We went on an afternoon expedition around Siena’s San Martino district, visiting the City Archives, spaces of the Owl and Tower and Unicorn Contradas, the Syanagogue, the Servite Church, the former Psychiatric Hospital, and finishing at the Orto dei Pecci community farm behind city hall.  Lots of unexpected and hidden corners here in the city!

We had the privilege to see the current contemporary art exhibitions currently on view at Galleria Continua in San Gimignano:

‘Mónadas’ by Cuban emerging artist ELIZABET CERVIÑO

and

‘The Ineffable Gardener’ by Italian artist Loris Checcini.

You can find more info about Galleria Continua’s current exhibitions on their website: http://www.galleriacontinua.com/ 

Thanks so much to the Continua staff for being so welcoming and informative for our students. We had a great visit and can’t wait to come back soon!

Orientation activities are underway for the newly-arrived students of the Spring 2018 semester at the Siena Art Institute and Siena School for Liberal Arts.

Our students arrived to Florence and then we spent 2 nights at the Fattoria San Donato agriturismo which is outside of San Gimignano, between Siena and Florence.  We had to go through some arrivals paperwork like the permit of stay application and Itailan language placement test as well as some more fun activities like discussions of cultural customs in Italy.  A big highlight was touring the historic center of San Gimignano and visiting the contemporary art installations at Galleria Continua.   Today is the start of our 3-week intro unit, with mornings dedicated to our intensive courses for Italian Language and culture, and afternoons scheduled with activities to explore Siena and begin the projects in the context of the Art & Society course.
You can find more details on our semester program calendar linked here.