Hello!
I am currently studying abroad in London under LC’s England: Fine Arts program, and I’m so excited to be able to share with all of you the wonderful adventures that I get up to while abroad. Check out some of my other blogs to learn more about the program, the logistics of going abroad, and life as a study abroad student!
There are lots of benefits to studying abroad, such as immersing yourself in another culture, getting to explore and experience a different country, but for me the biggest benefit is that I get to live and study in a major cultural and intellectual hub. The city of London is an enormous focus in all of my classes, everything we do takes place in the backdrop of this enormous and ancient city, and it is such an unbelievable experience to be able to spend an entire semester living here.
One of the amazing things about London is that it’s home to some of the best museums in the world– and they’re free to the public! Right around the corner from my student housing is the fantastic Natural History Museum, home to an enormous collection of fossils, wildlife, and tons of research. It’s amazing to be able to come here as often as I can and explore what the museum has to offer.
Also in my backyard is the V&A museum, a museum of fine and decorative art. One of the largest museums in the world, it houses a wide variety of items from ceramics to furniture to clothing to sculpture. It’s an incredible collection of all things beautiful from a wide array of places, times, and cultures.
The V&A is named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, as the couple was indispensable in transforming the area surrounding the V&A, South Kensington, into an important center for academia and discovery. After the Great Exhibition in 1851, the crown used the profits to purchase the land near Hyde Park, and invested in the area. Thanks to these efforts South Kensington is home to many museums, colleges, and academic institutions, so many that the area has been nicknamed the Albertropolis.
But London is an enormous city and there are museums outside of South Kensington. The National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar Square are some of the largest collections of fine paintings in Britain. They house masterpieces from many incredible artists such as Da Vinci, Raphael, Rembrandt, Renoir, Caravaggio, Van Gogh, Monet, and so many more. The British Museum is home to a staggering collection of anthropological and archeological pieces, including friezes from the Parthenon and the Rosetta Stone.
How the British got ahold of all of these great pieces of art and anthropological artifacts is, of course, because of their colonial empire. To be honest, I was surprised to see there was little to no mention of the imperial origins of these great museums, and it seems there isn’t much conversation about the morality of the British national museums keeping all of these pieces in their collections.
But there are also pieces of history in the city of London itself. Walk around and you’ll spot blue plaques everywhere, proclaiming a building to be the site of a famous person’s home or place of work. I live particularly close to the former residence of TS Eliot. There are lots of museums as well in these former residences, like the Charles Dickens Museum, the Mercury House, the Freud Museum, and many more.
There are tons more museums in London– the Tate, the Tate Britain, the Barbican, the Saatchi, the Design Museum, the Science Museum, the Museum of Fashion and Textiles– too many even to name. It’s an incredible place not just to study in, but to really learn about other disciplines and immerse yourself in art, history, and science.
