Artist Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, left, discusses her work, “Scene 58,” with students in the Kunstmuseum Den Haag in the Netherlands.
When students in the art history class “Art, Money, Museums” traveled over spring break to Belgium and the Netherlands — historic centers of the European art market — they arrived as scholars, ready to continue their studies outside of the classroom by engaging with experts in the art world on their home turf.
The result was a unique opportunity to deepen their understanding that couldn’t have happened anywhere else, according to Assistant Professor of Art History Katherine Calvin, who teaches the class and led the trip.
“It really exceeded my goals, both in terms of the conversations that we were able to have with artists and museum professionals, but also the behind-the-scenes access that we were able to take advantage of,” she said.
Calvin’s travel-embedded class — which is fully funded by donors — explores the complex history of art, money and museums from the 15th century to the present. Students consider the social and economic roles of artists; the international development of art auctions and fairs; and art collecting as a form of financial and cultural capital.
Students visited places like The Hague, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent due to their importance in the history of the European art market, and were treated to special access along the way thanks to John Porter ’79, an alumnus living in Belgium. He arranged for students to see certain museum storage areas and conservation spaces and meet a wide variety of museum professionals.
And that was just the beginning.
Calvin was joined on the trip by Taylor Williams, assistant director of off-campus study, and Daisy Desrosiers, David and Francie Horvitz Family Foundation Director and Chief Curator of The Gund who arranged for the group to meet with artist Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum in the Kunstmuseum Den Haag in the Netherlands, which recently acquired one of her works.
“We had a conversation with her literally standing in front of a work that she made that had now been acquired by the museum,” Calvin said. “She was wonderful. She spoke so candidly about her practice, the process by which the work was acquired by the museum, the kinds of materials that she’s using. I think everyone left that conversation with an incredible amount of insight into how a contemporary artist engages with museums as well as with the art market.”
The itinerary included visits to museums like the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague — known for masterpieces by the likes of Vermeer and Rembrandt and full of works that the students studied ahead of time.
“They each had a chance to present informally on a work that resonated with them and why,” Calvin said. “There were so many overlaps with what we talked about in class, everything from the way these works were painted to the kind of ethical challenges of seeing this work in a building that was largely underwritten by the profits of the Dutch West India Company to the magic of being able to see a work in person that they had studied before.”
These experiences will help with future assignments back in the classroom when students are asked to make a pitch for acquiring a new work of art by one of the museums that they visited.
Charlie Menzel ’28, who had never traveled internationally before, said he will never forget walking into the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium, and coming face to face with a piece of art made by the 17th-century Dutch artist Joanna Koerten — whom he wrote a paper about for class — as well as a book that she kept in her studio as part of a new exhibition on women artists.
“I was looking at these things that this person I had researched had actually touched with her hands and worked on,” he said. “She died more than 300 years ago, but I got to feel that she was a real person, not just somebody I was reading about in a book. And that was just an awesome experience.”
Much like last year’s travel-embedded courses that visited the Galápagos Islands and Greece, this trip was filled with valuable experiences that built on classroom learning, Menzel said.
“It was just something that happened to me every day on the trip — I’d see either a piece of art or a building or a plaza that we had talked about in class, or I would have a conversation with some local about something we’d talked about in class,” he said. “That was just so cool to get to really learn about these things in depth and actually experience them in person.”
Lucia Plata ’29 said the trip taught her the importance of context, especially when it comes to appreciating — and understanding — certain pieces of art.
“We saw a lot of Rubens’ paintings that were still in the church that they had been originally created for, and that’s such a powerful experience because you’re seeing it within the context that Peter Paul Rubens saw it in. It was a beautiful opportunity,” she said.
Andrew Vera ’28 said his experience learning abroad caused him to expand his thinking about his own professional future.
“The travel component of this course inspired me to reimagine my future with an eye to the world,“ he said. “I had always centered my career aspirations in the U.S. … but traveling and experiencing the rich histories of the Low Countries taught me that life is much more multifaceted.“
Browse photos from the trip in the gallery below, and view more on Instagram.
