COD offers 10-day study trip to Belgium

Study medieval tapestries, Renaissance art and modern comics during “Belgium: A Discovery of the Arts,” a 10-day field study that takes place from May 14 to 22.

Offered by the Field and Interdisciplinary Studies program at College of DuPage, the study program will be based in Brussels and also will incorporate such famed cities as Bruges, Ghent and Tournai. Participants will sample world-famous Belgian chocolate, tour museums, study architecture, and learn about both arts and politics.

Julia diLiberti, professor of Humanities, said Belgium has both Roman and German traditions that can be found in all arts, from painting to architecture.

“What I love about studying the arts in Belgium is that they run the gamut from tapestries to comics, with an entire museum devoted to comic strips and comic art,” she said. “The arts of most countries suggest cultural ideals throughout history, but what makes Belgium unique is that two very different artistic and cultural traditions find themselves side-by-side in a small place.”

Although the country is the size of the state of Maryland, there are three cultural regions, three linguistic regions and a federal government, diLiberti said. In addition, Belgium's location gives it a unique identity, both in history and today.

“Arthur Frommer has this wonderful explanation of Belgium that I can't improve on,” she explained. “He says, ‘Belgium lies directly on the classic east-west axis, the equally traditional north-south axis, of European trade and military movements. So everyone passed through: German merchants and French kings, Julius Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte, the shippers of English wool and Italian spices, Spanish inquisitors and Dutch Calvinists, Desiderius Erasmus and Karl Marx, Counter-Reformations and colonizing capitalists, Austrian Hapsburgs and King Henry VIII of England.'

“Also, many folks know that French and Flemish are spoken in Belgium but forget that there is a small German section. On a day-to-day level, the Smurfs' Belgian origins always surprise people as well as the fact that french fries are really Belgian. And I think Belgium's colonial history might surprise most folks and could actually turn chocolate into a political issue.”

The cost of the trip is $2,705 and includes air/train transportation, hotel, admissions fees and some meals. Tuition for 3 credit hours is extra.

For more information, e-mail diLiberti at diLiberti@cod.edu.