Our Story
Founded by artist and educator Catherine Richards, Art Immersions bridges the worlds of art, design, and travel.
Art Immersions began as a collective of artists, designers, architects, musicians, and educators who came together to explore the world through making and shared experience. We believe that travel expands both the mind and the creative practice—that it is possible to make meaningful work while discovering new ways of seeing.
Our programs are rooted in the interdisciplinary and experimental spirit of the Bauhaus in Europe and Black Mountain College in the U.S., where diverse disciplines intersected to shape new forms of creative thinking. We embrace this same philosophy today: a horizontal, collaborative community where leaders and participants learn from one another as equals.
Each trip is designed as a holistic, international experience that encourages curiosity, skill building, and reflection. We value the connection between content and craft, history and innovation, the personal and the collective.
Sustainability remains at our core—from the agriturismos of Italy where our residencies began, to the cultural neighborhoods of Paris today. We ask participants to look inward as much as outward: to explore what matters most, what they need, and how their creative potential can contribute to the world around them.
We believe that learning happens everywhere, every day. We believe that travel opens the mind and art opens the heart. And we believe that, together, we can build a more connected, inspired world.
Catherine Richards
ARTIST/ DESIGNER/ M. ARCH.
Catherine is an artist, designer, educator, and creative producer whose practice moves fluidly between art, architecture, research, and cultural programming. Originally trained in architecture, she has worked internationally on museum, exhibition, and experience design, including projects with OMA in New York and Metaphor in London. These experiences shaped a collaborative and research-driven methodology that continues to inform both her artistic practice and pedagogical approach.
Her work has been exhibited in the United States and internationally through galleries, museums, and art fairs, including Frieze. Working across sound, textiles, sculpture, moving image, and installation, Catherine creates interdisciplinary projects that explore perception, memory, ritual, and the relationship between material and consciousness. Her practice often moves between scales—from wearable objects and textiles to immersive spatial environments—blurring the boundaries between the physical and the experiential.
Alongside her studio practice, Catherine develops international arts programs and residencies through Art Immersions, leading workshops and cultural exchanges in France and India. As a creative producer and project leader, she has collaborated with cultural institutions, hospitality groups, and global brands to design experiences that foster meaningful engagement, creativity, and connection.
Her work in community development and cultural programming has received national recognition and funding support, and she has founded several nonprofit and interdisciplinary creative initiatives, including Art Immersions, Hark+Hark, Modern Makers, and Bloom Studio.
Catherine is currently working on a series of publications exploring creative methodology, alternative forms of research, and material poetics. She lives and works between New York City and Paris.
Forever Curious
We are forever curious about the world. Art Immersions designs transformative journeys for creative thinkers and makers—those who believe that culture is best understood through experience, learning, and creation.
Each trip is a living classroom and studio, exploring the full spectrum of the arts through comprehensive, sensory immersion—from music and architecture to the visual arts, writing, and design. Every journey is conceived as a total work of art—alive with discovery, reflection, and connection.
We are a vibrant and diverse community, supporting one another in creative pursuit. Together, we connect cultures and disciplines, celebrating the interconnectedness of creative expression and the joy of shared exploration.
