London is Europe’s largest city, a vast multicultural capital and an epicenter of international finance, politics, and culture. The modern city reveals a dynamic past in which theatre and the visual arts flourish in a variety of forms and venues. The center of Florence, on the other hand, can be traversed, and indeed circumnavigated, quickly. Its compression allows students a quite different opportunity to study the arts in context, particularly painting, architecture, and sculpture, all seminal to later achievements across Europe and the west. While London and Florence are of course very different cities, both are vibrant European environments where their differing artistic achievements continue to flourish.
The ACM London & Florence: Arts in Context program offers students a singular opportunity to live and study in two of the world’s most important and exciting cultural capitals. This interdisciplinary program focuses on the arts that have made these two cities central to the heritage of the West: the visual arts, on the one hand, in architecture, painting, sculpture; and the literary arts, on the other, in theatre and literature. Students will live and study in two urban environments that have continued to fascinate visitors and scholars alike for their ongoing vitality over many centuries. While they learn about the past and how each city came to foster such extraordinary creativity in the arts, students will become temporary residents of a living, thriving urban environment. Students will see how each city works, day to day, even while they investigate how each city has functioned in the past as an artistic center. By traveling its cityscape, patronizing its theatres, visiting its museums, its public spaces and marketplaces, students will develop a sense of the ongoing vitality of both London and Florence. Each city will become for students a living laboratory, a text to be read and understood. Students may choose from three program options:
- London first - Students start in London and then move to Florence.
- Florence first - Students start in Florence (with an additional three-week program of intensive Italian instruction in January), and then move to London.
- Florence only - Students participate in the Florence portion of the program only (January-March). At schools not using a semester calendar, this is typically the winter trimester/term.
While in London, students take two courses - one focused on walking the city and exploring how contemporary London reveals a dynamic past, and another focused on theatre, seeing different plays on London’s varied stages. Students in Florence take three courses in art history and aspects of Italian history and culture. Florence itself is an easily managed forum, a living site that holds visible monuments to its towering artistic achievements, which students will daily investigate. Students will spend eight weeks in each city, with a one-week break between the two segments for independent travel. Students will also have some long weekends for travel on their own within Britain and Italy, as well as group travel as part of the program to cities in each country, especially pertinent to a deepened study of the arts in a larger national context.
In both cities, students will live in site-appropriate circumstances: in London, students will share apartment-style lodgings in the heart of the metropolis; in Florence, students will live with Italian families and will study Italian. Each half of the program, then, makes use of the strengths of its locales, and each city provides students with its own unique learning environment. For students particularly interested in Italian language, choosing the “Florence first” option includes an additional three weeks of intensive Italian language instruction in January, prior to the start of the rest of the coursework.
For more detailed information, please use the links located on the left-hand side of this page.
Quick Facts
- Term: Spring semester & winter trimester (January-March)
- Language prerequisite: None
- Language of instruction: English (plus Italian language class)
- Living arrangements: Host family & dormitory
Application deadlines
March 15, 2010
Spring 2011 semester early application date
Do I need to apply early?
The early application date is available for students whose college requires that all off-campus study applications for the entire upcoming academic year must be completed the prior spring semester. If your college does not require a spring decision for programs the following spring, you may simply apply by the regular application deadline.
October 15, 2010
Spring 2011 semester
If the deadline has passed and you are interested in applying, contact the ACM Office immediately. Late applications may be accepted on a space-available basis.
Related Programs
Program contacts
Heather Everst
Program Associate
205 W. Wacker Drive, Suite 220
Chicago, IL 60606
Phone: 312.263.5000
heverst@acm.edu
More program contacts »
Publications & Resources
London & Florence program brochure