Welcome students, parents, visitors and virtual friends to our travel blog to Belgium and The Netherlands.  This past fall I had the distinct pleasure to teach my First Year Seminar course Art, Politics and Power to these students and now 16 plucky first year students will accompany me and my colleague Vicki Clift on our adventure!  We will be depositing our lessons learned here for all to see, along with photos and updates.  So let’s meet the crew!

I am Lillian, the leader of this expedition.  I came to be interested in this material because one of the professors emeritus at my alma mater was Lane S. Faison, a Monuments Man from WWII.  After hearing of his incredible story, I wanted to study what happened to art during and after Hitler’s great theft of Europe’s treasures.  Now these 16 students are in the steps of the Monuments Men this January and we will go to see with our own eyes the works we have studied, the places we have read about, and the cultures that were preserved.  I am excited for a great trip!