Pistoia, Italy, 22nd February – 26th February 2016

StudentsExchange_Pistoia2016

I was a part of Slovenian student group in the Erasmus + student exchange, which happened in the end of February, 2016. I gained new experiences, met new friends and found a lot of inspiration.

In my opinion, all the planned activities were interesting, informative and very beneficial. One of the main activities of the exchange was to create a digital portfolio. I think this is very important, since we started working on documenting our work, which will come in handy (maybe in choosing future study or later in finding our employment). We worked with Photoshop and InDesign, programs I’ve never used before. That was interesting and useful, since these two programs are essentials for digital creation of art.

A large part of the timetable were also different classes. I found the class about Art and Nature the most interesting and inspiring. It motivated me to work more on personal projects. The class about Italian Renaissance was also very pleasant and helpful. I also liked the class about Photography, where we flew over history of photography and did some practical work with camera obscura. It was fun.

For me, the best part of the week was our common trip to Florence. We visited the Uffizi Gallery, The Academia Gallery and also some other city attractions. It was a real pleasure to see all these incredible masterpieces in person.
We also explored Pistoia thoroughly. We visited Marino Marini museum, The Chamber of Commerce, Biblioteca San Giorgio and different Romanesque churches. I found that interesting as well.

Overall, I have a very positive impression of the Erasmus + exchange. I’ve experienced many new things and was motivated to learn and create more that I did before. Generally I gained a lot.

Lea Vidmar, 3rd year student of Secondary School for Design and Photography, Ljubljana

I was lucky enough to be a part of the exchange program and go to Pistoia for a week. It was a lot of fun and very educational. The hotel we stayed at was beautiful and left no room for complaints. The classes were also interesting and enjoyable. The trip to Florence to me must have been the best part of the exchange. The sights were amazing and the museum was breathtaking. The students who showed us around the museum were kind and made sure our tour was enjoyable. The only problems we seemed to have had were at creating our portfolios as I was hoping to learn more about how to present our work and ourselves in them. The program we used was a lot of fun to work with, even though it was only in Italian so there were some problems but that wasn’t a big deal as the students helped us use it. Perhaps I would have liked for the class to have showed me what a portfolio should look like in design and the context of the text we should add to our drawings. Over all it was a great experience I am grateful to have been a part of it.

Kaja Kregar, 3rd year student of Secondary School for Design and Photography, Ljubljana