Honors students enrolled in ART 3013: Introduction to the New York Art Scene visited New York City for five days from April 3-7, 2022 with Jody Servon, professor of art management, Dr. Heather Waldroup, associate director of the Honors College and professor of art history, and art management Honors graduate Gabrielle Knight, the lead installer/preparator at App State’s Turchin Center for the Visual Arts.
Honors College students Sarah Harris, Samantha Oleschuk, and Addie Clark and art honors student Addie Magyar viewed collections along with their classmates at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Morgan Library, the New Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. They also met with arts and cultural management professionals and artists-in-residence at the Brooklyn Public Library and the New York City Municipal Archives.
The trip combined professional development events, such as meeting with the internship coordinator and current interns at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with the opportunity to view historical and contemporary art in person, such as the Whitney Biennial exhibition. Students also attended a play and a Flamenco dance performance, explored Central Park and Chinatown, and sampled everything from New York City street cart food to Vietnamese Bánh mì sandwiches to burrata pizza in Little Italy.
Sarah Harris, an art history major and chemistry minor, reflected,
“Experiencing New York City through an artistic lens, from the Whitney Biennial to the MET and MoMA and all the way to the Brooklyn Museum, seeing so much artwork you only read about or see in books, was so far beyond better than I had ever imagined. For myself, I saw what my future in conversation could comparably be like at the New York City archives and I found a book about Van Gogh at the Strand bookstore that could assist in writing my thesis about how certain artwork becomes famous."
Samantha Oleschuk, an art management major with minors in French and nonprofit studies, added, “
This trip to New York City with the Art History and Visual Culture program was a phenomenal opportunity to engage with the art I have been studying in my coursework. And, by experiencing a variety of curatorial approaches in diverse art spaces, my ideas for a project-based Honors thesis have expanded! Throughout the trip, it was wonderful and encouraging to hear questions from other Honors students directed toward museum professionals in the city (many I had not thought of!) and discuss our various ambitions, goals, and Honors thesis ideas.”
Top photo features Honors art history major Sarah Harris visiting the Whitney Biennial in Chelsea, New York City. Photo submitted.
