The Buzz

As Proctor's Global Art Classroom program closes its Arizona chapter and heads to Europe, students Gigi '26 and Abby '27 reflect on a passion for thrift shopping across the Southwest and a weekend in Tucson with visiting Proctor faculty. 

There’s a particular kind of awe that comes over you when you watch a teenager step fully into their own life — not performing for a grade, not performing for you, but simply being in a place that has asked something real of them.

Global Art Classroom is back at the NOLS campus in Tucson, Arizona for the spring term – reading Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees in the city where it is set, plein air painting in the desert, and learning to live together before departing for Europe.

Vienna offered Global Art Classroom students a concentrated dose of what the program does best – art experienced in person, a food culture worth exploring, and the freedom to wander and see where one ends up.

Some of the most powerful moments in experiential travel come not from the itinerary, but from the detours – the spontaneous decisions that pull students out of the tourist's perspective and into the local culture.

After weeks of studying art history through projected images and textbooks, standing face-to-face with the works and monuments themselves proved to experiences that exceeded every expectation.

Global Art Classroom students ventured beyond their Tucson home base for a midterm excursion to New Mexico and Texas that combined artistic exploration with hands-on learning about desert ecosystems and regional culture. 

From the howls of coyotes to first watercolor experiments, Global Art Classroom students share early reflections from their winter term home base in Arizona!

As Fall 2025 European Art Classroom wraps up its inaugural term under the program's new model, Ozzy '26 reflects on the challenges of communal living and offers advice for future students