PHCC offering students, residents opportunity to live

Ever since Patrick Henry Community College Professor Gerry Bannan studied in Rome, he has hoped for an opportunity to share the experience with other students and aspiring artists.

Now, with the help of another art teacher with a local connection, he is getting that chance.

PHCC will offer its first study abroad program from June 4 through July 16 in Todi, Italy, for a class of about eight students, the school has announced. Bannan, a professor of fine arts at PHCC, will lead the group on the six-week course of study worth six transferable credits in the arts and humanities toward an associate or bachelor’s degree, according to a PHCC flyer for the program.

However, the program is not just for current students. Bannan said it is available to anyone in the community interested in traveling or learning about other cultures.

“We know the participation in study abroad programs really changes people’s lives,” he said.

Todi is referred to in the program’s flyer as “a small medieval city” located about two hours north of Rome and two hours south of Florence. Bannan said studies during the course would include painting, archaeology, pottery art restoration and history.

Students will travel to Rome, Florence and the Vatican, as well as several art galleries. The idea of the program is to be “intensive,” according to Bannan and his colleague, Allison Hall, who helped him plot a course for the program.

“This is about students moving to this town (Todi) and integrating themselves into the community,” said Hall, a Martinsville native and graduate of Fieldale-Collinsville High School. She is a visiting assistant professor at Hollins University in Roanoke, as well as the creator and program director of Hollins’ study abroad program in Todi.

Hall went to Todi as an undergraduate landscape painter and “fell in love with the place,” she said. “When I landed there I knew I wanted to work on making the place a part of my life.”

Hall moved to Italy after graduate school at American University in Washington and spends about half of the year there. She spends the rest of the time in Roanoke.

Both Hall and Bannan referred to the program is “immersive.” Part of that involves learning from local artists, restorers and historians.

Bannan, who also lives in Roanoke, started discussing with Hall the possibility of creating a study abroad program in Todi last semester.

“We started talking about it nonchalantly, and (Bannan) mentioned that they should try to get kids from Martinsville there,” Hall said “Gerry and I just started putting our heads together on how to make it happen.”

Hall, who developed the Hollins program in 2005, will teach humanities and Bannan will teach painting during the course. Both Hollins and PHCC students will be in Todi at the same time, Hall said, which made it easier for she and Bannan to set up PHCC’s program.

By already being in Todi with Hollins students, Hall said, “I could help Gerry work out the logistics for his group.”

Hall now is an abstract painter. A collection of works based on her experiences in Italy soon will be displayed at The Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, she said.

Both Hall and Bannan stressed that an interest in painting is not a prerequisite for the program, only an interest in learning about other cultures. Bannan also cautioned prospective students against assuming such a trip would be out of reach for them.

“I think sometimes my student population feels it’s too remote for them to expect to be able to do (this),” Bannan said. “We want to make sure people have the opportunity.”

According to PHCC’s flyer for the program, the total cost for the six-week study is $4,740. However, that amount does not include airfare, Bannan said. Financial assistance also may be available, he added.

Bannan said he doesn’t want to “let cost discourage people from at least finding out about it. It can be a wonderful component to a traditional student’s academic career.”

This was Lincoln's summer home, where he and his family escaped Washington's heat and humidity. Located on a breezy hill three miles from the White House, it was the 19th-century equivalent of contemporary presidential retreats like Camp David. A statue of Lincoln and his horse evoke his daily half-hour commute to the White House on horseback. He first visited the house three days after his inauguration and last rode to the site the day before he was shot.

Wagonloads of furniture were brought here each summer from the White House. But unlike many historic sites, the house today is not filled with furniture or personal items, and that's the point. Guided tours of the mostly empty rooms emphasize Lincoln's ideas and the people he encountered during his stays here and on his daily rides, from favor-seekers and foreigners to former slaves and soldiers. You'll stand in the room where he read Shakespeare and the Bible, hear about his meetings with the secretary of war, see the view from the porch that once offered a clear sightline all the way to downtown Washington, and walk up the stairs where his footsteps were heard when he couldn't sleep. Through April 30, an exhibit here displays one of just 26 existing signed copies of the Emancipation Proclamation.