Studying Art with the Dutch Student

Studies Abroad in the Netherlands

October 31, 2017

Author: Olivia Braiker

Cedar City, Utah

Junior at Southern Utah University, Olivia Braiker, spent the 2016 to 2017 school year learning art at the
liberal arts college Fontys Hogeschool voor de Kunsten (Fontys school for the arts) in Tilburg,
Netherlands. The year abroad was in fulfilment of SUUs EDGE program, a mandatory university wide
class that promotes initiative by having students create, propose, and fulfil a self-made project. Every
SUU student must complete a project, whether it be from crating a club, writing a short novel, or to
traveling abroad. Over her period of stay in the Netherlands Olivia studied many facets of art at Fontys,
as well as widened her horizons through meeting people from not only the Netherlands but from
around the world, and from travelling throughout Europe.

Because Olivia had had experience traveling abroad before, in five humanitarian trips to Mexico, and
another month long cultural exchange to Taiwan she felt confident that a year abroad would be the best
amount of time to more fully experience a new culture. She studied there for a total of 11 months from
late August 2016 to early July 2017, traveling to a total of 8 countries during her stay in Europe. Her class
at Fontys were English speaking. They consisted of a mix of foreign and English speaking Dutch students.
Olivia was among another six foreign students, who came from everywhere from Korea, to Spain, to
Italy, and to Slovakia.

As a part of the school year and her studies Olivia took many unique classes that would not have been
possible to experience without going abroad. One course was clay portrait sculpting that took place in
the countryside of Tilburg on the ruins of a 14th century manor. Another was an experimental
performance art class that focus on studies of work by famous performance arts like Marina Abramovic
and Joseph Beuys as well as creating and performing the classs own works as groups. Many valuable
extracurricular opportunities were presented in terms of museum visits, competitions, and trips abroad.
In total Olivia visited museums a total of 17 different museums during the year.

Olivia has returned to Southern Utah University to complete the remainder of her Illustration degree,
though she wont rule out another study abroad if she can fit it into her schedule. She plans to work in
television or film as a character designer and storyboard artist.

Olivia Braiker

(801) 879-1641

braikero@gmail.com

https://abroadinthenetherlands.weebly.com