Explore San Francisco through its public art, including murals, monuments, memorials, and other works in shared spaces.
Using the city as a living classroom, students in this course will examine how public art reflects and shapes cultural, political, and social histories. The course introduces methods for “reading” public art as a form of public history and civic storytelling, with attention to themes such as migration, race and inequality, housing and gentrification, queer history, and social movements.
Through site visits, walking tours, group discussions, multimedia resources, and short reflective and visual assignments, students will build skills in observation, interpretation, and critical thinking. By engaging directly with artworks in their urban context, students will learn to connect specific sites to broader historical narratives and contemporary issues, while building confidence in articulating their insights through discussion and written and visual responses.
Dates: March 6 – 14, 2027
Course Number: CAS 2990, 3 credits
Program Fee: $3,042
Included in the Program Fee:
- 8 hotel nights
- Ground transportation in San Francisco
- Museum & activity admission fees
- 24/7 emergency support
- Some meals
Application Deadline: November 11, 2026
Itinerary Highlights
YBCA
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is a cultural hub in the Yerba Buena Gardens neighborhood that centers artists as drivers of social and cultural change. During our visit, we’ll explore current exhibitions and consider how contemporary art connects to place, time, and community.
SF MOMA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the United States, with a wide-ranging collection spanning painting, sculpture, photography, design, and media arts. During our visit, we’ll explore current exhibitions and think about how these works connect to place, time, and broader cultural contexts.
Mission District & Precita Eyes
Precita Eyes Muralists and the Mission District offer a powerful look at community muralism and the role of public art in shaping neighborhood identity. We’ll spend the day walking the neighborhood and viewing murals, focusing on how they tell stories, reflect cultural histories, and make visible voices and experiences often left out of dominant narratives.
Castro District
The Castro District is a globally recognized center of LGBTQ+ history, activism, and community life. During our visit, we’ll explore key sites and public art while considering how this neighborhood reflects broader struggles for visibility, rights, and cultural expression.
Oakland & OMCA
Oakland and the Oakland Museum of California offer insight into the region’s deep histories of activism, cultural production, and social change. We’ll visit the museum and surrounding areas to explore how art, history, and community narratives intersect across the Bay Area.
Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park is a vast urban park that brings together nature, culture, and public space. We’ll explore selected sites within the park, paying attention to how landscapes, monuments, and institutions shape public memory and experiences of place.
Cost Breakdown:
| UVM Tuition UVM Winter and Spring Break courses are part of your spring tuition bill. Undergraduates pay same full-time tuition if within 12-19 credit hours total. Graduate students pay by credit hour. | For students enrolled in 12-19 credits: $0 For students enrolled in more than 19 credits: Additional per credit hour above 19 (see rates) |
| Program Fee Includes accommodations, group ground transportation, activities, entrance fees, and some meals. The amount billed to you by SFS on your Spring bill reflects the program fee minus $450 (non-refundable deposit) which you will pay upon acceptance. | $3,042 |
| Total Billable Amounts (paid to UVM): | Tuition + $3,042 |
| Estimated Out of Pocket Expenses Meals not included in the program fee, supplies, ground transportation not included in the program fee. | $300 |
| Airfare Estimated from BTV to San Francisco. If you will be departing from a different airport, your costs may be lower. Estimated with 1 carry-on bag. | $1,200 |
| Total paid Out of Pocket: | $1,500 |
jen berger (she/her), Program Leader
Lecturer, Department of Art & Art History
jen berger is a socially engaged artist and educator based in Vermont. Her interdisciplinary practice, spanning printmaking, performance, installation, and mixed media, explores the intersections of art, care, and justice, with a focus on collective grief, participation, and belonging. Grounded in decades of experience in social movements, her work connects research, artmaking, and community engagement in public and shared spaces.
In 2019, she founded At the Root, an LLC that supports site-specific projects, printmaking workshops, community collaborations, and public installations that foster dialogue around social and political issues. Since 2020, her practice has increasingly expanded into larger-scale public art, examining how art can function as a form of care within public space. Alongside her studio and community-based work, she is a Lecturer in Art & Art History at the University of Vermont.
Mary Burke (they/she), Program TA
Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology
Mary Burke’s areas of specialization include gender, sexualities, and social movements with an emphasis on LGBTQ social movements and queer politics. They are currently working on research related to gay bars and queer spaces, and thus are the perfect fit to support a course in San Francisco!
Their work appears in Sociological Forum, Advances in Medical Sociology, New Sexuality Studies, The Marrying Kind?, and Race, Gender and Sexuality in Post-apocalyptic TV and Film.
Mary received their B.A. in Sociology & Anthropology from Western Connecticut State University and their M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies, from the University of Connecticut. Before coming to UVM, they worked as an instructor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at the University of Connecticut.
Still have questions?
Email cas.discovery@uvm.edu — our team would be happy to assist.
