It seems obvious that any young artist would want to go to Italy and France: famous works like the “Mona Lisa,” or the “David” and countless other ornately painted frescoes decorate the walls of museums and cathedrals across the countries.

That’s why on April 10, 35 students and six chaperons will pack themselves on a bus and head to Rome. They will begin there before hitting the highlights in Florence, the Vatican and Venice before going to Paris to cap off their 11 day journey. 

“It’s important for students to do international travel for a variety of reasons; they get to see cultures that are widely different from their own,” Coordinator for Music and Visual Arts Stephen Zimmerman said. “We might travel around the United States and get a certain idea but when you enter into a different country with a different way of life […], you have to think about all the little things that you assume are normal for everyone.”

Zimmerman, who helped plan the trip with Education First (EF) Tours, tried to highlight multiple different mediums of art that Europe has to offer.

“[We also tried to include] a little bit less formal art things, [like a glass blowing demonstration in Venice which is really interesting and different], or the Peggy Guggenheim museum [has] lots of modern art with Neon signs, [and] that’s a very different look from going to see the Mona Lisa in the Louvre.”

The varying types of art featured guaranteed that student excitement for the trip would be high.

“I’m excited to visit the Gallery of Borghese because it has a lot of ancient art and some ancient artists [whose work] I’ve really been wanting to look at,” Sophie Grijns ’26 said.

There are also recreational opportunities that are available to both teachers and chaperones that allow them to have a hands-on artistic experience as well.

“I’m very excited; we’re taking a cooking class and we’re also taking a painting class,” Nina Katz ’26 said.

The mix of such activities as well as more classical and famous museums like the Louvre, but also having the occasional foray into modern art, make this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for both students and chaperones attending.

“To see these things in real life, just like to put context to these things that we look at in books or [on projections],” Art teacher and chaperone Stephanie Sileo said. “We get to see the scale, and maybe even the hand of the artist instead of this replicated version on computers.”