Day 9 - La Cambre Arts School & Au Revoir Bruxelles

It's day nine and now the time feels like it's flying. We are already headed to another destination that is sure to entice the senses...in one form or another. Amsterdam is just a short three hour train ride away and we're leaving early this evening after we finish our activities for the day. But first, we're off to check out a local school on par with what the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC for short in case you haven't noticed already) is all about. We're seeing what kind of experience our Belgian contemporaries are having and use those to think about what we've seen and done in Brussels and Antwerp. This should leave us with an overall feeling of the Belgian arts scene before we leave for the Netherlands tonight.

La Cambre rests at the outskirts of the city and is surrounded by lush forestry and I can only imagine having the serene environs to reflect amongst while studying art. The school itself is a part of larger university and was founded in 1927 by architect and decorator Henry van de Velde. They have a variety of programs and you can peruse their site to see what peaks your interest. As for our trip, we specifically made the trek to visit their film, video and new media department for comparison to SAIC's. They have some stimulating techniques and equipment for creating stop motion animations. The school itself is a dual degree program in which students receive first an undergraduate degree and then follow that up with graduate studies for emphasis in a variety of disciplines. Most programs provide five years of study to achieve a Master of Fine Arts degree.

We got a sneak peak into the fashion department as well and were able to see what they're up to. One project involved a crash course not too dissimilar from Project Runway exercises and involved creating fashion from dry cleaner garment bags. Interesting stuff to say the least!

La Cambre surrounding environs

Detail from group portrait around 1974

Tiny stage for stop-action animation projects

Set up for bottom lit animations produced with sand and light

Computerized stop animation sequencer

Stop animation lab with green screen capabilities

The aforementioned stop-action capabilities

Poster for the classic Fritz Lang movie

Fashion from dry cleaning garment bag

Bring out the Gimp!

Sewing machine row

Hot off the presses

Panormamic view from La Cambre photo studio

David with green screen

"not working"