When you use your cultural passport to visit a museum or another site of interest, take along a notebook and pen. The purpose of these visits is not only to enjoy the site but also to reflect on what you observed and discovered. Take notes as you go. Focus on the architecture of the building (what is it like when you enter? how is the place constructed? what do you notice about the light, the exhibits, the people who are present there when you are, etc.). Report to us on what you visited, the name of the exhibit and where appropriate, the name of the artist, and then choose one work from the exhibit to write and think about in greater detail. If you are drawn into the work, tell us why. What excites you about it? What do you notice about it? What does it make you think of? Or conversely, if you find yourself not liking the art (or sculpture, or photograph, etc.) tell us why. What do you not understand or what do you dislike about the artifact? What pushes you away from it? Conclude by letting us know what you learned by going to this venue. Try to describe your experience by using the present tense as in “I am standing….I notice…..The people are…..I feel….I think…..The work is organized by…..The artist plays with……” Have fun.
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Nayra and I went to the American Museum of Natural History, back in September. The place was great. I had been there once before, but I never seemed to enjoy it as everyone else did. For the first time in a long time, I went to the museum, and I was able to see how much of it I really liked, and how much didn’t.
There was a giant jellyfish hanging from the ceiling. I was so interested by it. Just the fact that it was there randomly hanging from the ceiling when you walked by (right in the Hall of Biodiversity) made it interesting. I think it caught my attention because that really is what I’m into; marine life. In that hall, that was the only part that actually interested me besides the huge, fake, rain forest that was there.
The whole time I was there, going from room to room, it felt like I was in a whole different world, because of the way that it was organized. Loved most of the exhibits, but definitely not all of them (some were really boring).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLr4xbrpE5E
link to the pictures that we took.
Last Saturday, I went to the King Tut exhibit in Times Square. It was incredible. The exhibit provided beautiful artifacts found in his tomb in 1922, by Howard Carter. It also gave a history lesson, allowing me to learn more about King Tut and Egypt in general. (Now added on my list of places I would like to go.) He ascended the throne in 1333 BCE, while still a child. During his brief reign, (about 9 years) he restored the traditional gods. The things found in his tomb were beautiful. Onks (representing “life”), jars, chairs, jewelry, etc., were on display. One thing that fascinated me was the vibrant colors that are still as vibrant as if they had just been painted. Soon everything is going back to Egypt – forever, so if anyone is interested in viewing these incredible pieces of art that were made thousands of years ago and transported all the way here, one should go before its too late! http://www.kingtut.org/about_the_exhibition
In September Diana and I visited the American Museum of Natural History, an experience that made me feel very glad to have Macaulay’s Cultural Passport…
As we came off the subway the already saw some artwork. Mosaic images of different animals made out of tiny tiles could be seen all over the subway walls. I had never been to the museum and only knew it from movies, so being there was actually a very nice experience.
We found our way through the museum by looking at the floor plans. We planned ahead and made sure we had visited every room and hall in the museum. We actually accomplished to go into every room that was opened (since some of them were closed for renovation). By the end of the day our feet were hurting and we were closing our eyes in the subway, but we had had an awesome experience at the museum.
The museum is HUGE (we can tell you that for sure, since we walked A LOT!) and what I thought was fascinating was how we were transported to so many different places without getting out of the museum. We went from Medival Europe to South American Indigenous groups, from small islands in the Pacific to the different planets in the solar system.
As pass different exhibits we see different people passing by. There were older couples that might probably be visiting the museum for the third time this year, but there were also young kids going with their parents to a visit that left them as fascinated as I was. The thing however that changed consistently from one room to another was the light. Every room was lighted in a different way, adding to the mood of the place, culture, or object that room focused on. In the Hall of Gems, ceiling lights are very low, while most of the light is on top of the gems, making them shine even more then they naturally do. On the other hand, in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life the lighting is bluish, making you feel like you are inside an ocean – since the animals you see in the exhibition are life-size.
The Hall of Ocean Life was in fact where I found the piece of work that I was most drawn into: a life size model of a blue whale that hangs down from the ceiling of the hall. The whale caught my attention not only because it made be think of the animal itself, but also because it is a work of art that probably took a long time to get done. On the museum’s website it’s possible to learn about the history of this hall: http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/ocean/04_history/?area=history
Unfortunately we were not able to see the outside of the museum, since it was under construction at the time we visited, but I plan on going back to find out…
The Museum of Natural History is a great place to visit and can provide fun for people of all ages. There are many interactive activities in many rooms. And for those of you who have iPods and iPhones, they do have an app with the floor plan of the museum….
Me, Cesar, Rael, Micahel Tal, Catherine, Cecibell and Alex Torres all went to the Guggenheim museum back in October. The experience was enlightening as I had never seen any kind of modern art before other than random public statues around the city. The very architecture of the building was amazing, an oddly shaped disc-like building. the art was to mean enigma, (some of a bit off-putting) but it piqued my curiosity in such a way that I wanted to ask the artist what he felt at the time he was painting. Overall the experience was fun, a little short though as the building was undergoing renovation.
So Nayra and I went to both the Museum of the City of New York and El Museo del Barrio. We went on the same day because they were right next to each other. The day was well spent. We took pictures of the Museum of the City of NY but not El Museo del Barrio because it wasn’t allowed. Both were very interesting, and they were small. My favorite display was that of the dresses; they were beautiful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiO48rBBHTU
I recently went to the Brooklyn museum to see an exhibition on Norman Rockwell. The exhibition was called “Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera” because it was a study of his paintings through his photo references. Rockwell is one of my favorite artists because I think that his illustrative ideas mixed with his painterly photorealistic style makes for very interesting pieces of art. I also like his tendency to add strange and offbeat elements to his compositions. This exhibition was especially interesting however, because next to each of the paintings were a few photographs that Rockwell took and carefully composed himself to study for his paintings. It was really interesting because it took you inside his creative process, which is fun because he does such strange things sometimes in his work. My favorite section from the exhibit was his painting called “Shuffleton’s Barbershop” and the photograph it came from. It was an interesting photograph to begin with, of a dark empty barbershop with a few men playing instruments in a back room. Rockwell painted the room and the forms almost exactly but he added the front window of the shop and added a violinist. It turned the quiet somber black and white still photograph into a lively barbershop scene illustrated in paint.
I went to a great performance by the chambers group at the main Macaulay building. It was a great musical performance that I really enjoyed. Two of the pieces that they played were written by students, so it was definitely a unique experience. What made it even better though was the fact that one of my friends from Macaulay was part of the group, and she even had an entire, almost 10 minute solo part. When watching a performance done by a friend, or someone you know, it is a completely different feeling then what it is like to watch complete strangers. It gives it a much better feeling, and it is much more important and personal to you.
I went to the Guggenheim in October and in all honesty none of the pieces of art really stood out to me, however the architecture of the building to me was amazing. I loved how the building was like a huge circle on the inside and one floor kind of flowed into the other, it was truly beautiful and I would definitely go back again just because the architecture was extremely beautiful to me, and I am a very large fan of architecture.
Last Thursday, after I finished the majority of my finals and my sister fully completed her semester, my sister and I went to one of our favorite museums to relax a little. The American Museum of Natural History was one of the first museums I visited after coming to the US and each visit always leaves me in awe. From the giant dinosaur, to the life-size blue whale in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life to the Origami Holiday Christmas tree, I just love being in that museum. Also, the fact that after getting accepted to Macaulay, me and my fellow Macaulay classmates were welcomed by Dean Kirschner in the museum in late March, makes the museum special to me. That was the first time I realized how happy I was that I got accepted to Macaulay. Anyways, this time, after looking around the usual stuff, my sister and I decided to look into the gems and the minerals. So, we went to “The Harry Frank Guggenheim Hall of Minerals and the J.P. Morgan Hall of Gems.” Let me tell you, these cave-like halls, with the plethora of minerals and gems, with so much diversity in color and shapes is absolutely breathtaking. I just loved the differences in color and textures. The ways some of the rocks were cut out is amazing and the patterns found in them are just awesome. I wish I had the ability to obtain some of these gems and make my own jewelry out of them! It was so interesting to see how while some of the minerals sparkled in the light while others had a dull texture so that there was no shine. I loved this gorgeous wine/yellow colored topaz that was on display and the central display: a huge Azurite/Malachite ore that is mostly gray with aquamarine colors splattered around. The different types of minerals and gems showed me the diversity of our planet, in terms of climates that lead to these beautiful pieces. These halls were definitely worth seeing and I probably will end up in the museum again, sometime during this break.