Explore the Czech Republic’s contemporary art scene and the role of art as a social change agent throughout the country’s history.
Program Highlights
Study with a dynamic community of visual, performing, and literary artists, where art and creative dissent have played a decisive role in shaping social and political change.
Choose to do either an arts-based or field-based research project.
Go on excursions to Poland, Slovakia, the former Sudetenland, and Bohemia or Moravia.
Explore the new challenges facing artists and communities today as a result of globalization and tourism.
Live in beautiful Prague.
Participate in civic initiatives that draw upon the creative legacy of Czech underground culture.
Take part in workshops on ceramics, bookmaking, stop-motion animation, traditional crafts, or architecture.
Please visit the SIT Study Abroad website for details on the program courses (including syllabi), educational excursions, and housing.
Key Topics of Study
The transformative role of artists and civic leaders in a new democracy
Critical challenges associated with liberal democracy and the legacy of communism
Art in relation to open borders, consumerism, and the free market of post-communist Europe
The relationship between art, politics, and society in the country’s historic and contemporary contexts
Independent Study Project
During the final month of the semester, you will pursue an Independent Study Project (ISP). The ISP gives you a unique opportunity to work directly with professional artists or social innovators to produce a creative project or to critically examine a topic, situation, or community related to the arts or social change in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, or Poland.
Artists, civil society activists, professors, and specialists will help you in the development and implementation of your ISP, which may include daily work with an organization or school or a creative component in visual arts, creative writing, or theater.
Sample topic areas:
Alternative culture spaces in Prague today
Memory and memorials to the 1989 Velvet Revolution
Creative alternatives to institutionalized care for citizens with mental disabilities
Civic initiatives and the Prague public transport system
The socialist-era legacy of community centers for children and youth
The impact of education in secret from members of the Czech Underground at Charles University
Methods and mechanics of dissent through underground literature
Legacy of the Czech Underground music scene today
Czech perspectives and reactions to Putin’s warfare tactics in the Ukraine
Creative projects have included:
Sculpture and ceramic vessels inspired by the Celts of Central Europe
Drawings and sculptures inspired by interviews with Czech artists on the topic of public/private dichotomies
Contemporary dance inspired by Slovak traditional dance
A CD of Czech folk songs produced with a Czech musical trio
A theater performance based on contemporary Czech mime and circus acts
A screenplay inspired by Czech absurdist literature
A graphic design project inspired by Czech cubist architecture
Fashion designs using traditional Slovak weaving traditions
SIT awards nearly $1.6 million in scholarships and grants annually.
All scholarships and grants are need-based.
Awards generally range from $500 to $5,000.
The SIT Pell Grant Match provides matching grants to all students receiving Federal Pell Grant funding when it is applied to an SIT Study Abroad semester program.
Contact the financial aid and/or study abroad office(s) at your college or university to learn if your school’s scholarships and grants and federal and state aid programs can be applied to an SIT Study Abroad program.
