Night at the Museum

My experience at the Brooklyn Museum was one I won’t soon forget. The amazing thing about Macaulay is that the events it plans for its students are ones that allow for amazing social and intellectual growth, and this was no exception. In the time leading up to our adventure touring the museum, I got to meet a number of students from different campuses and discuss with them, among other things, some of the highlights of the museum and what we hope to gain from the experience. When we split into groups, I had little difficulty finding students who were as eager as I was to begin observing the exhibits and sharing and discussing our on-the-spot perspectives.

Almost immediately, my group had a difficult time choosing a specific artwork to focus on for our recording, and only after our discussion came to a close on observing a peculiarly exquisite piece did we realize that its fluidity and natural delivery meant that we should have pressed the “record” button. We did, however, find a number of artworks to discuss with the recorder on. Yet again, we ran into another problem: we noticed that once our discussion got underway, someone always had an additional comment or observation to make, which usually sparked another wave of stimulating and exciting new ideas. (Curiosity is a sneaky and amazing tool, isn’t it).

Avarice, as was explained to me by my group members, means greed beyond measure for wealth and material possessions.

One piece in particular is a massive replica of the well known and widely studied Mayan calendar, titled Avarice. (An image of the piece accompanies this post). Of course this was not the original stone artifact, but instead it was one fashioned almost entirely out of corn kernels and other organic materials. Upon closer examination, we noticed that many of the details – some large and some nearly as small as a thimble! – were objects or symbols that only came into existence in the last hundred years (give or take a decade). The artist  featured many of the luxuries we take for granted, but also highlighted many of the social, political, and economic issues that our generation is now tasked with addressing head on. From this initial observation came one of the most exhilarating conversations of my recent academic career, and one that I am glad we recorded.

All in all, I am very happy that I had this experience and look forward to many like this one. If I ever come across incoming freshman students (including those enrolling in Macaulay) who have questions concerning how they should spend their free time or take advantage of what the city has to offer, I will be sure to mention that a few hours in the Brooklyn Museum is one of the greatest uses of one’s time.