Transformational reflection: Studying abroad in The Burren, Ireland

Every other year, a group of Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) students spends four weeks in May investigating the Burren in County Clare, Ireland through text and image. Based at the Burren College of Art and led by Professor Leslie Fedorchuk and printmaker Matthew Presutti, the two-decade-long partnership between the colleges has produced meaningful reflection and transformational experiences for students.

Why might an art and design student want to study abroad? “To see in person things you might have only looked at on a screen!” says Fedorchuk. “To have the option of understanding how a different geography, history, or culture can influence the art and design made there. Other countries give you the opportunity to experience other points of view, other ways of doing things.”

Parker Deutsch, Ireland Study Abroad Trip, 2025.

Parker Deutsch, Ireland Study Abroad Trip, 2025.

That was certainly the case for Parker Deutsch, a senior in the Illustration – Animation Track program. “This experience 100% changed my life and the way I approach thinking and writing,” he says. “Our final assignment was based in immersion, contemplation, and reflection, something that prior I had never really dabbled in.” Deutsch said the experience supplemented his regular MIAD instruction, explaining “it was a pivotal task, one that inspired me to really explore a more introspective side of my identity as a creator that rarely ever gets touched.”

The program focuses on book arts and asks students to explore the Burren through writing and imagemaking. “Ireland is a studio-focused experience, and the opportunity to have that kind of time to make work (students have access to their studios 24/7) is both a gift and a challenge,” says Fedorchuk. “Perspectives are often challenged, as students who may not have ever left the state of Wisconsin, or the country encounter different ways of doing things that they may not have ever realized were possible.”

“Our whole program loosely revolved around the idea of getting lost,” continues Deutsch, “though through this reflective process I was able to recognize how much I’d grown to love living in such a different space; in our final weekly assignment, I remember writing that ‘the west of Ireland ignites a feeling of home in a way that I have never experienced back in the states, despite it being all that I have known prior. I may be a stranger in a strange place, but I am anything but lost.’”

“It is more important than ever that students have options for this opportunity,” finishes Fedorchuk. “It’s a life changing experience. I have students I traveled to Ireland with almost two decades ago — and they still talk about it when I see them.”

Deutsch concludes, “I truly am grateful to not only have had this experience, but to share it with those who also took part in the program (and those who ran it!). I cannot overstate how life changing it was and how much it encouraged me to grow as a scholar.”

An exhibition of work from the Burren, Ireland and Paris, France study abroad programs is on view Sept. 29 – Nov. 15 in MIAD’s 160 Gallery. Learn more at miad.edu/galleries.