This is the first posting for the Arts in Ireland course offered by Wheaton College, Norton, Mass.

Fifteen students and professors Andy Howard and Tim Cunard will be spending three weeks at Burren College of Art, which is located in one of Ireland's most picturesque regions.

Professor Howard will be posting regular updates on the group's trip, complete with pictures of what they are seeing and the art they are creating in this interesting environment.

What is The Burren, you ask?

“The Burren upland region is located along Ireland's mid-Western coast, stretching across approximately 36,000 ha of north Clare and south Galway. The term 'upland' is somewhat misleading however, as the region extends from sea level to modest heights of just over 300m: it is however used to distinguish this region from the adjacent 'Burren lowland' region which extends over 20,000ha to the east. ”

“Formed some 340 million years ago at the bottom of a warm, shallow sea, the visibly fossil-rich layers of limestone that characterise the Burren have been modified by millions of years of glacial, tectonic, solutional and human processes. The result is a wonderfully rich, undulating series of swirls, tiers, cliffs, caves, hollows and bare pavements, classical features of what is described as a 'karst' landscape. The heat retention capacity of this massive block of limestone, over 700m thick in places, and the ample shelter afforded by its dynamic geomorphology, contributed to its use as a winter holding area for livestock.”