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Circle Studio Series

The Language and Intercultural Learning Center hosts an ongoing intercultural learning series for students. Learn about creative practices from other cultures while exploring both new and familiar intercultural perspectives.

Circle Studio programs are approved for VUE Fieldwork.

LINC

Creative Practices & Intercultural Perspectives

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Circle Studio Overview

Discover a creative practice from another culture to explore both new and familiar intercultural perspectives. Circle Studio is a great introduction to intercultural learning. Programs are for a general student audience. Valpo staff and faculty are also welcome to participate. All Circle Studio programs are approved for VUE Fieldwork.

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Fall Programs

All Circle Studio programs are approved for VUE Fieldwork. At Circle Studio, you will:
– Create with your hands
– Observe and interpret
– Reflect and discuss
– Learn from an expert

A circular diagram with labeled rings—LINC Circle Studio, Observe, Create, Interpret, Learn—encircled by Self and Beyond Self.

Circle Studio programs take place at LINC in ASB 240 (Arts & Sciences Building, main level).

Event flyer for “Retablos Paintings” talk at LINC Circle Studio, with colorful art, date, time, and location details.

Retablos Paintings – Latin America’s Miracle Memorials

September 21 at 4 pm
LINC – ASB 240

In Celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month
Approved for VUE Fieldwork

  • Think about your cultural practices related to the ways you share good news
  • Learn from Prof. Hoult about the history & imagery of retablos, a Latin American painting tradition
  • Engage directly with this cultural practice by creating your own retablos

Flyer for “Arpilleras Chilenas” event at LINC Circle Studio, featuring details on Hispanic Heritage Month, including date, time, and location.

Arpilleras Chilenas – Textiles as Testimony

October 7 at 4:30 pm
LINC – ASB 240

In Celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month
Approved for VUE Fieldwork

  • Interpret behaviors from your own cultural context related to denouncing human rights abuses and their consequences.
  • Learn about arpilleras, textile-based scenes of daily life, adapted during the dictatorship to express individual and collective pain. Prof. Ames, retired Spanish professor, shares her expertise.
  • Create your own 3-D arpilleras that call attention to a social crisis and its impact on a community.

LINC Circle event flyer: “Are You a Leseratte? German Books and Reading Rats,” Oct 28, 4 PM, ASB 240.

Are You a Leseratte? – German Books & Reading Rats

October 28 at 4 pm
LINC – ASB 240
Approved for VUE Fieldwork

  • Interpret behaviors and values from your own cultural context related to material items (like books!) that hold meaning for us in the literal holding and keeping of an object.
  • Learn about Germany’s particular reading culture of Leseratten (book rats/worms) and its historical context. Valpo’s German Professors share their expertise on the topic of Bücher (books).
  • Create your own mini Buch with folded folio pages, twine, and needle, and customize your booklet with ink stamps and other adornments.

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Event poster for "Dapper Sap & AfriCOBRA Colors" at LINC Circle Studio, featuring a colorful photo of a person in vibrant textiles.

Dapper Sap & AfriCOBRA Colors
Inspiring Textiles to Celebrate Black History Month

  • Explore intercultural perspectives by learning about La Sape, a Congolese fashion subculture and creative practice born of colonialism.
  • Discover the vibrant work of Bisa Butler, a contemporary African American artist who transforms greyscale photographs into living, stitched portraits made of Cool-Ade colors.
  • Experiment to create your own color-rich fabric portrait in the style of Bisa Butler.

A masked person in costume is featured on a flyer for a winter mask event at Valparaiso University, hosted by LINC Circle Studio.

Winter Masks — Roosters, Fangs, & Foxtails
German Fastnacht … Not the Mardi Gras Parade You May Know

  • Interpret an unfamiliar regional tradition through the lens of your own cultural context.
  • Learn about the Fastnacht festival specific to the city of Rottweil in Southwest Germany. Explore the unique masked characters who walk this pre-Lenten parade.
  • Experiment and create your own character mask using upcycled materials.

Flyer for a Wayang puppetry art assignment event on Nov 13 at 4 pm at LINC Circle Studio, featuring object empathy.

Wayang Puppetry –
Art Assignment: Object Empathy

October 13 at 4 pm

  • Think about how we interpret unfamiliar cultural objects through the lens of our own cultural contexts & personal histories
  • Learn about the Javanese Wayang puppets mysteriously gifted to LINC
  • Engage with object empathy & complete a hands-on Art Assignment using a found object that is broken, incomplete, or in need to something else you can offer.

Flyer for an event on Spanish heroes of forgery at Valparaiso University, hosted by LINC Circle Studio, Oct 13, 5 pm, ASB 240.

Diplomatic Agents of Defiance –
Spanish Heroes of Forgery


October 13 at 5 pm

Explore intercultural perspectives as you learn about a creative practice of compassion that saved thousands of lives during World War II. Facilitated by LINC Director Carol Goss and Professor Miguel-Pueyo.

  • Think about your cultural practices, values, & means of physical movement at home & beyond
  • Learn from Prof. Miguel-Pueyo about the ángel de Budapest & the history of salvoconductos para la libertad
  • Engage directly with this practice by designing a salvoconductos on behalf of someone else

Flyer advertising a Retablos Paintings event for Hispanic Heritage Month with art, details, and event information.

Retablos Paintings –
Latin America’s Miracle Memorials

September 23 at 6 pm

Explore intercultural perspectives as you learn about a creative practice from Latin America. Facilitated by LINC Director Carol Goss and Professor Hoult.

  • Think about your cultural practices related to the ways you share good news
  • Learn from Prof. Hoult about the history & imagery of retablos, a Latin American painting tradition
  • Engage directly with this cultural practice by creating your own retablo.

You Belong Here.