Carol Ann Marketing Co. of Bartlett, Ill., purchased 13 paintings created by 10 students and three faculty members who spent three weeks studying, drawing and painting last summer as part of Ball State's "Art in Italy" program. The works will be displayed in the firm's offices.

Participating students, plus art professors Marilynn Derwenskus and Sally Myers, agreed to donate their paintings to Ball State. Each artwork sold for $100 and all of the $1,300 has been put into a scholarship fund to be used to provide money to other students on the next Italian art study planned in 2001.

Students created their initial sketches and plans for these and other artworks while still in Italy, explained Derwenskus, who team-taught the six credit-hour international painting/drawing course with Nina B. Marshall.

Much of the students' work was created while staying in a 16^thcentury monastery in LaRomita, converted in recent years to an art studio. Located in the hills of the province of Umbria far from Italian tourist spots, the students were able to concentrate on the landscape, people and culture that surrounded them, Derwenskus said.

"In my opinion the ambiance of the location was the best way for students to study and to really meet up with Italian culture," she said.

Nearly each day the students would travel to surrounding small towns in the hills to draw or paint.

Other highlights of the trip included traveling to larger cities, including Rome, Venice, Siena, Florence and Ravenna, to study the architecture, visit art museums and continue sketching.

On returning, the students were required to expand on their sketches to create more ambitious works.

Selected works were shown in an exhibit during the 1999-2000 school year. The majority of these works were purchased by the Illinois firm.

By Nancy Prater, Web Editor

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information about this story, contact Derwenskus by phone at (765)285-5919 or e-mail at mderwens@gw.bsu.edu.)