Fashion Senior Alia Sajid's Experience: Vacation With An Artist
PCA teams up with VAWAA (Vacation With An Artist) who offers immersive one-on-one mini apprenticeships with master artists and craftspeople around the world. PCA students get discounts on their trips!
With artists in 23 countries, each VAWAA is an opportunity to find creative inspiration, learn and deepen skills, collaborate on projects with masters, and be completely immersed in a cultural experience.
Find out what BFA Fashion senior Alia Sajid got up to!
Where are you from, what department are you in?
I am from Casablanca, Morocco and a senior in BFA Fashion Design. I will graduate this May 2019.
What VAWAA program did you sign up for?
I signed up for the Islamic geometry, brass etching, and bookbinding with Hamza in Fez, Morocco.
Why did you want to do this placement and did it live up to your expectations?
I wanted to know more about my country’s art. I also wanted to link it to my senior collection. This experience helped me go deeper in my thoughts and brought out more creativity. I would’ve never imagined going to Fez and staying three days with an artisan and learning so much. It was such an amazing experience.
Has this experience influenced your thoughts about your career?
Through this experience, I realized how rich in creativity Morocco was. I was amazed by all the craftsmanship in the Medina. This influenced me greatly in my career as I am planning eventually to go back to Morocco.
What did you gain from this experience?
My mother is from Fez and before this trip I never had the opportunity to go there. By going there I felt more connected to my roots and understood so many things that I have heard during family lunches for such a long time. In Morocco, there are different craftsmanships depending on what city you are in.
I wanted to learn about the art from Fez. Not only did I learn about the art, but also about the way of living of an artisan. I was lucky enough to be the only one with Hamza so we could easily change the projects up and make them closer to fashion design.
I was in the Medina for three days and I feel that the Medina was a place where you can never stop learning. It is so immense and every time I would go in, I would find it even more amazing.
Would you apply the skills you’ve learned to your current practice?
Before going to Fez, I read about what Hamza was offering and I tried to tie it to my collection. My collection is all about where I’m from so for me, it was extremely important to understand how people live there and understand the art to have a clearer version of my concept.
Was it easy to sign up?
It was very easy to sign up. The entire process took maybe 2-3 days. The VAWAA team helped me greatly when I had any questions by being responsive within the hour.
Would you recommend VAWAA to another student?
I would highly recommend Vacation with An Artist because I feel that it’s a different way to learn more about a city’s art. Actually, making the art yourself are memories that would last forever.
