Some photos from Harlow 2004. Click each image for a larger photo.

Harlow campus in Old Harlow.

A piazza in London.

At the Roman Baths.

On the banks of the Seine.

Photos by Matthew Hollett.

The Harlow Experience

The Harlow experience is an overseas summer study program offered to Grenfell Campus Visual Arts students approximately every two years. From Memorial University's campus in Harlow, England, associate professor Dr. Gerard Curtis leads daily field trips to important cultural and architectural sites in and around London. The majority of the course work occurs directly in London, with trips into the city three or four times a week. The program also includes a five-day field trip to Bath, Salisbury, and Stonehenge, day trips to other sites in Essex, and a six-day break during which students often arrange their own travel plans. As of 2004, the program also includes a eight-day trip to France. Students are immersed in full-time study while away, and two days of each week are usually set aside for lectures. The three art history courses at Harlow are immersive and experiential, offering a hybrid of art history, visual and material culture, and studio-based work in the field.

The program lasts approximately eight or nine weeks, and usually begins in mid-May. Space is limited, and priority is given to students in their third and fourth years of study. Travelling overseas is expensive, especially on a student budget, and fundraising for Harlow usually begins about a year before the trip. This fundraising helps to cover group costs such as vehicle rentals and museum admission fees; students are responsible for airfare, accomodation and meals at Harlow campus, tuition, books, and all personal expenses. Costs for the 2004 trip were estimated at between $5000 - $5500 (Canadian dollars) per student, though expenses will vary according to exchange rates and individual budgets. This estimated cost includes airfare, tuition, accomodation, meals, field trips, and most foreseeable expenses.

Harlow is an entirely optional experience, and it is not necessary to go to Harlow to complete Grenfell Campus's Visual Arts program, though students do receive academic credit for three art history courses.

The most recent Harlow trip took place from May 12 - August 15, 2004, with great success. Twenty-five students (the largest group to date) spent nine weeks in Europe, and the tour included a week in Noyelles-sur-mer, France, for the first time. Highlights of Harlow 2004 included St. Paul's Cathedral, the Tate Britain and Tate Modern, Norman Foster architecture, Henry Moore's estate at Perry Green, the Roman Baths, Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge, Avesbury, Cambridge, Bodiam Castle, and Brighton. We saw exhibitions of artwork by Damien Hirst, Brancusi, Rodin, Edward Weston, Helen Chadwick, and many others. Our week in France included excursions to Vimy Ridge, Beaumont-Hamel, Paris (including the Louvre and the Pompidou Centre), and Amiens. Two exhibitions of student work were arranged while we were in Europe - one at Harlow campus, and one in Pippa Darbyshire's Relais de la Baie Cafe Galerie in Noyelles-sur-mer, France.

For more information about the Harlow experience, see the Harlow Campus website.