11 May 2011

Summer Academic Courses in Belgrade

NEW ACADEMY OF ART, Belgrade, Serbia
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, Belgrade, Serbia

Summer Sessions 2011
Program in Belgrade

Program Overview
The New Academy of art and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade offer an exceptional educational experience in Serbia - an opportunity to study on-site, learn and experience the beauty and complexity of the Balkans today through extensive exploration and field trips. The host institutions are the New Academy of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade.
Students will be based in Belgrade but will travel to the countryside for a long weekend. The accommodation is in single rooms in downtown hotels in Belgrade. The venue for classes is situated in the premises of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade.
List of courses:


ART 301 ( special topics ) Intermediate photography
FROM EXPLORATION TO SELF EXPRESSION, 6 ECTS
Prof. Milan Aleksic

Course description
This course is intended for students at all levels, from introductory to advanced. Emphasis is on camera skills, image formation, transfer techniques through digital photography, and most importantly the content and the meaning of color photographic imagery.
Emphasis is divided between the investigation of achievements by some of the most distinguished photographers from the last century and understanding of their artistic strategy, and practical photographic work executed outdoors in the environments of Belgrade and Sebian countryside.
While working within a group, students will develop individual projects related to their personal photographic vision.
The academic strength of the course is reflected in the backgrounds of its faculty and visiting artists.
The host of the course is the New Academy of Art with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade which is simultaneously hosting the course ArtH 302 (4 credits). Both groups will mix for selected critical reviews and will travel together through the region.

Course schedule
August 1 to August 30, 2011

ARTH 302 ( special topics ) Theory of Art
CULTURE AND ART IN SOCIALIST YUGOSLAVIA, 4 ECTS
Prof. Branislav Dimitrijevic

Course description
This course is intended for undergraduate and graduate Students of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences interested in the specificities of culture and art during the socialist period in Yugoslavia (1945-1991) and in the relations this culture had within the broader European cultural and artistic currents as well as with political, economic and other social contexts of its development.
Yugoslav culture of that period was a reflection of a unique political and economical position of this country in-between the two major political blocs during the Cold War era, as well as it was an aspect of the general, global processes of modernization. This culture makes therefore an interesting proposition linked both to the ideology of 'democratic' and 'self-managed' socialism and to Western artistic influences in the post-war period. This culture produced its 'official' and its 'dissident' counterparts, but the distinction between the two is not as uncomplicated as it is mostly interpreted, and therefore still presents an open field for academic research in the broader field of 'Yugoslav studies' which is in its theoretically exciting formation stage.
The summer course may help students in activating and focusing their interests in this impressive field of cultural signification, both in its general social and political role and in its specific artistic achievement. The course will look into the very formations of the concept of „Yugoslav cultural space' since the mid 19th century, but will primarily focus on the political and economical circumstances of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Cultural antagonism between 'socialist realism' and 'socialist modernism' will be taken as a point of departure to reflect an open field of ideological and cultural debate which is illustrative for the historical development of this country from the anti-fascist (and anti-Stalinist) struggle in the 1940s, economical and social prosperity in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and the political decline of the 1980s which led to the tragic dissolution and the civil war in the 1990s. The course will look into a variety of cultural achievements and 'symptoms' in the fields of visual art, film, architecture, popular music, as well as in the cultural construction of the 'everyday life'.
The course will therefore be interdisciplinary in its approach and in using the theoretical framework of cultural studies, history and theory of art, anthropology, sociology, political studies and other academic disciplines. The course will use resources of the Museum of Contemporary of Art in Belgrade, as one of the leading institutions of its kind in the region. Apart from a series of lectures and seminars, the course will also include a photographic workshop with the intention to record and visually explore the visible legacy of this period present in the city of Belgrade.

Course schedule
August 1 to August 30, 2011

FEES
2,400 Euros for 6 ECTS course.
2,000 Euros for 4 ECTS course.


HOW TO APPLY
Applicants should contact the New Academy of Art, Belgrade (www.nova.edu.rs, info@nova.edu.rs). Professors Milan Aleksic (mza2@cornell.edu) and Branislav Dimitrijevic (branko@bgdmail.com) are also available for further information.

The cost of the program is 200 Euros per credit plus a 1,200 Euros program fee. Students may also audit the courses without receiving credits, but must pay both the program fee plus an additional amount equal to 4 ECTS (2,000 Euros). The fees cover the cost of housing in hotels and local travel. Students must cover the costs of air travel, and supplies. Local and day-trip transportation costs are paid for by the program (city bus trips, chartered bus trips, and/or train trips). All students must bring their digital camera, and a laptop is desirable but not required.

To enroll in the program, students must contact the New Academy of Arts, Belgrade. This can be done by e-mail info@nova.edu.rs and mza2@cornell.edu.

A nonrefundable tuition deposit of $500 must be received by June 1, 2011, accompanied by a completed registration form. The remainder of both tuition and program fees must be paid by July 1.