Study abroad

Sketchbook with gallery ticket and brochure and a box of photograph and handwritten notes

Sketchbooks from the FINE 293/393 trip to England.

Seeing art ‘in the real’ and experiencing other places and cultures fundamentally enriches a student's academic experience in both studio and visual culture. The Fine Arts department and the Faculty of Arts offer a number of study abroad opportunities.  Contact Brett Roberts for current offerings.

  • Course trips to Europe:  The Fine Arts department offers course trips to Europe usually on a biennial basis and typically for 10 days during Reading Break in February. Destinations have included Berlin, London, Oxford, Brighton, Yorkshire, Rome, Venice, Bologna and Florence. The course trips (FINE 293 and 393) consist of several pre-departure classes in preparation for the trip as well as the trip itself. The experience (and assessment) of the course is typically documented through photography, drawing, video, and text.
  • Short trips:  The Fine Arts department also offers short trips, typically 3-4 days, to destinations such as New York, Chicago, and Montreal.
  • Day-trips:  The Fine Arts department routinely offers day-trips to Toronto (for Nuit Blanche, Art Toronto, gallery visits), Hamilton (for Supercrawl), and other regional locations. These trips are a fundamental part of the professional practice dimension of the Fine Arts program.
  • Term-length study abroad:  The Faculty of Arts offers a wide variety of term-length study abroad opportunities, with over 90 university partners around the world. Recently, Fine Arts students have taken the opportunity to study at universities in England, Norway and Trinidad & Tobago.  For more information, explore International Exchange.

Castles - Winter 2023

View the poster (PDF)

Rome - February 14-24, 2019

The course consists of on-campus classes and a trip to Rome.  In Winter 2019 students will register in either FINE 293/393 – Fine Arts Abroad or ITALST 394 – Italian Studies in Italy.  Course co-ordinators are Professor Joan Coutu and Professor Gabriel Niccoli.
If interested, please contact Professor Joan Coutu (Fine Arts) at joan.coutu@uwaterloo.ca

Berlin - February 17-26, 2017

Joan Coutu (Fine Arts) and James Skidmore (Germanic and Slavic Studies) organized a field course to Berlin, February 16-26, 2017.

Students registered in either FINE 293/393 or GER 298. No knowledge of German was required for this course. The course consisted of on-campus classes and a 10-day trip to Berlin where we explored the city’s architecture, museums, historical sites, parks, artists’ studios, cuisine, and other attractions. We also took two day-trips to Dessau (to see the Bauhaus) and Dresden.

In addition to regular course tuition, students also paid a fee ($2595) that covered the cost of airfare, accommodation (a centrally located hotel in Berlin), breakfasts, transfers to and from the Berlin airport, a public transit pass for Berlin and a museum pass for Berlin.

Berlin 2017 scrapbooks

Video created Dorothy Fu

Video created by Cheng Zhong

Lariana Ustariz’s vlog