $TBD, plus University fees of $TBD, totaling $TBD. A late fee of $100 will be added to your program cost after December 16. Program cost includes tuition for 6 credit hours, lodging in two-person rooms, metro passes, museum entrance fees, and transportation for program-sponsored field trips. View Payment Policies & Instructions.

Round-trip airfare on the group flight, which includes transportation to and from the airport, is $TBD. 

100 years ago, Alexander Calder ignited audiences' imaginations with his Cirque Calder, a miniature world made from ordinary materials. He transported his tiny circus in a suitcase, creating spontaneous one-man shows which combined small sculptures, sound, kinetic elements, and narratives. This work influenced the development of performance art and later evolved into Calder’s innovative kinetic mobiles and monumental metal sculptures he called stabiles.

The circus continues to be a place of wonder - immersing audiences in a fantastic world, outside of mundane day-to-day life. Explore Paris through the lens of the circus, avant-garde art of the 1920's, and the evolution of performance in sculptural practice. Learn low-tech and portable fabrication techniques, focusing on wire work and found object assemblage, to create your own piece to be performed at the conclusion of the class. Dive into the history of the Parisian circus at The Musée des Arts Forains, a private museum of funfair and fairground objects located within the Pavillons de Bercy. Experience a live performance at the historic Cirque d'Hiver Bouglione, one of the oldest circuses in the world, giving you a glimpse into how these traditions continue today. Play, spontaneity, and improvisation will guide our creative practice as we learn, make, and explore!

Picture a Parisian carousel - the mesmerizing lights, enchanting music, vivid colors, and rhythmic movement that work together to create an experience engaging all of your senses. Considering the carousel as a decorative object, one might marvel at the intricacies of the craft and construction, but upon closer inspection, they provide a complex entry point to examine the relationship of art and nature. 

This course will explore nature as a cultural construct through the lens of the carousel. Their aesthetic, mechanical, and technical development provides a framework to understand how the emerging urban and industrial landscapes of the 1800's changed the relationship of people and nature. Through readings, site visits, and discussions, we will consider the ways in which animals and art intersect. We will explore the gardens of Paris and their carousels - from the oldest, the Jardin du Luxembourg Carousel built in 1879, to the contemporary and unusual Dodo Manège in the Jardin des Plantes. We will dig deeper through exhibitions at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (Museum of Hunting and Nature) which highlights the relationship between humans and animal through their collection of ancient, modern and contemporary art. The Musée Archéologie Nationale holds many examples of paleolithic animal art, where we can consider the appearance of animals in some of the earliest creative expressions. From the cave to the carousel, the monument to the amusement park, you will gain an appreciation of many ways that artists interpret, re-imagine, and reflect our relationship to the natural world.