Help Us Save the Florence Program
Donation protected
OCAD U’s celebrated Florence Off-Campus Program is an immensely positive and transformative experience for students. For the first time in its 42 year history, this once-in-a-life time program is under threat of cancellation. After a competitive 4 month application process, the University spontaneously made this unilateral decision without giving students any input in this transcendental issue. This disregarded out dreams, expectations and arrangements. Many of the 24 students have already booked flights, cancelled leases, left their jobs, paid deposits on accommodation and so on.
However, we have not lost hope but we need help from you !
Here are the economic challenges we face:
1. The costs of operating the Florence Program and the facilities are escalating.
2. OCAD University is in a period of a 3.5% budget restraint.
With Donations We Can Save the Florence Off-Campus Program
Who are the students?
We are dedicated, enthusiastic, and passionate art students who love learning. Each of us have worked through the applications, portfolio and interview process, as well as maintaining high averages within our school courses.
The Florence Program offers a great opportunity to learn from a combination of centuries of art history and a vibrant community of contemporary art. Environment undoubtedly affects the work of an artist; creatively and conceptually.
Florence is the most important city in the Tuscany region—highly regarded for its beautiful landscapes—the city is also the birthplace of the Italian renaissance and has been one of the most influential areas for culture and arts since the Medieval period. Florence has inspired so many great artists and continues to impact contemporary artwork
This program also offers us the possibility to learn from a different society apart from our own. Living within the Italian culture would allow us to observe and reach a more emic perspective of their ideology, values, techniques and ultimately the society as a whole. As artists, we are constantly trying to learn and understand the human condition. We believe travelling is the best way to understand not only other people’s way of life, but also to reflect on our own backgrounds with a new perspective. Being placed in a new environment forces the mind to widen its field of perspective and notice what may have been ignored by the process of abstraction of what is relevant and irrelevant. The opening of the mind enables imagination and creativity to develop.
However, we have not lost hope but we need help from you !
Here are the economic challenges we face:
1. The costs of operating the Florence Program and the facilities are escalating.
2. OCAD University is in a period of a 3.5% budget restraint.
With Donations We Can Save the Florence Off-Campus Program
Who are the students?
We are dedicated, enthusiastic, and passionate art students who love learning. Each of us have worked through the applications, portfolio and interview process, as well as maintaining high averages within our school courses.
The Florence Program offers a great opportunity to learn from a combination of centuries of art history and a vibrant community of contemporary art. Environment undoubtedly affects the work of an artist; creatively and conceptually.
Florence is the most important city in the Tuscany region—highly regarded for its beautiful landscapes—the city is also the birthplace of the Italian renaissance and has been one of the most influential areas for culture and arts since the Medieval period. Florence has inspired so many great artists and continues to impact contemporary artwork
This program also offers us the possibility to learn from a different society apart from our own. Living within the Italian culture would allow us to observe and reach a more emic perspective of their ideology, values, techniques and ultimately the society as a whole. As artists, we are constantly trying to learn and understand the human condition. We believe travelling is the best way to understand not only other people’s way of life, but also to reflect on our own backgrounds with a new perspective. Being placed in a new environment forces the mind to widen its field of perspective and notice what may have been ignored by the process of abstraction of what is relevant and irrelevant. The opening of the mind enables imagination and creativity to develop.
Organizer
Alejandro Rizzo
Organizer
Toronto, ON