This October half term, the Art and Photography students went on a trip to New York City. For me, and most people included, it has been the highlight of my year so far. From the MoMA, to the Rockefeller Centre, it’s hard to think how we managed to do so much in only four days!
One of the many highlights of the trip, for me personally, was going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, also known as the MET. It is one of the world’s largest art museums with a collection of over 1.5 million works of art spanning over 5 000 years, many of which have made a massive impact on the art world. For example we were given the opportunity to see many pieces by Van Gogh, one of the most famous and influential post impressionist painters of the 19th century. My classmates and I spent over two hours wandering through the seemingly endless halls of the MET, admiring the creativity displayed by these incredible artists, and even after the two hours was up, we only managed to explore half of the museum, just because of how genuinely huge it is!
We also had the opportunity to go to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), which contains almost 200,000 works of art spanning over the last 150 years. We completed a workshop which involved us walking around the museum as a group and having very interesting conversations, analysing in depth specific paintings such as Water Lilies by Monet. I enjoyed it because it gave us a space to reflect on how certain paintings made us feel and record our response to them as well as learning about the different techniques the artist used. I found it incredibly interesting to see everyone’s perspectives and how we all responded differently, with varied thoughts on the one piece. After the workshop, students were then able to roam and explore the museum freely for an hour and a half, which I really enjoyed, particularly the 1880s-1940s collection, including artists such as Picasso, Cézanne and Gauguin.
On another day, we explored the New York High Line exhibition, which used to be the train tracks running through New York. However it is now a sort of bridge that is surrounded with loads of small galleries, particularly of more contemporary, up and coming, artists. I even got the chance to go to an exhibition of Njedka Crosby who I researched at GCSE, so it was nice to see a familiar face! However, during this activity I had the unfortunate realisation that wearing leather Doc Martin boots was a terrible decision because I don’t think I’ve walked that much in my entire life – so note to anyone planning on going to New York, wear walking shoes!
The most magical moment of the trip was definitely walking across Brooklyn Bridge at night, and seeing all the city lights. It was honestly surreal. I’ve seen some of the photoshoots that came out of it from the photographers, and the results are genuinely incredible. However it’s something that no matter how many pictures you see of it, it will never measure up to how it feels seeing it in person.
So overall, was the eight hour flight and jet lag worth it? Yes, absolutely. It’s definitely an experience I’ll never forget. Whilst the aim of the trip was to get inspiration for A level, I also found that I bonded more with my classmates. People who I was almost strangers with beforehand, have literally become my best friends.
By Annabelle Bowman, student
