You are expected to visit at least four museums and post your descriptions here. What did you notice? What stood out most? What would you tell others about this museum?
Here is a list of museums accepting the Cultural Passport
For Free
American Folk Art Museum
The Asia Society & Museum
Bronx Museum of Arts
Brooklyn Museum
International Center of Photography
The Jacque Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art
The Jewish Museum
Museum of Arts & Design
Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
NY Botanical Gardens
NY Hall of Science
NY Historical Society
NY Transit Museum
Rubin Museum of Art
Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum
South Street Seaport Museum
Whitney Museum of Art
Requesting a donation
Museum of the City of New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Botanical Garden
I visited the Botanical Garden along with a few other Macaulay peers, before I even knew that it was mandatory to visit 4 places so I only took a lot of pictures rather than notes. One of my favorite things about the Botanical Garden is that it’s so much like how NYC is; you can’t finish it all in one day. It’s also a pretty diverse mix of greenery like pastures, meadows, lakes, and even mini forests and rocky terrains. My only complaint about the Botanical Garden is that you can’t really visit during the winter because from what I can see it’s all outdoors and nothing indoors. Also I had wanted to look at the flowers in the garden as we walked but because of a huge swarm of bees I couldn’t even get a glimpse of them. I would like to go again just so that I can stare at flowers and sit to contemplate about life or something on one of those rocks.
The MoMA
It wasn’t like the Metropolitan because while I liked certain parts of the MoMA, I just couldn’t GET others. Nevertheless, I am glad that I went because of the few things that did strike me as cool or thought provoking.
After I got into the museum, I wandered out into a courtyard sort of place. I proceeded to take pictures of things that interested me. As I reached the end of the courtyard I noticed a sign saying “Material Lab →.” Curious as to what experimenting and creating with materials meant, I went into the “lab” since it was open to all ages. It was basically a hands-on kind of playroom in a sense. I even made my very own piece of art by rubbing color pencils onto things like shells, and stencil paper to make colorful outlines. I’m no great artist but after I was done it looked pretty good.
Then came my favorite part out of what I saw at the MoMA that day: Carlito Carvalhosa’s exhibit “Sum of Days.” It was like a maze of soft fabric. What intrigued me wasn’t the complexity of the maze because it was a pretty easy maze. The exhibit had these microphones and speakers hanging from different heights and levels. The microphones captured the chatter and buzz of the crowds that passed throughout the exhibit and different floors. Then the speakers played out those sounds starting from the oldest sounds to the newest. As the new sounds were recorded the old ones ceased to light whispers until they disappeared. It made me really emotional for some strange reason. It gave of the idea that you can’t hold to the past and had to keep moving, which I realized was something I didn’t like.
I highly recommend the MoMA to everyone, you just might find something that catches your eye.
Guggenheim Museum
I went to Guggenheim after I went to the Met yesterday (I visited the Islamic art section!!! Highly recommended!!!) There was a swan-song exhibition of Maurizio Cattelan, the very first artwork, and the last I saw as I walked up the swirly building. Basically, almost all of his artworks were hanging like a mobil right in the middle of the building. It was his first retrospective work. It was humourous (a pope struck by a meteorite) but also quite grotesque (all human figures made of wax, animals figures taxidermied.) There were pamphlets and iPads in the museum that explained the stories behind every single hanging figure which tremendously helped me understand the artwork. For example, there was a huge marble statue of the middle finger. Cattelan had installed it in front of the stock exchange building in Milan. The artist claimed that it was not meant as an insult. (whatever). Also, there was a taxidermied white cow with its horns replaced with vespa handles. Cattelan had planned to exhibit that figure in New Delhi, India, but the customs in Indian airport had their papers delayed, not because it was religiously offensive, but just because paper works get delayed in India all the time.
There were two other exhibitions. One of modern artists like Cezanne and Van Gogh, and the other one was dedicated to Kandinsky. I’ve seen Cezanne and Van Gogh’s work before at the Met and the MoMA, so I spent more time at Kandinsky’s exhibition. The exhibition room displayed the sketches Kandinsky had to produce this one painting “Painting with White Border.” It was amazing. I never even imagined modern artists gave so much thought to what most of us, the uncultured ones, think is garbage. I remember from some documentary that Jackson Pollock would spontaneously splash paint on the canvas, and somehow I thought every modern artist is Jackson Pollock. How dumb of me. There was also a small screening room where a man read out the essay of Kandinsky on how he painted his work. I don’t think I ever had a modern art explained from first-person perspective before.
The only drawback of Guggenheim was its lack of artworks. I was disappointed to find only two “small” exhibition rooms at the monumental (and also quite enormous) building. Maybe that’s because I visited the Guggenheim right after I went to the Met. But, it definitely is worth a trip. After all, we can go there for free!
TO GIONA: you are BOUND to find something that catches your eye at MoMA 🙂 I heart MoMA, too. (and, the halal right outside MoMA.)
YES! I did find something Hansol 😀 and….in complete agreement the halal <3 <3
I visited the museum of arts and design on Friday and really enjoyed it. It was a somewhat small museum that was designed vertically so you start on the bottom floor and work your way up. The museum is made up of contemporary art, everything from sculptures to jewelry. On the first floor, there was a lot of handmade jewelry. There was some very elegant jewelry that just seemed way too nice and extravagant to ever wear (which I guess is why its in a museum) as well as some very unique pieces, such as a necklace made from matchsticks and cigarettes, and another made from wool. There were also some funky modern sculptures, and it was interesting to read about the artists and their influences. There was this one that just looked like a regular sword, but when I got closer I saw that the hilt of it was made of tiny people, I guess representing all the people that had been killed with the sword. One of my favorite pieces was this wall-sized sculpture on the second floor, and it was made to be a humorous twist on renaissance wallpaper but it was made out of plaster and the artist molded a lot of it from things like baby dolls and miniature toy animals. It is hard to describe but it actually was very intriguing. Another was this sculpture of a bucket with fish spilling out of it and the fish had images drawn on them. As first I was confused, but then I read the description, and the artist explained that he really enjoyed fishing and he made this to represent what he was thinking each time he caught a fish. The fourth and fifth floors were dedicated to portraying sort of the beginnings of contemporary art, and how it started and who it was started by. I thought it was cool to learn about how the new style of art formed, but I didn’t find any of the pieces as interesting as the ones on the floors below. Overall, I thought this museum was, as a reviewer on Yelp put it (yes I did check the reviews on Yelp before visiting), a hidden gem. I definitely recommend it!
Botanical Gardens: I visited the gardens twice and thought it was a little overrated. I hypothesize that its because of the season that made the BG not as amazing. Simply the flowers were not blooming and most gardens were under renovation. I did enjoy the vast open space, something that seems rare in the Bronx let alone in New York City. I liked some of the flower gardens, their shape and it made me appreciate nature a lot. I loved walking around the forest area cause I felt the fresh cooler air that one does not experience in the city – it reminded me of New Jersey and the suburb air. I enjoyed seeing the ponds and getting lost in some areas and finding out new places in the garden. I wish more than the grounds would be covered by the Macaulay pass, for it only covered walking around the park and that’s it. I wish I went inside the some of the buildings but was not able to. If you want fresh air forget Central Park, come to the botanical gardens which is ten minutes East of Lehman College.
New York Transit Museum: I would recommend this museum to anybody interested in the subway system of New York City. It brilliantly gave nice plaques that explained how the first subway line was built and it went through the history of the subway. It was so cool to see NYC subway maps from early times like the 1930s and on and on. I liked walking around the first floor (all underground – an old subway station converted into a museum!) but the exciting part was when I went down another flight of stairs where the real excitement was. There were life size actual subway models. I really loved to take a “time machine” back when subway cars ruled the 19 hundreds and so on. There were so many models and the fact that you could enter each and everyone and sit in those seats and see the adds inside was just cool. Which brings me to my most favorite part. The adds were the coolest ever because they were originals back from the day whether it was 100 years ago or later. It gave me a sense of what life was like then and how companies and businesses targeted their consumers and what was accepted. Some of the adds were hilarious an some of them had references to communism and Hitler. All in all I RECOMMEND this museum to anyone who wants a glimpse of New York’s past.
Guggenheim Museum: What the hell? This was my first impression of the museum as I came into the big circular room. At first I was going to climb to the top but then realized it would be much easier to take the elevator to the top. I loved the concept of putting inverting the exhibit. When I go to a museum I expect to have to go to different rooms and see different items. This was inverted going from top to bottom items suspended on different levels. I really thought that was a good job: maybe this is sending a message that it is possible to put a whole entire museum while using very minimal ground – have everything suspended while going around it on a ramp. I realized the concept after I descended some of the levels. There were some wacky items on display: my favorite was the long foosball table hanging. How many people could play on that thing 20? My question was answered when I saw a black and white photo next to it that showed two teams of 8 people (8?) at the table. Some other crazy stuff I saw was a long shopping cart, and a praying Hitler and a dead John F Kennedy in his coffin. There were a couple of rooms that displayed painting which were also bizarre yet somewhat fascinating. If you want bizarre this is the place for you – I thought it was more bizarre than the modern museum at the Smithsonian in Washington DC.
Tim Migliore
Natural History Museum: The museum we were not able to pay a donation or use a cultural passport but had to pay for it. In any case I think in the end the money was totally worth it because we saw so much of the museum. It was such a great experience because the last time I was there was 5th grade of elementary school (they took us every year from 1-5 grade) and it was like déjà vu all over again. It was great to see the planetarium and the space exhibit (which did not seem to change from what I can recall).
-We visited the dinosaur section and it was really good, but not as amazingly spell binding as I remember it to be. This is probably because as a little kid, one is fascinated by dinosaurs: such creatures of size and strength, inspiring to any child. But now that I have outgrown my childhood years they are not as impressive. I thought it was fun to become a paleontologist by digging up dinosaur bones in the sand box area, although I got tired of it quickly but someone else in the group seemed to be obsessed with it. In any case I realized that I don’t want to sit on my knees and dig and brush up fossils all day. But it was an experience in of itself.
-The animal exhibit was amazing however I thought it was a bit cruel. I mean you capture an animal and instead of doing something with it, you stuff it and put it on display! That is so barbaric, but I got over this feeling quickly as I saw more and more animals seeing them in a graceful standstill as though I was looking at a photo but a three dimensional one.
-The geological section was quite interesting with all the crystals in the rocks. They were so beautiful and I wonder why humans are so intent for gold when there is much more beautiful things out there. I love the colour purple crystals in the shiny brown rocks (or whatever the scientific term is). I thought it was spectacular and it showed how wonderfully amazing and diverse this planet is.
-All in all I enjoyed the trip to the museum. We got the museum at 1:30 but we stayed till the very end (to the point where they announced that there was ten minutes before they were closing the museum down).
This afternoon I made an impromptu visit to the Cloisters. If you haven’t visited the Cloisters, you are missing a hidden gem beneath the concrete city. Provided that it is hidden in one of the most beautiful parks in Manhattan, the Cloisters is one of the most beautiful museums you could visit. Fort Tyron Park can only be described as an extension of a movie set. People filling it’s sidewalks enjoying the site; everyone enjoying with a small story to tell. I stood beneath the trees as they dropped each of their leaves for the upcoming winter. While people watching, I began to make up fictional stories for each passerby. Two notable (and extensively detailed) stories were depicted about the one woman passed her prime and a man right in the dead center of his life. Each came to this same place, to see this beautiful imagery for a reason we will never quite know.
Even though I just rambled for a couple of sentences, I did actually go into the museum. I visited the museum in the past, and unfortunately I had the burden of handing in an assignment about it to my art teacher. This time, my friend and I walked aimlessly through the museum asking, “left” or “right” at each junction. We’d amble through the museum, lingering in front of paintings and sculptures. My favorite piece of work of art I saw this time was “The Game of Kings.” In the center of the room sat medieval ivory chessmen from the Isle of Lewis. In the 1830’s, ivory chess pieces were carved out of walrus ivory. Although it is an incomplete set, they are the most famous set of chess pieces in the world today. I just started my interest in chess, and the ability to see chess pieces, which are about 200 years old, was a fantastic experience.
New York Transit Museum
I visited the museum with Alison, Daisy and her cousin, and Steve on Friday. The entrance to the museum was cleverly set up to resemble the entrance to an underground subway station so I was already interested in going down. The museum itself had an antique feeling to it which parallels where and when the subways were built. I learned about the history of the construction and as well as the history of the workers. The lives of the immigrant workers were very depressing because the working conditions were poor and they were risking their lives just to work for a few cents a day (compared to the minimum wage today). The process was basically blowing up the rocks that were in the way and slowly removing them to create a tunnel. I got the chance to try and lift a wheelbarrow full of rocks which was quite heavy so I was amazed that they can push 50 of these wheelbarrows or more a day. Many of the workers were breathing in poor air and their bodies were subject to high pressure which led to a disease which was caused by the fact that the blood cannot flow properly at such high air pressure. There was another section on energy that showed the different ways we receive electricity everyday and I enjoyed how that helped you process the path from the power plant to an everyday building. The most fascinating part of the museum was experiencing the subway system in the 1900s. I saw how the turnstile evolved over the years from simply wooden ones to the modern steel ones which accept metrocards compared to coins. On the lower level, the museum put on display all the subway cars that ranged from the early 1900s to the present so one can see how the colour, the seating, the ads and the cooling system changed over decades. I particularly liked the earliest car that needed to be pulled by a steam train because it had a nice maroon colour on the outside and the inside looked straight out of a old mystery film scene. There was little lighting and the seats were made of wicker-like material which were by the way very comfortable compared to the present-day plastic seatings. The ads were funny to watch because they started out to be simple and subtle but they have now become flashy and complex in terms of design so they kind of reflect our role as consumers. All in all, the museum is worth coming to as Tim suggested because we take for granted our subway system and it is also nice to see how New York was built because the MTA connected all five boroughs together physically.
On Friday, November 18, I visited the NY Transit Museum with my cousin, who’s visiting from Albania, and a bunch of classmates. There’s a lot to say about this amazing place, I enjoyed being there so much. Seeing all the photos from the late 1880s of people tunneling under the city and constructing todays subway system was very intriguing. I saw pictures of men covered in dirt, looking weary as ever after a long day of working. I saw what looked like giant caves in the ground from where they planned to lay down tracks. The images were really ghostly!
The best part of the museum, however, was the bottom floor. The museum had actually once been a train station, so they had a bunch of different cars from different eras lined up on the tracks. I felt like I was actually walking into the past. I sat in so many different seats, imagining all of the different people who sat down right there to make their daily commute to wherever and wondering if they were still alive today. I wondered if they would feel nostalgic if they sat in that spot again, and if I would feel nostalgic if I saw the train cars of today in that line-up.
My favorite train car was the one from the 1920s because, as I am obsessed with HBO’s ‘Boardwalk Empire,’ I felt like I was in one of the episodes of the show. It was really too cool and I recommend it to anyone who hasn’t gone yet.
American Museum of Natural History
On Saturday, I visited the American Museum of Natural History as well as the Rose Center for Earth and Space which was accessible by the museum. The two interesting exhibits were the one on dinosaurs and another on African animals. When I went to see the dinosaurs exhibit, I was amazed by how the fossils were displayed and I was able to see how majestic each dinosaur was compared to myself. The exhibit provided short descriptions on how each of their body parts matched their function and I was able to visualize their body part in action. There was also a timeline that focused on the evolutionary paths of each specie of dinosaur and I got the chance to see how the modern specie had ancestral roots from various ancestral species of dinosaurs. For instance, I saw a dinosaur that had a massive shell on its back and it resembled a turtle but it was ten times larger and carried a shell that was ten times heavier. I was shocked by the similarities but I was more shocked by the fact that there was a replica hovering over the visitors looking through the window. The presentation of the dinosaur fossils was breathtaking overall because the features of each dinosaur were displayed in detailed and the fossils got me to wonder about how they were actually discovered and puzzled together. I even saw artists sitting down sketching the dinosaurs from different angles which to me would be a very intimidating task. Ultimately, I expanded my knowledge of dinosaurs beyond triceratops and tyrannosaurus.
The African animals were fun to look at because they were portrayed as life-like as possible while acting as if they were in the wild. Hence, there was a scene that was created between ostriches and wild boars and the ostriches were shown as larger compared to the small boars. They were defending their nest full of eggs from the several wild boars looking at the eggs hungrily. The exhibit did a great job in creating the emotion of each animal and exposed the dramatic aspect of animal relationships. The background to each window was also created as natural as possible do whenever I moved from one window to another it felt like I was a guest in a different “home” and ambiance. The lighting and setting was different such that one window can portray an environment near a river and in plain sun while the other can portal a surrounding in the midst of the jungle with little lighting. The most odd event that I noticed was one woman dancing bare feet on the lower level of the exhibit and I pondered if she was dancing to the inspiration from looking at the animals or to a tune in her head.
The Earth and Space Centre was very nice to walk through because the light shined nicely through the crystal like structure and there was a lot of space to explore the different happenings of our universe. I saw massive stars and planets hanging from the ceiling and the description told us the star’s name and showed us its location from the sun. I also read about different shaped galaxies that exist other than our spiral-shaped milky way universe and the complexity of the different universes struck me because it felt like there are still many grand reactions that are yet to be discovered and described. There were also weighing scales on the ground that allowed visitors to weigh themselves if they were on one of the planets in the solar system and the weight changed according to the amount of gravity which is a little fact that I learned intensively in physics. It was interesting to see how heavy I was on Jupiter compared to on the Earth.
Overall, the museum definitely has a lot to explore and features the history of our natural environment in a very appealing and interactive way. I admire how the curators were able to set up such exhibits that teaches up about the natural world and how it has evolved over time.
The first museum I visited was the Guggenheim. I saw an ad on the subway displaying a new exhibit at the museum I decided to go and see it. The exhibit is called “All” by Maurizio Catalan. Essentially, Mr. Catelan suspended many large an seemingly random objects from the ceiling of the Guggenheim. I noted seeing a coffin, a tree growing out of a box, a skeleton, a hand displaying the middle finger, a hanging suit, a newspaper article, and the Pope. The exhibit was breathtaking to see up close as I walked higher and higher up the circular ramp in the Guggenheim. The museum was packed out and very loud, so I couldn’t observe the art properly. From what I gathered, the piece was very original, somewhat offensive and racy, and an incredible display of artistic talent and logistical skill. Bravo!
Next, I traveled up museum mile to my second museum, The Jewish Museum. I had never been to the Jewish Museum and didn’t know what to expect. I walked through a door on the first floor to a photography exhibit done by the New York Photo League
between 1936-1951. All the photographs were in black and white and contained typically New York themes and Jewish urban life. I particularly liked the pictures of Harlem that showed kids playing stick-ball in the middle of the street. I focused on a picture taken by Lisette Model that showed a stocky old man in the Lower East Side, probably when the neighborhood was bad down there. The photo reminded me of one a high school friend of mine took in my black and white photo class at Beacon. Overall, the museum’s photography was surprisingly well composed and thought provoking.
I visited a third museum, The Museum of the City of New York. I hadn’t been to this museum in almost seven years so I thought I would see how it had changed. There were many different types of black and white photographs that were similar to the ones I saw in the Jewish Museum. The subject of the photos ranged from skyline shots to portraits. Then I viewed another photography exhibit titled, The Twin Towers and the City by Camilo Vergara. The photos were in color and reminded me of the ones we saw at the International Center for Photography. The exhibit did not stand out, for me, because they failed to capture the raw emotion that some of the other photographs captured. I also loved to see some of the old-fashioned furnishings and antiques from 17th century New York City. In some ways, it wasn’t much different from New York today.
Finally, the last place I visited with the cultural passport was the Hall of Science. I went with my younger brother to have some fun. I went there in seventh grade and I wondered how my perspective of the place would be. As I thought, there were several schools that visited the Hall of Science (on a Friday) and as a result, there were lots of kids running around and the experience was rather chaotic. However, there were so many different items to observe that I found a way to have a lot of fun. I went to the science playground, which cost an additional four dollars because the cultural passport only covers general admission, and experienced some of the cool science playground exhibitions like the static electricity slide and the massive seesaw. Overall, going to the Hall of Science was a great way to top of the museum-visiting project for the cultural passport. However, the ride out there on the 7 train was very long!
NYC Transit Museum
When we arrived at the transit museum we entered through the stairs that resembles the subway entrance on the street. As I descended down the stairs, I could tell it was a fake due to its cleanliness. There was no graffiti on the wall, there were no unidentifiable substances on the floor, and the area smelled clean. When we first walked in, we thought that the whole museum was near the front entrance with all the information about the construction of the subway system. As we reached the end of informational walls, there was my favorite part of the museum. The ElectroCity. There was a whole section of the museum dedicated to explaining all the energy sources. There were explanations of fossil fuels, nuclear energy, solar energy, wind power and hydroelectric. It explained each of the types of energy so kids to understand and interact with the walls. (And there was a lot of spinning shiny things). I loved how they influence kids to be interested in new possible alternative energy sources. One of the sad things that happened, however, was that the museum closed at 4pm. We only were able to spend 5 minutes looking at the transit museum. It was a great museum and everyone should definitely check it out.
Rubin Museum
At LaGuardia High School, my art history teacher spent only one week on Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Indian art. Although the Asian countries have a much longer history than most of the world, we spent the least amount of time on them. The Rubin museum focuses of the Himalayan arts, and has some of the most intricate artwork I’ve ever seen. My favorite part of the museum contained the Legends and Myths of Himalayan arts. Apparently, the Himalayan region focused on narrative artwork. There was one section of the museum that had 3 walls with very large paintings. In front of each painting was a handheld speaker. I went from one speaker to the next and listened to the stories the Himalayan artwork expressed. Structurally, I believe this was the best decision the museum made. Although artworks like these require a lot of time and attention, a speaker can help the viewer understand the painting as a whole as well as specifically. The paintings were huge and they conveyed many different human acts and religious ideals. Without the speaker, I would feel completely lost among the paintings. The Rubin Museum is a beautiful haven of Himalayan art.
MoMA
The first thing I did as soon as I got my Cultural Passport was to visit MoMA. O, how I longed to visit her. I had been craving to go to MoMA, but I knew I could go there for free if I waited a little longer. The waiting was absolutely worth it.
I could smell all the modernness from the entrance. The high ceiling, somewhat distant whiteness in the interior, unorthodox structure. I was already skeptical of its modernness and yet-to-been modernness it would present me. I mean I had wanted to go to MoMA so bad because: 1. every tourist must go there, myself included; 2. I heart Van Gogh; 3. I needed an excuse to go to the Halal place. O, well. I was there for free. I gave it a try.
I started with the garden of statues (I forget what its actual name). It had interesting statues, and I saw a few that I wouldn’t mind having in my living room. I took an elevator up to the sixth floor. There was some special exhibition going on only open to the members, sadly. So, I was bumped down to the fifth floor and worked my way down from there. There was a round concave mirror in hundreds of hexagonal segments like a fly’s eye. I could see myself in the hundred hexagons each in different angle and perspective. And, of course, there was my favorite painting of Van Gogh, “the Starry Night.” Everyone else had to love it so much, it was more crowded than other paintings, sadly. The gallery dedicated to Monet’s “Water Lilies” was breathtaking. Its massive ingenuity, beauty… How did Monet have all those smooches of colors together and transform it into water lilies, into a beautiful work of art? I am always amazed by artists’ ability to see what a commoner like me cannot see. I also noticed the tall, narrow windows in the MoMA building were located in a way that the outside view somehow matched the artworks inside: where there were impressionist artworks, the view I see outside would be expressive with decorative buildings; where there were minimalist artworks, the buildings I see out the window would be very lined and rectangular. The last artwork I saw was Carlito Carvalhosa’s “Sum of Days.” It was a huge thin white sheet suspended high from the ceiling. People were to go through the sheet set up in labyrinthine manner. The material was so thin that it was constantly, yet calmly, swaying with the people going through the artwork. There were little speakers hanging from the ceiling, too. I think there was supposed to be a light music accompanying the sheet, but the place was too noisy and echoing for the light music to be heard. “Sum of Days.” What an appropriate title.
I really miss the MoMA. I want to go back there, again and again and again and again. In case you haven’t been to the MoMA, you absolutely must, must, must.
Bronx Botanical Garden.
I went there with a bunch of other Macaulay students on a random day. The weather wasn’t too cooperative. Gray and cloudy. It was interesting. There were gardens, hills, green grass only a few minute walk away from the waterfall and mountainish jungleness. It was a peculiar combination. O, the things humans can create. There was nice little bird zoo thing, sadly only for little kids. There was a special rose garden thing on. To everyone’s surprise, the garden smelled nothing like roses. We were trying to figure out what was that funky smell that was overpowering already faint rose scents. We realized it was the manure.
It would have been much nicer if we had gone on a nice sunny day. I think Botanical Garden should be open for free so the people in the Bronx can enjoy the nature, too. I’ve been realizing the only people who go Botanical Gardens are people outside the neighborhood. I often see people going to and from the D train station and the Botanical Gardens wearing the green “G” stickers. It’s so obvious that they are not from this neighborhood just by looking at the way they dress, for example. And, because there was so little people in the Botanical Gardens, it almost felt very unwelcoming and deserted. Maybe it was just that one day when it had only a few visitors because they do hold events similar to farmer’s market. Maybe the Bronx Botanical Gardens attract more people on those occasions.
It found it strange, over all. It had that park-like environment, but it felt very distant. Nobody was on the grass, nobody was enjoying the nature. People were just walking on the pavement, and minding their own businesses like they would anywhere else. Botanical Gardens in the Bronx needs some work done because otherwise it is all going to a waste.
Bronx Zoo
Although this was not on the cultural passport, I decided to go to the Bronx Zoo. The last time I was there was in elementary school for a class trip. I remember it as a magical place straight out of the movie. When I went this time, it was just as nice as I remembered, but with virtually no people there. It’s a shame that such a wonderful place gets hardly any visitors anymore. Hopefully it was just due to the cold weather.
The animals at the zoo were so interesting. As a kid, I just looked at the animals and thought they were “cool”. This time, I actually read a little bit about each animal I was looking at, and I actually learned about the animals. The best part of the day was when we got to see the african lions. We witnessed them roar on the top of their lungs, which we were told was a very rare occasion by the zookeeper. Overall, it was a great day.
American Museum of Natural History
This is my fourth and last museum visit of the year. I wish I knew about this assignment earlier, so I could have visited more museums earlier this semester when I had less work load.
Anyways, I went to the American Museum of Natural History this afternoon. I think it’s just a wee bit smaller than the Met. I wanted to see everything, but I obviously couldn’t. I saw four rooms: the sea animal room, the land animal room, the dinosaur room, and the planetarium.
I love the ocean and sea animals. It was amazing. The room was so immensely deep blue and the creatures were so big that I got a little bit scared, especially in front of the replica of a sperm whale fighting with a giant squid. That section was darker than other parts of the room, and it was a portrayal of two huge creatures in agressive mode. Who wouldn’t be scared? The huge blue whale in the middle of the room was just jaw dropping. It really could easily swallow me! I was most impressed with the deep water sea creatures. They were just unearthly. The little notes next to the replicas were so helpful. I hated reading them as a little kid, but I loved reading them now. I guess that’s partly because I appreciate the nature more than I did as a kid, and also because my vocabulary has enlarged. The second room I visited was the land animal room, the African animal room, to be more specific. There were variations (I say variations because they look similar to my ignorant eyes) of gazelles (although there were actually no gazelles in the room.) They all had such beautiful stripes, majestic pairs of horns, and benign eyes! I realized the African tribal facial decorations were inspired by the patterns on the animals. That was neat. The dinosaur room was just very humbling. The size of those creatures and how they all vanished! The last room I visited was the planetarium. I loved how the facts were explained so simply and understandably. They screened short documentaries on black hole. I only got to watch last few minutes of it, but it was so interesting that I was willing to wait for the next cycle to come back. Unfortunately, they played different documentaries… This museum made me say “that’s so cool” so many times that eventually I wished I had better phrase to express my astonishment that “that’s so cool.”
I would definitely revisit this museum because I missed out a lot. It truly was an educational experience.
MTA Transit Museum
I visited MTA museum with Alison, Daisy, Harry and Daisy’s cousin. I did mess up there because I spent too much time on the initial portion that was 1 level above ground. I saw a lot of the initial conditions when the subway was made. I was really surprised at the toughness and the risk with the job. Since there was cheap immigrant labor, the wages were suppressed to very low rates. I was surprised by the weight of the heavy load that people had to carry. To think they had to carry it so many times a day just tells of the real difficulty with the train. Aside from that, the second exhibit on energy really stood out where there were real models of different energies like wind, nuclear, and solar power. While relatively simple, they suggested a future methods for energy required for both NYC and the subway system. I believe that the biggest attraction for others would be the lowest level of the museum, where I saw how subway cars changed through time. It was preserved perfectly with old advertisements from the 1960s where smoking was popularized. I will admit that some of the older trains’ couches were more comfortable than the plastic ones used today. They had real cushions!
Rubin Museum of Art
I visited Rubin Museum of Art with Alison. It is a multistory museum with varying exhibits on different sections. It looks very grand from the inside but is slightly confusing so I had to ask around for directions. The paintings in the museums were all very good, and there were guides explaining some of the facts. The mini-shrine containing Buddhist and Tibetan art was extremely interesting. I actually stood observing for about five minutes. The mini-shrine had three walls, and was like an open room. There were countless paintings and statues of Buddha and Bodhisatvas in the center wall and on the central altar, respectively. Moreover, there were offerings of rice placed on the altar. On the left side is another table with paintings of Buddha and other statues. On the right were the pictures of many Tibetan Gods and Goddesses. There were some deities who looked ferocious and powerful, in complete contrast to the Buddha statues that reflected a serene outlook. The lighting was a dim yellow and it almost brought a religious feeling with the ancient music. I thought this is a great museum that everyone should visit. The collection is not too large or too small.
Museum of Natural History
I visited the Museum of Natural History with Tim and Karem. Sadly, they charge full student fees so cultural passport will not help. However, others will be eligible for a student discount. Aside from that, the museum was a very large place. This is my second visit to the museum this year. In this visit, I was truly excited with just the vast amount of information in the building. This seems to be a larger version of the museum of art just because of the varied topics it covers. This was the first time I ever saw the exhibit of other extinct mammals. The fossils are preserved so perfectly and assembled with great care. There are even fossils of ancient rats in the exhibit. Aside from that, I was happy about the large supply of information. I learnt newly of giant sloths that stood almost twice a person’s height and could walk upright. The large sloths were hunted to extinction by the arrival of human beings.
Along with this exhibit, the special show we bought was a Special Dinosaur show. It was a private exhibit costing $5. While not as attractive as $5 one on stars, it provided a wealth of information on the sauropods including their extremely efficient breathing systems and their size.
I would say that this museum, while expensive gives the bang for your buck as you can easily spend a day in that place and watch an IMAX movie (only 10-15 minutes) for only $19. The information makes it totally worth it.
Today Daisy and I went to the American folk art museum. While it was much smaller than I expected it was very well laid out. There several rooms of quilts and each had a thorough description, but I was surprised that there were no other exhibits in the museum. The best quilt by far was the national tribute quilt which was made by the steel quilters. It is 8 feet tall and30 feet wide and is made up of 3466 squares. It is a tribute to the events of September 11, 2001. Each 3 in. Square is dedicated to a person who died in the attack.. The central panels form a montage of the twin towers, and are flanked by panels dedicated to the lives lost in the planes and the Pentagon. I felt like I could have stared at the quilt for hours. It was so unique and sentimental, and it made the trip to the museum worth it. The other quilts were very intricate and impressive as well- some of them were almost hypnotic in a sense. Overall this was a worthwhile trip (mainly because of the 9/11 quilt) but I do wish there had been artwork in the museum.
After creating a project for snapshot day, Taylor and I decided to visit the cute little American Folk Art Museum. Expecting to find a menagerie of art forms, we were actually enclosed in wide loft with quilts of various designs hanging everywhere. It was definitely not what we expected. The quilts were actually very beautiful and intricate, my favorite being the Bull’s Eye Quilt from Berks County, Pennsylvania, made around the time 1900-1920. I loved the reds and whites used in the circles and the deep blue surrounding it. The flowers in the corners were a nice detail too.
The quilt on main display, called the National Tribute Quilt, was very touching. It is constructed of 3,466 blocks of quilt from all over the world that form a montage of the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the New York City skyline. Each block bore the name of one person who had lost his or her life in the tragedy.
Museum of Natural History
I decided to go to the museum of Natural History because I haven’t been there in years and it is only a few subway stops away from where I live. I completely forgot how much I love that place. Right when I walked in I remembered 5th grade, and how excited I was to be there and check out the exhibits.
I got to check out the outer space exhibit, along with the biodiversity exhibit and the ocean life. The biodiversity was awesome, because it showed the evolution of creatures and how many weird species there are in this world. Also, how we still are unaware of many species that live on the Earth. My favorite part of the museum, though, was in a hallway between the food court and the outer space part. There were pictures taken on the moon of astronauts, the emptiness in space, and the sun. It was inspiring to see the sun from the moon.
I didn’t get to check out the whole museum because it is huge, but I will definitely go back when I have a chance.
Bruce Museum
Although not on the cultural passport, I decided to go to the Bruce Museum in Greenwich because my cousin was working there. Not knowing what to expect, I found out that it was mainly an art museum. The main exhibit we were at was the American Impressionist Landscape gallery. What was cool about it was that it was mostly Connecticut artists from the early 1900’s. My favorite piece of art was a painting called Spanish Ledges by Childe Hassam. Childe Hassam was a famous painter who lived in New York. He was known for painting urban and coastal scenes, two very opposite settings.
Besides the gallery, I enjoyed a nice day with my cousin and we got to catch up on life. The museum was ok but I am not really into the whole gallery thing, I am more interactive.
I visited the Jewish Museum today, which is free using cultural passport. The museum focused on the works of “New York’s Photo League.” Led by Sid Grossman, the New York Photo League took pictures of the streets of New York Cities, Southern villages and many more places.
While in the museum, I was drawn to two pictures. The first one is titled “Spaghetti 25 Cents” taken by Ida Wyman in 1945. This was a picture of an Italian restaurant, where ladies were “invited.” The caption read that “Ladies Invited” meant that women were allowed into the restaurant without a male escort. I think this put a very chronological perspective to my understanding of the feminist movement because of the restrictions they experienced during that time.
Another striking photo was taken by Joe Schwartz titled, “Slums Must Go! May Day Parade,” taken in 1936. The picture featured 3 women, 1 child and a man, where they were protesting poverty in the US. The child held up a sign “Products of the Slums,” while the rest of the members held up “Crime,” “Disease,” Death,” and “Poverty.” In the background stood a horse cart and a horse where a sign read “Horse and Buggy Days are Gone Slums Must Go.” Although the poverty was a lot worse at that time, I am still reminded of the Occupy Protesters, who are protesting the rise in poverty in the nation, while the rich are getting richer and inflation reduced wages.
What stood out the most was the quote by Aaron Siskind, where he states that “I was a natural for a communist because I was Jewish.” It is interesting how anti-Semitism in the US depended on their supposed “Communist” label, while persecution in the USSR was based on their supposed support for “Capitalism.” It sheds light on Antisemitism in the US although the Photo League was leading the US to a more progressive era.
I think the Jewish Museum is a great place to visit to get information on Jewish Artists. It provides invaluable information about Jewish participation and success in Art.
The best view of the American Natural History Museum is at midnight as you stand in front of the north entrance on 81st street. From this view, you are able to see the entire planetarium. It is lit with this vibrant blue hue, projected from the bottom half of the sphere. Although it was midnight, and it was cold, I stood on the street for just a small amount of time staring at its magnificence.
I’ve been to the Natural History Museum for years ever since I was a kid. While this is true, I’ve never seen it in the night. Even if I walked past it at night, as a New Yorker, I have a tendency to walk with my head staring towards the floor. Sometimes when you forget to look up, you miss some truly spectacular things.
Inside the museum, it was just how I left it. The taxidermy still has his job. The blue whale still hangs over innocent young children. And I walked through with the same fascination as I did as a kid.
There is something wondrous about the wealth of information at the Natural History Museum. There is no way one person can gain all the information presented from all the exhibitions in one day. Hansol and I were walking through the oceanic section. I didn’t expect to spend too much time there, because I’ve seen the blue whale – what else was there. There was so much fascinating information on sea creatures from the deep sea to freshwater. We spent an entire hour and a half walking around beneath the whale.
I wanted to show Hansol the gem exhibit because it’s my Mom’s favorite section. I think I have a negative connotation attached with the gem room due to the extensive amount of time I spent in that one exhibit. I mean, how long can you actually spend looking a gems? For my Mom, there is no time limit. But this time, something caught my eye. Not the diamond, nor the gold, but the opal. There is something so mysterious and beautiful about opal. It isn’t just one color or one shape; it changes due to the light and the environmental conditions in which it was created. It was uniquely beautiful.
Similar to any museum visit, it ended with back pains and a quiet exhaustion of the mind. But overall, it was a great adventure, and a great way to finish my last museum visit.
The Bronx Botanical Garden
This was a fun and interesting afternoon that a few fellow classmates and I decided to go to on the notion that it was basically across the street from school (basically meaning a 20 minute walking distance). So we went there, and after much walking, we made it to the botanical garden. It was a really nice place, filled with rich fauna and lots of mosquitoes… lots of mosquitoes. So we walked around, I figured out a whole new system of measurement referring to Jordan, we walked next to a river, saw a waterfall, saw a garden within a garden (and Joseph Gordon-Levitt), saw many trees, saw the potential setting for a Blair Witch movie, and saw a tram type thing that costs an absurd amount to ride. After healing from the millions of bites to the face, I really enjoyed the Bronx Botanical Garden and hope to return soon… preferably when the mosquitoes are hibernating.
New York Transit Museum
It was a random Saturday and I decided that this was as much a time as any to go to a random museum recommended by two friends. It was a pretty cool experience for me as a New Yorker. There were tons of stories before I got to actual trains and actual train stuff, like one about a man who was in a tunnel collapse and got sucked upwards and shot into the air above the river. Of course, getting to see the different train models was something else (on a tangent, am I the only one noticing emergency cords disappearing from subway cars). They had models from multiple eras, though I was for some reason fond of the wooden cars that were likelier to catch fire… those are not related. They felt less sterile than what we’re heading towards now; grey cars with gray seats. I don’t know when we’ll part with the yellow and orange seated cars, but I might be a little heart broken.
The Museum of Modern Art
Thank you Stephanie for making this trip more fun. Anyways, I got up and went to the MoMA to meet Stephanie. We looked at various paintings, and there was an exhibit of fresco artist Diego. There was also the one, the only (drum roll) Starry Night, by Van Gogh. It was really amazing to be standing a mere 2 feet from the master piece. It was amazing. This wasn’t my first time at the MoMA, and it probably won’t be our last.
The Guggenheim
I did this on the same day as the MoMA, which I found out was a bad idea for reasons of fatigue. So we did the Guggenheim by starting at the bottom and working our way to the top, even though it would have made far more sense to start from the top and work our way to the bottom, but we didn’t realize this until we were halfway up. Maurizio Cattelan’s installation is a fairly impressive sculptural collage. Really, it is. It really works well given the space. Unfortunately, the rest of the Guggenheim is largely unremarkable, except for a portrait section. It really failed to impress me, and came off as a large gallery that they decided not to fill. It isn’t very interesting…except for the installation… best installation ever.
The Museum of Modern Art
The museum of modern art was such a great experience. The inside of it is very modern looking and the different rooms attract your attention in different ways. There was a sculpture that portrayed a woman that has fallen down on look back with such a painful expression that one can feel the agony in her face. The sculpture is seated on a bed of granite over a small pond and it reminds me off the hellenistic sculptures that were made in Ancient Greece because the facial expression was so heavy on the audience. Another exhibit that showed rows of televisions being turned on and playing different videos on their screens was a different way to view the influence of technology on art. Each television screen was one of the several that formed a conglomeration of a dancing piece that seemed lively and jumped out at you unlike the 2D paintings. This piece also reminded me of how television is so common in our lifestyle that we see a series of televisions together as art. Lastly, A Starry Night by Van Gogh was breathtaking to see because I only see it through replicas or videos and photographies and when I noticed it up close there was a liveliness about the colour blue that mixed into the town itself. I enjoyed how it united the sky and the earth in a soothing mix of colours.
The Guggenheim
The shape of the building first stood out to me because the way it was circular did not make me believe that the inside was just as geometric. When I first went in, I saw a giant mobile of hanging pieces of work of art that together symbolized a bigger picture. As I climbed up, going round and round this huge mobile, I examined each piece and realized it was portraying life as well as pop culture in a very abstract way. For instance, I saw a man dressed in a business suit laying flat on his face on a bed and I guessed that it was commenting on how life nowadays is far from exciting and happy but depressing in a way. This is especially apparent with the children having by nooses around these depressing stages of life so it was interesting to see the life in the country side with farm boys and horses all hanging about mixed in with the urban life. On the outskirts of the mobile, there were also another exhibits. My favourite one was the one that showed works of art that had really contrasting colours and patterns in them such as retro and polka dots. There was also a giant mural that made it seem as if the audience was looking into a gallon of paint with all the colours of the rainbow because red, yellow, blue and green were mixed like flavours on an icee cone. Random marble effects created a memory like effect on viewers so the mural was both shouting out and quiet in its own way. My least favourite exhibit was one that I have seen several times in another art galleries and the works of art are basically at its most simplest form. Giant two-dimensional rectangles of one colour were lying about on the wall or standing but it seemed as if artists try to make the ordinary stand out just because art has become progressively full of abstractness. There was also a graph paper type painting which was just a white piece of board that was divided into four and no signs of effort were made to make it look more than a rigid surface. The structure of the building was very interesting and climbing to the top of the mobile was satisfying especially after being able to ride the elevator down to the lobby.
I went to the MoMA and the Guggenheim Museum with Lucas and Harry. I loved nearly everything I saw, particularly the Yoko Ono exhibit, “Eye Blink” and Dieter Roth’s Solo Scenes which depicted the daily mundane activities of an artist through about 125 television screens. It was incredible to look at; each television box showed him flipping through a book, looking outside a window, etc. It was phenomenal!
Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ work, “Untitled” (Placebo) was both powerful and beautiful. Torres set a sea of silver candies onto the floor in masses. From far away, it looks as if it is a sea of molten silver lava, or a clump of silver gems. I was blown away when I peered closer and discovered that they were actual candy wrappers! It had an incredible significant meaning behind it, as well. The candies represented the growing AIDS epidemic. People were encouraged to take a candy if they’d like, representing how the number of AIDS victims fluctuate yet are still at large. It was beautiful.
Monet’s Water Lilies was utterly beautiful; I couldn’t believe I was standing in front of it! Lucas and I were especially blown away by Van Gogh’s Starry Night; we spent a good ten minutes staring at it. We wanted to hurry over to the Guggenheim before it closed so I wasn’t able to find the piece I really wanted to see (Dali’s Persistence of Memory!!! and Rene Magritte’s work which is apparently not in view) I will definitely be taking a second visit. As soon as finals are over!
Despite the general consensus, the Guggenheim wasn’t disappointing to me. I was surprised to be greeted by the sight of hanging sculptures and a giant trunk of a tree, but it was the good kind of surprise. I love hanging exhibitions, so I was already immediately fond of it. Our feet were killing us, though so it felt like forever going up the spiral. I felt like the empty wall space could have used in a more practical way, but I suppose the main exhibition is hung and hanging things on the walls could take away from the experience. Lucas, Harry and I grew tired of walking so we stopped at the little galleries and saw Tim and Jordan’s doppelgängers. After that little break, we went up the spirals and saw a number of fascinating objects: a giant sculpture of the middle finger, Hitler being hung on his knees, police men hanging upside down; a giant tree; various dogs and pidgeons, as well as the famous man from the subway ads (who looks remarkably like Steve Carell!) It was fascinating, though we did get a little creeped out by the little drummer boy who was mechanically drumming. Overall, I liked the exhibition and would love to come again.
I visited the Met for a second time, since I didn’t get a chance to appreciate the other exhibitions. I mostly focused on Egyptian art, since that was the topic I was studying in my Anthropology/Archaeology class. My favorite place in the Met has always been the Temple of Dendur in the Seckler Wing, though I also love the European paintings area and watching artists draw in their sketchbooks in the courtyard with all of the Roman/Greek statues. I also always make an effort to visit the American Wing every time I do go since the stained glass in that section is my utmost favorite (!!!).
I also visited the Hall of Science, which is only about 15 blocks away from where I live. I visited several times as a child, but it was a long time since I went. My favorite part is still the giant bubble pans, but I recently came to appreciate the musical physics area. It’s fascinating how the positions of metal poles can produce different sounds! The virtual arm-wrestling machine still beats me, though. I need to work on that.
Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
It was a rainy Wednesday. But it was a pleasant walk from the subway station to the museum. I went to the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in order for background information on the Holocaust. I didn’t expect to be so overwhelmed by the visit. I’ll admit that I had very a limited amount of information considering the Holocaust. A few details like the genocide of the Jewish people and the guilt of the Nazis was common knowledge. The museum taught me the life that was lost because of the Holocaust
One the of the photos that struck me the most was of a starving boy who was lying on the street. The caption read “…a six-year-old boy lay gasping all night, too weak to roll over to the piece of bread that had been thrown down to him from the balcony.” As I read that caption, I could feel my eyes starting to water. I sat on one of the benches and watched a video until I calmed down. The child on the ground in the fetal position. The children (most probably German) walking by with only a glance at the boy on the ground. That one picture summed up the feelings that surrounded the Holocaust for me. There is no question of forgiveness for those who reduced that child to that state.
On Saturday, December 10th, my family and I visited the NY Botanical Gardens. My sister recently got a job volunteering there so we all decided to visit one day as a family. It is a completely different experience being there in the winter than in the spring. Personally, I find it so much more beautiful when the trees are blossoming, but the bare branches had a sort of eerie beauty to them as well. It was pretty cold so it was hard to trek through the entire place, but we got to see the holiday train show, with the miniature trains traveling throughout a model NYC in the past. It was really beautiful; the details and lights on the bridges were magical.
Botanical Gardens
Going to school blocks away from the Botanical Gardens, of course I had to go there. Going to the Bronx Zoo previous to this trip, I appreciated the different types of living things around us much more. As humans, we tend to see of ourselves as the most dominant living thing, and everything else is second nature. We believe that since we have the most mature brains out of any species, the rest of the species don’t matter at all. The Botanical Gardens made me appreciate the beauty of plants in two ways; how they look and how they live. It was nice walking through the gardens because of the natural beauty of it. But it was also a way in getting in touch with nature, something we tend to forget to do, especially living in New York City.
This weekend, I visited both the Natural History Museum and the MOMA. I couldn’t use my cultural passport for the Natural History Museum (which was a bummer) but it was definitely worth the money! I thought the dinosaur exhibit was fascinating. The main sight was this massive dinosaur reconstruction- one side of the dinosaur was normal while the other side was sort of cut away so you could see the inside of the dinosaur. Also, there were real dinosaur bones which were incredibly massive and very cool to actually see up close. There was also this glass case displaying the amount of food a dinosaur would eat in a day, and the amount was really astounding. The exhibit was truly overwhelming, and it is hard to grasp that those animals really did exist once upon a time. I also really enjoyed the space exhibit. As a kid, I loved to read children’s books about space and this exhibit really brought me back to that time of my life. But I also learned so much about the future of space travel and where technology could take us over the next few decades. This exhibit was equally as humbling because it reminded me how we are just one little speck in the universe and there is so much out there that has not been explored. Overall, I really enjoyed this museum and I definitely plan on going back when I have more time. It is just too big to enjoy in one day!
I was, I’ll admit, reluctant to visit the MOMA because I am not a huge fan of modern artwork. However, my sister (who loves any art) convinced me, and I’m glad she did! I was most interested in seeing Van Gogh’s Starry Night because I learned a lot about it in humanities in high school and have always wanted a chance to see it. We learned about Van Gogh’s life and the inspiration for his painting and his impasto painting style and it was fun to be able to know these things while viewing this work of art. My teacher always told us that we had to see it in person, that we wouldn’t truly understand the painting until we saw it in person, and she was absolutely right. It was pretty spectacular…better than I expected and I am so happy I finally went. I felt similarly about the Monet exhibit, because he was another artist that I studied in humanities. It was fun for me to view the artwork I already had some background knowledge about. Water Lillies was really spectacular. I loved the colors and (surprisingly) the abstract nature of his images. Also, I wandered through the Diego Rivera exhibit, which I liked as well and wish I could have spent more time in. The MOMA is another place that I will definitely want to go back to.
On Saturday, December 10th, I visited the Museum of Modern Art with my boyfriend. It was the second time I’d ever been there, and it was just as beautiful as the last time. Though I am not such a huge fan of abstract art, I found many of the things in the museum to be intriguing. One I found especially peculiar was the wall of dairy product caps lined up in columns. I don’t think I understood it correctly, but it reminded me of the symptoms of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder. There were giant helicopters suspended from the ceiling, which is always awesome. I also some works by Andy Warhol, specifically the portrait of Marilyn Monroe which I love so much. My favorite thing in the museum, however, was the large white room filled with a display of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies. The way they had lined up the paintings next to each other so that it flowed across the room was really magical, I felt as though the pond surrounded me. I felt very at ease in that room, I always love to visit it.
Botanical Gardens
I went on the trip to the botanical gardens at the beginning of the semester. There were wide open spaces full of grass, trees and even a river/stream. The most memorable part was the beautiful rose garden. There were so many different types of roses and they had weird names like “rosa strike it rich”. It is amazing to just see so many beautiful parts of nature and wide open spaces near the city. It is a completely different feeling than being cramped in a subway or walking through manhattan on a saturday during rush hour.
Moma
I also went to the Moma. There was a september 11th exhibit where they showed plastic models of the twin towers and how the landscape of manhattan developed. There were also plans of how it might have looked. To see everything organized into small land plots and grids come nowhere close to describing New York city.
At the same time there was an exhibit on military simulations. There were video games simulations titled “serious games”. Tanks seemed to be driven in the middle of desert and mountains.I think it is ridiculous to think that a video game can prepare someone for war. It was a clean and plain old fashion style video games, it wasn’t very graphic.
there was another simulation where soldiers and actors were put together in fake town. There were bombings and attacks (all part of the simulation). Still the soldiers seemed very relaxed, i don’t imagine that happening in an actual battle field where the enemy is unpredictable and trying to kill. During, this simulation the actors and soldiers held normal conversation together and they seemed like friends. It is just another example of how cruel war is, none of these simulations can get across and actual situation where an enemy is after your life and anyone that you befriend is also under that constant danger.
It was interesting to see an exhibit about 9/11 and war simulations right next to each other, considering how closely related they are.
NEWS:
U.S. War in Iraq Declared Officially Over
About two weeks ago I made a visit to the Botanical Gardens, and it was very relaxing. It was rainy, cold and dark when I went so I spent most of my time inside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory at the train show. The artists who created the exhibit only used natural elements that are found in plants. It was so creative and beautiful. The lights were pretty and the replicas were so detailed. The exhibit featured a lot of famous New York places such as Yankee Stadium (the old one), Bridges, the Statue of Liberty and many more. It also showed a lot of the older, and more elegant, buildings that still remain in the city today. The building had a nice pool of water and it felt like I was in a fairy-tale forest; the train show was magical!
I’ll admit it, last weekend I did a museum marathon. I knew I shouldn’t have waited until the last minute but I did get to see a lot of good exhibits and it was a nice break from studying for finals. My first stop was the Guggenheim.
I enjoyed some of the paintings, especially some of the pop art pieces by Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol because they were so vibrant and eye catching. The main thing that really stood out to me was Maurizio Cattelan’s “All” exhibit. A bunch of art pieces were hung from a circular panel on the rotunda above by white chords. I felt like I was staring at an overwhelmingly large wind chime. It was beautiful as a whole collection, but I wouldn’t describe the individual art pieces as beautiful. They were much more visceral than that and “beautiful” is too simple a word to use. I felt like Cattelan was trying to make a statement about death since there were a lot of dead, or dying animals in his pieces. I also noticed a lot of references to the holocaust, so maybe that had something to do with the Jews being treated as animals, but I might not be interpreting it correctly. I tried to find a common theme, but the only thing connecting the art, aside from them being composed by the same artist, was the huge circle it hung from. I found this exhibit to be very intimidating, maybe it was the size or maybe some of his pieces were just eerie.
Next I went to the Museum of Modern Art. I’ve been to the MoMA several times, and each time I love it! The one exhibit I chose to focus on at this museum was September 11 because we spent time on 9/11 in the beginning of the semester. Whenever I see art about 9/11 I always feel very uneasy and uncomfortable, and this exhibit was not an exception. It really explored the aftermath of the attack and it just felt very solemn.
The last museum I visited was the American Folk Art Museum. I decided to visit this one because it was right near my old high school but I never actually went to see it before. I was a little surprised because while I didn’t really enter with any expectations it was surprising to see a museum of quilts and other knitted things. There were other things that I assumed to be relics from the pioneers’ time and those were interesting. This museum wasn’t my favorite and it didn’t really interest me too much, but I do appreciate all the time and effort it must have taken for the curators to acquire these pieces and the quilts looked comfy!
The Museum of Jewish Heritage
The Museum of Jewish Heritage was deeply emotional for me. I had been to the Holocaust Museum in D.C. and the two turned out to be pretty similar. Walking through the halls and being almost drowned in the terrors of genocide, I near had to use one of the exits to get ahold of myself and relax. I think after this visit, I am done going to Holocaust museums for a while. I’ve had the desired horrific experience in order to remind myself of these injustices, and I think I’m set for a few years at the least. It is sort of like drinking egg nog. You drink it every so often when you get the urge to, but any more than that just kind of makes you sick.
The Met
This time at the Met, I spent most of my time in the furniture section. I truly had a wonderful little time in there. Seeing the aristocratic furniture from the Victorian era was my favorite. Odd, angular, and cooky, I wondered why people don’t have stuff like this now. Maybe rich people still do, but since the birth of the assembly line, the common man’s possessions are all identical. That sucks! The world I was wandering through was all so unique and aesthetic. Everyone’s living room must have looked different back then, as everything was made by hand, locally or even by it’s owners. Maybe I’ll learn how to make my own furniture. I doubt I will though, because it is so easy in this day in age to go to the store and buy a crappy, mass-produced table for pretty cheap. Curse my weak, human will-power!
The Moma
The Moma was great! I got a chance to see some Pollocks and that is something I have been very anxious to do since I came up here. I didn’t realize how big they were! And when you see them on that scale, you really see why he created such a stir in the art world. I got to see Basquiat, whom I’m also a huge fan of. His paintings were large too and in person, the painting just pop out at you. Other than those two, I just sort of found myself meandering around. I remember imagining a future in which people look back on the art in the Moma a “classical.” I’m sure they will at some point, and I wondered what “contemporary” would be for them. There is no telling with art. It seems to change so rapidly.
The Museum of Natural History
Honestly, the dioramas kind of freak me out. Yes, they are well done, certainly artistic achievements, but I’d almost just rather go to a zoo. The room with the blue whale is my favorite. I laid under it and backed in its enormity. I felt an odd sense of comfort in being under the belly of this ghostly entity. I felt protected. I even think I fell asleep down there. The place is a maze and it took me like forty minutes to find the bath room. And even longer to find the exit. It was nice though. It was nice to see human interpretations of the natural world.
The first museum I visited was the Jewish Museum. On the way to go to the museum, I found many children walking toward the museum with their parents, and I wondered why many children are visiting it. When I got into the museum and looked around, I found why. There was Jewish artist Ezra Jack Keats’ exhibition, titled ‘The Snowy day and the art of Ezra Jack Keats’. There were Keats’ artworks, created based on a children’s story he wrote. The place for this exhibition was decorated like a preschool classroom. His artworks were very interesting. He drew some characters and he attached some materials such as colored clothes to his drawings to decorate it, instead of painting it. Each artwork was labeled with its title and quotations from fairy tales he wrote, and characters and surroundings of the paintings were very well described according to the story. I felt like I was looking at the illustrations of children’s book. That was why there were many children in the museum. I saw many parents reading a children book to their children. When I looked at all the artworks of Keats, I felt like I became a child again. This exhibition was my favorite.
The second museum I visited was Whitney Museum of American Art. It had an exhibition on real and surreal paintings. Because I did not know much about this genre of art, I could not know how to understand those artworks. What I found from all paintings in that exhibition was that paintings with surrealism had very vivid colors and lines are very straight as if there were drawn with rulers. Also they had scenery of something that can be seen in daily life such, as streets and buildings. The artwork that I found most interesting was Terror in Brooklyn 1941, drawn by Louis Guglielmi. In this painting, there were some old buildings with signs of real estate along the street, and some women, seemed very horrified, were confined in a glass ball. Most horrible thing about this picture was blood on a building’s wall and the pelvic bones hung on the wall. A description was written that this paining shows his characteristic combination of a surrealistic aesthetic with symbolic social commentary. This horrible but meaningful painting was my favorite artwork in Whitney Museum of American Art.
The third museum I visited was the Museum of the city of New York. I liked Cecil Beaton’s exhibition. Cecil Beaton is a British photographer and designer. As a photographer, he worked with many celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn, so it was fun to find some pictures of the actresses I know. He featured much fashion photography. I enjoyed looking at the pictures of models and the dresses that shows the trend of that era. He was such a good designer, too. The wallpapers he designed were on the walls of the exhibition hall. (I don’t know whether he intended to make wallpaper with this design or curators featured his design on the wallpaper.) Red roses were printed with some patterns on a black paper. I liked the ambience his design gave to the whole exhibition hall.
Lastly, I visited New York Botanical Garden. It was such a bad decision to visit it in December. I wanted to see beautiful gardens with flowers and grasses, but it was winter that the beautiful garden I expected cannot exist in nature. I could only see some withered trees. I found some interesting places such as children’s adventure garden, but I could not enter because my Macaulay cultural passport did not afford the ticket for this place. I also find a big Christmas tree. That was the only thing I could enjoy in the garden. The botanical garden was so huge that I could not go every place on a day. I want to visit it again in the spring.
The American Museum of Natural History was an unexpected destination. I hadn’t planned on going to this museum. In fact I had thought of visiting either the Cloisters or the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. But in the end i went to the AMNH.
There was so much to see that I knew I had to choose something and focus on that. I wandered around the ground floor while looking at the brochure and the signs. My caught the Hall of Human Origins; the subject was an intriguing one: us. Humans are somewhat of an oddity in that we are able to think and act rationally. What struck me the most about this exhibit was the part about what makes us humans. Language especially is so unique to us humans. A world without language is unimaginable. Just thinking about how we evolved from gesturing language to spoken and written language is just mind-blowing. I feel like we can’t even grasp just how important language is, until we lose it. It’s one of those things you don’t think about; you take it for granted.
I would recommend this museum to any and all because you’re sure to find something that interests you. Also I plan on going again during this break, perhaps this time to the planetarium!
Museum of Arts & Design
I went to the Museum of Arts & Design. They had an exhibit called “korean eye”where the artists tried to use unconventional materials to recreate conventional subjects. Everything stood out but the first thing i saw was a sculpture of minotaur. It was made out of tire rubber and was around six feet tall. Then there was a sculpture of a woman whose clothes were made from a material that had photographs printed onto them. It was colorful and beautiful.
Another exhibit was “Beauty in all things”which has japanese art. It is mostly pottery, tapestries, and small sculptures. What stood out for me was a small japanese tea ceremony room. It was like a small tent made out of Linen, indigo, Japanese paper, aluminum; dye, and lacquer. The colors (indigo and white) gave it a calming effect. I liked it so much that i wanted to keep it. This museum is for “art and design” so a lot of the artwork actually fulfilled a purpose like the pottery and the tea ceremony room. Because of that, I did hear other people talking about how they loved the artwork and wanted use it for their home.
I would recommend seeing the korean eye exhibit because it is so creative and eye catching. I really enjoyed going to this exhibit.
Rubin Museum of Art
I went to the Rubin museum and saw their exhibits on tibetan and himalayan artwork. Both exhibits held traditional/religious (buddhist) paintings and sculptures. I saw small sculptures of deities like Ganesha, Lakshmi, and Saraswati as well some religiously important humans. The best part of the exhibit was the tibetan prayer room. It was created to look like the prayer room of a very wealthy person. It contained sculptures of so many deities and the “seven offerings” of the religion. The lighting was dark and a deep “oooooooom” sound played through the room. I was intimidating at first because of the large number of sculpture eyes looking at me but after that i could see how a person could feel very calm and close to their god in that room.
The only problem with my visit was that I did not have enough time to see the four other exhibits in the museum.
With the cultural passport, I was able to explore the following four places: New York Botanical Garden, the Islamic Gallery of the MET, MoMA, and the National Museum of American Indian.
New York Botanical Garden- It was a chilly yet somewhat shiny day when I went. Most of the leaves changed colors, creating a vibrant fall scenario. The city’s usual bustle felt far away, and I felt I was exploring a serene world separate from New York City. I paid more attention to the trees in the garden, and read through their little labels placed on their trunk. At a glance, one would think they’re normal trees. But the labels indicated that they are unique with their designated scientific names. Maybe if I had gone earlier towards when summer still lingered, I might have been able to see more from the garden. But I was able to enjoy a meditative walk through the garden and have relax on the garden’s benches.
The MET- When I first went there with the class, I was not able to see the actual Islamic Gallery. I decided that day that I would visit again when the gallery is open. I was stunned to see this gallery. I was immersed by the culture of Islam and awe-struck by the beautiful things I saw. The arabic calligraphy were beautiful, and the details on ornaments displayed in the gallery were precise and geometric. What I loved the most was the “Mihrab”- the prayer niche at the MET. The one inscription on the Mihrab stated “The Prophet, peace be upon him, said, ‘The Mosque is the dwelling place of the pious.’ ” I felt a day looking at this art would not have been enough for me to fully appreciate it the way it deserved.
The MoMA- The MoMA was interesting. I was exposed to a lot of modern and contemporary art, and exploring the exhibits in this museum was a different experience than exploring the ones in the MET. The two museums were dedicated to art, and they both made me realize how vast the universe of art is. The MoMA gave me a new sense of appreciation of modern art even though I wasn’t interested in it before. De Kooning’s “A Retrospect” was an art piece that made me stop and say “what am I looking at?” But after staring at it and other strange pieces, I was able to appreciate the abstraction that I saw.
National Museum of American Indian- I had a nice nap during my trip here from Lehman College. It was quite a long subway ride from Bedford Park Blvd. to Bowling Greene. I looked at a lot of artifacts of native americans which reminded me of the african statue exhibit from the MET. I really liked the architecture of the museum and enjoyed some of the videos and interactive exhibits they had. I also was able to relax at the battery park nearby!
The Tenement Museum-
Although this one was not one the list, I just had to visit this Museum because it is my absolute favorite. Basically they walk you through one of the old tenement buildings and give you a guided tour of what life was like back then. I cannot explain the feeling I get when I go there and hear about the horrid conditions the immigrants had to exist in. Needless to say it humbles me a quite a bit and makes me that much more thankful for everything I have. It is a very beautiful and informative experience and I would recommend it to anyone!
The Museum of Natural History-
This is another one of the cities grand museums and I cannot begin to explain how fascinating it is. I love science and all it entails and it is amazing to see all the different exists. My favorite exhibit is the ocean exhibit, the replicas of the ocean animals are amazing and so well created, I have always been fascinated by the ocean because of how vast it is and how little we know. In high school I took marine biology and fell in love with it, so this exhibits really captures my heart and my full attention. Overall I loved this museum and all the exhibits even though I was not able to hit every exhibit purely because of the museum’s size.
The MoMa
I’ve been to this museum multiple times and while it is not my favorite it is still very enjoyable. First thing I noticed was their 9/11 exhibit and yet another reminder of this class. My piece in this museum is the statues in the garden, this piece, Group of figures I love because of the elusiveness it has and the ability for someone to find their own meaning from the artwork. When I got home, I looked this piece up on their website and noted that it says that the religious and mythical aspect and meaning is here but no one has ever given it a fixed meaning, which leaves it open ended, which I love.
For my last Museum trip, I really wanted to go to the South Street Seaport Museum but unfortunately it is closed. So instead I went to the Norwalk Aquarium, even though it is not even in NYC I gained the same learning experience I would have gotten anywhere in NYC. I have been here countless times and cannot wait to go back each time I leave. As childish as it may sound, I love the touch tanks and when I say love I mean I could spend fours hours touching the stingrays. I also love the seals, these social creatures, besides being cute, fascinate me so much because of their interesting behavior. I’m almost positive that there is an aquarium in New York so I think it would be an amazing experience to visit any aquarium and learn about the most mysterious part of the earth, the ocean!!!