On the Move turns the city into your classroom and your canvas. Using a six-foot walking stick as both a creative tool and a way of seeing, this course invites you to explore Seattle through movement, curiosity, and experimentation. You’ll rethink what it means to walk through a city and how everyday spaces can become sites for art, storytelling, and discovery.

This is not a sit-and-listen course. Much of your learning will happen on the move as we explore Seattle’s iconic landmarks and lesser-known corners, from Olympic Sculpture Park to unexpected, hidden spaces across the city. These explorations become the starting point for creative projects that blend physical experience with digital tools, reflection, and collaboration.

Each week, you’ll work in small groups to design and lead your own walking experiences for the class. These student-led tours combine real-world exploration with virtual elements, encouraging you to think creatively about space, navigation, and audience. Along the way, we’ll watch short films about urban life and movement and read texts that challenge how we understand cities, art, and everyday experience.

No prior art experience is required. What matters most is curiosity, openness, and a willingness to try something new. Whether you consider yourself an artist or not, this course treats movement, attention, and exploration as creative practices anyone can learn.

By the end of the course, you’ll have developed new ways of engaging with urban space, collaborated on original projects, and built a more personal connection to Seattle. You’ll leave seeing the city not just as a place you live, but as a space full of creative possibility.

Learn more about the instructor of this course:

Professor Michael Swaine, Chair of 3D4M: Glass, Ceramics, Sculpture, UW School of Art + Art History + Design