Artist and student taken by us to the mountains (5)
I believe the answer is:
urals
'the mountains' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'artist and student taken by us' is the wordplay.
'artist' becomes 'RA' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'student' becomes 'l' (as in L-plates for learner drivers).
'taken by' is an insertion indicator.
'ra'+'l'='ral'
'ral' inserted within 'us' is 'URALS'.
'to' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for urals that I've seen before include "Russian mountains" , "Mountains of west-central Russia" , "Mountains of Western Russia" , "Mountains on the boundary between Europe and Asia" , "Russian mountain range" .)