Study Abroad Programs 2007-2018
Arts & Culture in Mali
Djembe Workshop in Bamako
Karim Coulibaly ran our drumming classes at his atelier in the Maison des Jeunes community arts centre in Bamako. Students learned djembe and dunun technique and repertoire.
Bogolan Workshop at Ndomo in Segou
During our two-week study tour to the interior, we spent a few days in Segou visiting historical sites and attending workshops. Boubacar Doumbia’s bogolon (mud cloth) class, held at the Ndomo artists’ cooperative, was always a popular and informative activity.
Student Concert
We concluded each semester with a showing of student works. Visual arts and artisan works were displayed for viewing, and performance artists presented repertoire. We were fortunate to work with exceptional local musicians, including a Bamako-based Tamasheq troupe.
Arts & Culture in West Africa (Guinea)
Dancing at weddings in Kankan
The fantastic local folkloric troupe, Gnankouman Doua, animated almost every life-cycle event in the region surrounding Kankan in Upper Guinea, including this wedding in a local neighbourhood. Our students were both eager participants and a spectacle for our hosts.
Village women’s basketry collective
Basketry is taken to a level of fine art by these skilled women at their village collective. Our hosts graciously shared their decades of experience with our students in an afternoon of hands-on learning punctuated by translated story-telling.
Students and staff
We were fortunate to have a wonderful group of local faculty, staff, and guest artists who supported our programs each year. Our students bonded with each other, with our staff and faculty, and with their generous homestay host families.
Arts & Culture in Cameroon
Nja lessons at the Bamoun Palace
Members of the Ensemble Royal des Arts Bamoun teaching our students part-playing on the nja xylophone at their workshop space by the Sultan’s Palace in Foumban.
Women’s Pottery Village
A group of more than twenty women are involved in a pottery collective in a nearby village in the French-speaking region of Noun. Their works are sold at markets in the regional capital, where we met a few of them and arranged for workshops. Students crafted original and traditional pieces, returning a few days later to fire them in a communal event that lasted most of the afternoon.
Tsaben Beach
We did take occasional R&R breaks, and this beach featuring dark brown volcanic sand offered a welcome respite from our busy schedules.