English professor Nancy Barry from Luther College and art historian Rebecca Tucker from Colorado College will serve as visiting faculty with the London & Florence: Arts in Context program during the spring 2017 semester.
Nancy Barry
The courses they plan to teach in their areas of specialization will add depth and breadth to the program’s curriculum in theatre, museum studies, and art history, according to ACM Vice President and Director of Off-Campus Study Joan Gillespie.
“Students will have a fascinating set of electives to select from next year in London and Florence,” Gillespie said, “and the topics that Professors Barry and Tucker are offering will really complement the classes that the program’s resident staff are teaching in each city.”
By exploring the importance of the place in which a performance is staged, Barry’s course on Theatrical Spaces, Enduring Questions, Changeable Lives: Theatre in London Then and Now will match up well alongside the content of London as Visual Text, a course taught by London-based instructor Andrew Kennedy.
Rebecca Tucker
Both classes are designed to help students sharpen their skills in visual analysis, particularly when viewing architecture and public spaces, as a key to understanding London’s history and culture.
Barry will lead students as they attend a dozen or more performances in a wide variety of theatrical settings – from small, experimental theatres to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford. As Visiting Faculty Director in London, she also will facilitate field trips and activities during the program.
Meanwhile, in Florence, Tucker’s course on Cultures of Collecting will examine Italian collections and museums to find out why people collect things, how collecting has varied over time and across cultures, and what the study of collecting can reveal about societies, peoples’ values, and religious concepts.
The course will be a companion to Program Director Jodie Mariotti’s class on the historical role of the Medici family as art patrons, and will give students an additional option in museum studies, to go along with Kennedy’s course on Collecting the World in London.
While they are in Florence, students also take a required course in conversational Italian language and have other choices for elective courses in studio art and Italian cinema.
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