The latest in our string of culturally enriching "learning holiday" vacation ideas: A course in making mosaics in Venice.

This sounds like the ultimate geeky-but-cool week in Italy. Studios like Orsoni will give you hammers and bits of glass and some instructions on what to do with them, and let you take your grand creations home with you after your week-long learning experience.

Since wandering around Venice now seems to have so many rules, we reckon holing up in a mosaic workshop is a good way to escape tourist-ville. Being creative is still allowed (so far).

Related Stories:
· Taking a Mosaic Course in Venice [UK Times]
· Bologna's Make-Your-Own-Dinner Vacation [Jaunted]
· More Rules for Venice Tourists [Jaunted]

[Photo: ParaScubaSailor]]]> amandak 2008-10-09T09:00:41-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/9/5/71325/06095

If you're headed to San Diego for one of two film festivals in the next few weeks, then there's something else to add to your itinerary. A new exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego features works from artists that have spent time in World Heritage Sites around the globe.

The exhibit, Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet, concentrates on the environment. For example, artist Mark Dion stalked reptiles in Komodo National Park in Indonesia. Other artists visited the Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves in Brazil and the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador for inspiration.

If you're interested in a visit, the feature is running through early 2009. Admission into the museum will cost you $10, includes access to the museum's permanent collections as well.

Related Stories:
· Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego [Official Site]
· Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet [Official Site]
· Museums coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: tunachilli]]]> kjb 2008-09-05T13:30:22-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/8/26/73349/7773

If your Labor Day plans usually involve a buffet of beer, burgers and beans, you may not be up for the Pier to Peak Half Marathon which takes place on August 31 and certainly looks like quite a challenge on paper.

Participants will start out on Santa Barbara's Stearns Wharf and will make their way up through the city. Try not to stop for photos as you pass by the Santa Barbara Mission--though you might stop in and pray for a little extra energy. The race ends when you reach La Cumbre Peak and start to enjoy views of the city and the Channel Islands while you try to catch your breath.

If this isn't your idea of a relaxing holiday weekend, then take the opportunity to visit over 40 studios during the Santa Barbara Studio Artists annual tour. A $20 ticket will get you into all the studios and a Friday evening reception, with proceeds supporting the town's arts fund. Artists on hand will be more than willing to explain their work and, we're sure, send you home with an expensive souvenir.

Related Stories:
· Pier to Peak Half Marathon [Official Site]
· Santa Barbara Studio Artists [Official Site]
· Labor Day Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Matt (mistergoleta)]]]> kjb 2008-08-26T11:00:16-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/2/18/133329/226

On the shore of the Great Salt Lake, Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty" is a huge earth and rock sculpture created in 1970. And as it turns out, it's sitting next to a big stash of oil at Rozel Point.

Art and nature lovers are up in arms about the possible damage to the shoreline that could result if bits go into the ground--even though the work site will be five miles from the sculpture. But others believe the natural (or unnatural) evolution of the site is part of Smithson's artistic vision.

After all, the Spiral Jetty was submerged for decades after its creation thanks to a rise in the lake's water level. Only recently re-revealed, its interaction with the environment is a critical part of the project. Would that make any nearby oil rigs art too?

Related Stories:
· Spiral Jetty [Wikipedia]
· Arts coverage [Jaunted]]]> pbb 2008-02-18T13:35:26-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/1/18/102234/255

Sure, Cinco de Mayo is just a few months away, but for a dose of real Mexican culture, head to the country's capital for the Festival de Mexico. In its 24th year, the festival celebrates both past and present artists, writers, dancers and architects for two weeks in March. Though the festival's current site is down, last year's site gives a rundown of the festival's events. In addition to performances by local musicians, composer Yann Tiersen (famous for scoring the movie Amelie) played a show in 2007.

Because the event celebrates Mexican culture, don't expect an English version of the festival to cater to US tourists. (So brush up on your Spanish.) Or to get a shot of Mexican creative culture at its finest--and in English--head to the Museo Frida Kahlo in the city's Coyoacan area, where they hold English-language tours daily. You'll visit the painter's home and studio and see one of the largest collections of her work in the world.

So, skip Cancun and take in one of Latin America's most architecturally and visually rich cities. The DF may have its fair share of smog, but even the thickest layers of dirt can't mask its dramatic cultural traditions.

Related Links:
· Festival de Mexico, 2007 [Official Site]
· Museo Frida Kahlo [Official site]
· Mexico Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· It's Summer Somewhere coverage [Jaunted]
· It's Summer Somewhere Map [Jaunted]

[Photo: soupshow]]]> laurenuta 2008-01-18T12:00:02-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/11/1/164650/933

Like pretty much everything else in the city, Art Basel Miami Beach is loud, proud, overpriced and decked out in white. Still, it's one of the top parties on the international art circuit. If you are a jet-setter or just want to play one for a weekend, there's no place else you should be December 6 to 9.

An extension of the celebrated Art Basel show in Switzerland, the Miami Beach version inundates 200 galleries with the work of 2,000 artists and the attitudes of countless more buyers and hangers-on. Snatching up the hottest stuff from the bleeding edge of contemporary art is important but so too is hanging around eating canapes. (Or not eating canapes, depending on whether you have a modeling contract.)

One of the best venues is "Art Positions", a collection of shipping containers set up as galleries right next to the beach. New York's PS1 is organizing the DJs, films will play under the stars and on the eve of the event, December 5, a rollicking concert will kick things off.

Related Stories:
· Art Basel Miami Beach [Jaunted]
· Arts coverage [Jaunted]
· Miami Beach Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Miami Beach Hotels [HotelChatter]

[Photo: Courtesy Hauser & Wirth, Zürich, London]]]> pbb 2007-11-01T16:50:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/10/29/161831/40

You don't have to stay at home just because the leaves are changing. Follow along on our Fall Culture Map to discover what's happening this autumn.

We ducked into the Museum of Modern Art on Sunday to check out opening day of Georges Seurat: The Drawings. The show is about how Seurat turned his formal training and his experiences in and around Paris into now-famous paintings like A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. (You'll remember it as the painting that Cameron wants to see in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.)

We picked up the little audio guide, which was free, but it didn't really add anything we couldn't figure out by looking at the drawings. Because most of the drawings are done with the same media (Conte crayon and handmade paper), you can really focus on how Seurat created his figures and scenes rather than the materials he used. There were lots of art lovers drawing in sketchbooks while we walked through.

Near the back of the exhibit hall, we discovered some drawn and painted studies for La Grande Jatte. After the drawings, we weren't too keen on the paintings, but if you're not gonna see the renowned work at The Art Institute of Chicago anytime soon, these are great substitutes.

If you get the itch to do some drawing after the show, don't buy your art supplies at the museum gift store. Just a few blocks away, Lee's Art Shop has multiple floors of goodies. Pencils in hand, head for Columbus Circle, where an always interesting cast should provide some inspiration.

Related Stories:
· MoMA's Georges Seurat: The Drawings [Official Site]
· Lee's Art Shop [Official Site]
· Fall Culture Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: MoMA]]]> pbb 2007-10-29T16:30:01-05:00 40.760683 -73.976464 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/