Global Arts, Science, and Cross-Cultural Understanding in Provencal France
Olivier Mbabazi
→MA GAC 2026
2018, my core goal was to pursue art education at a liberal arts institution. I was convinced that I would gain plenty of opportunities to nurture my passion for fine arts, explore, and learn from distant cultures and traditions. Rightfully so: by attending Sewanee, a small yet prestigious liberal arts university in Tennessee, I joined a thriving community of passionate students and with support from dedicated faculty, I ventured into new disciplines like psychology, philosophy, Asian religions, and computer science for the first time. I also participated in initiatives that offered students hands-on experiences while they contributed to bettering local communities. In addition to building a strong academic foundation, I nurtured my passion for socially engaged arts and global cultures.
Upon graduation, I was awarded a Thomas Watson Fellowship, which I used to pursue a yearlong independent international project in six different countries, where I examined how artists, healers, and educators utilize art to process traumatic memories while fostering resilience and healing their communities. It was during that experience that I discovered Rhode Island School Design’s Masters of Arts in Global Arts and Cultures (GAC) program and decided that I would apply with an aim to unpack and build on what I had learned from working with hundreds of artists and change makers. I was confident that by leveraging the extensive resources of RISD and affiliated institutions, I would carve a way forward into how the arts could enhance health and wellbeing on local and global scales. In 2024 I applied and was accepted to the GAC program. I was fortunate to receive RISD’s prestigious Society of Presidential Fellowship and two other graduate fellowship awards. Almost a year into the program, I appreciate RISD’s mission to cultivate “expansive and elastic thinking” by equipping artists and scholars with skills and knowledge to “generate and challenge ideas that shape the world.” The carefully curated GAC program, RISD’s deeply dedicated faculty, and the diverse community of students from 60 countries have enriched my research. Rhode Island’s proximity to major art hubs like Boston and New York also provides ample opportunities to continue exploring multidimensional intersections between the arts, cultures, design, pedagogy, and sciences.
When I applied to RISD, I knew I would want to study abroad. I had wanted to in undergraduate school as well, but Covid interfered. When I reviewed the Wintersession RISD Global offerings, one course stood out above all the rest: Perception en Provence: French Art and Science in Aix-en-Provence. My objectives for the course were to: 1) expand my grasp of links between art, neuroscience, and place in enhancing creativity; 2) improve my French language skills by immersion in French art, history, and culture; 3) practice neuroscience of perception through drawing scenes and inhabitants of Provence; 4) build professional rapport with peers, the host institution, and other communities on our itinerary; and 5) pursue new insights and reference to supplement my research in Global Arts and Cultures. I had high expectations and anticipation.
On January 8, thirteen other students and I landed in Marseilles for our three-week course. Despite keen awareness of our limited time in Aix, from the first day I knew that I would gain invaluable insights from our study of the intricate nexus between art, neuroscience, and cross-cultural dimensions of our experience. Led by graphic novelist and RISD Illustration instructor Catherine Huang, Brown University Neuroscience Researcher Nicholas Tolley, staff and faculty of our host institution, the Leo Marchutz School of Painting and Drawing (LMSP&D), and guest speakers from global institutions including CNRS, University of Toulouse, and Meta, our cohort explored art and neuroscience through lectures, reading, painting and drawing studio time, tours to local institutions, and road trips to nearby cities.
On the way to our first class meeting at the LMSP&D’s Albertas Studios, I was struck by the city’s vibrant and youthful population, narrow yet spacious and constantly busy roads flanked by tall golden yellow commercial and residential buildings, flower and food markets, water fountains, scents of freshly baked pastries, and elegant and imposing centuries-old Romanesque, French Gothic, and Renaissance architecture, which blend in with modern structures. The 513-year-old Saint Sauveur Cathedral adjacent to the Sciences Po Aix campus, the Clock Tower - Belfry, and the City Hall of Aix are all on the same path we traversed every day on the way to the Albertas Studios. Given the limited traffic and preponderance of electric vehicles within the city center, you could tell that city planning prioritizes pedestrians. During the first class, each student received a backpack labeled with their names. Each bag contained two palettes, two brushes, a painting knife, paper towel, an apron, and a bottle of organic turpentine. We received a tutorial on setting up an easel, gave brief self-introductions, and presented our past work. Moreover, we learned about the history of our host institution. I deeply resonated with the LMSP&D mission, values, and vision: “to foster a diverse, engaged, and art-focused global community through a sustained investigation of the mysterious nature and aim of art.” I perceived their commitment to teach students of all ages, backgrounds, and experience levels to see into nature, into works of art, and into themselves to be closely aligned with RISD’s mission to “educate its students and the public in the creation and appreciation of works of art and design, to discover and transmit knowledge, and to make lasting contributions to a global society through critical thinking, scholarship, and innovation.”
Each day of the next three weeks was packed with new experiences. The architecture tour of Aix-en-Provence with painter Pauline Betrancourt conveyed the deeply layered history of our host city starting from its founding by Roman General Casius Sextius Calvinus in 122 BC. We also enjoyed plein-air painting sessions of Montagne Sainte Victoire and road trips to van Gogh sites in the city of Arles and Abbey de Montmajour and Abbey of Notre Dame de Sénaque in Vaucluse. Our guides regularly prompted us to reflect on the evolution of time and landscapes we visited and the experiences of countless artists who preceded us. At several occasions I contemplated and sensed joy, serenity, awe, contradictions, and revolt, which van Gogh, Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, and many others must have felt engaging the beauty and splendor of Provence while navigating the interpersonal, local, and major geopolitical complexities that marked their eras.
Other highlights included neuroscience lectures on “Embodied Sensory Perception” by Brown University Professor Christopher Moore, and “Where Do Art and Neuroscience Meet, Optical Illusions, Choice, Memory, and Agency”
by Catherine Huang and Nick Tolley, which also strengthened our inquiries into the neuroscience of perception and challenged us to imagine new questions. Last but not least, trips to Marseille where we visited the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations, Cathedral La Major, and La Friche, breathed new perspectives into endless creative possibilities that emerge from intentional collaborations between artists and scientists and other community builders.
At the end of the course, each student was required to complete a project that combined art and neuroscience concepts. Building on a mind map activity where I explored the concept of empathy and its roles in enhancing individual and collective wellbeing, resilience, and growth, for my final project, I examined how a place, be it Aix-en-Provence, or one’s home or host town in Africa, Asia, or America, can enhance creativity and intimate connections. My project also sought to investigate the historical reputation of Provençal France in fostering groundbreaking interactions between art and science. Some of the questions I asked included: what made Aix-en-Provence attract pioneers of many 20th-
century art movements like van Gogh, Cézanne, Marchutz, and countless others who went unknown or publicly unrecognized, yet whose work, effort, and passion inevitably contributed to local and global contemporary arts and scientific progress? I pursued answers by combining intentional and timed observations, plein air and imaginary drawing and painting, meditative walks, reflections, and writing. The project and Perception en Provence as a whole experience has further cemented my belief in the restorative and transformative powers of the arts, individual, cross-national, and cross institutional efforts to make the world a better and inclusive place. In addition to generating new questions for research and professional inquiries, we made new and engaging friendships, gained exposure to French culture, navigated challenges of being in a foreign country, built new professional connections, and explored new artistic and research possibilities while reflecting and practicing sustainable making and being in the world.
I remember distinctly opening my RISD email in Aix on January 13 to find a message from RISD President Crystal Williams. It was titled “Implementation of Presidential Initiative
s,” and it outlined questions like, “How can we better support and prepare our graduates for the complex and evolving world that awaits them?” I resonated deeply with her stated commitment to expanding students’ learning with care, reducing barriers across departments, thoughtfully working with neurodivergent and diverse populations, as well as successfully enabling students to pursue their desired professional paths. I couldn’t help but think how my Global course echoed these monumental objectives.
Moving forward, I am looking forward to further researching the power of art, science, and place in fostering sustainable cross-cultural exchanges. Drawing inspiration from the unique pedagogical framework of the Leo Marchutz School of Painting and Drawing, I also intend to learn from them to prepare for my long-term objective to teach art in forcibly displaced communities around the world and later in higher education. Most importantly, thanks to this course, I discovered an emerging interdisciplinary field of NeuroArts. In the short run, my research will focus on investigating how arts and aesthetics change body, brain, and behavior and how this is trans-
lated into various practices to enhance health and wellbeing. I am particularly interested in NeuroArts’s approach to “technology as a catalyst in research, interventions, and disseminating the arts in all its forms to make it part of mainstream public health.”
Ultimately, this course was transformational for me. I want to thank the dozens of individuals and institutions who thought through, organized, guided, and hosted this experience: Catherine Huang, Nicholas Tolley, RISD Global Team, the family and loved ones of Maddy Parrasch, RISD’s Global Arts and Cultures Division, Graduate Studies, and The Leo Marchutz School of Painting and Drawing.
Our pursuit of knowledge is so often individual, but so many different hands make our most transformative experiences possible.
Olivier Mbabazi is an artist, curator, and researcher interested in cross-cultural understanding.