On Nov. 28, 24 Advanced Placement Art students visited The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is more commonly referred to as the MoMa.  They viewed the exhibition of nineteenth century French painter, Eugène Delacroix, sketched the interior architecture of the museum, and concluded their trip with a visit to the Greek and Roman galleries.  

The students who attended the museum had to complete three sketching assignments and a piece of reflective writing to recapitulate their experiences. 

“I really enjoyed this field trip.  It was really fun to walk around the museum and see all the beautiful work displayed,” said senior Jamie Kennelly.  

The first assignment the students were instructed to complete on the trip was to walk through the Eugène Delacroix exhibition, and sketch one painting that embraced the “liveliness of things” that Delacroix was known for.  This was an intended to be an opportunity for the art students to see ann internationally famous painter’s artwork in person and closely analyze the different methods the painter used to convey the piece’s message.  

Next, the students chose a particular place in the museum to sketch the interior architecture of.  Their task was to incorporate the fundamentals of art, such as light, dark shading, and perspective.  This assignment was meant to expose the students to other sections of art, and inspire them to develop other potential interests.  

Lastly, students picked one full-length, three-dimensional figurative sculpture in the Greek and Roman Art galleries that intrigued them.  They were instructed by their art teacher to focus especially on light, shadow, proportion, and body movement.  

“It was so much fun to walk around and see all of the different kinds of art. I am personally a fan of sculptures and painting s with a lot  of texture so walking through old oil paintings and Roman statues was my favorite part of the trip,” said senior Piper Woods. 

The seniors speculated how great the experience was, and how they would recommend the trip to all students currently taking AP Art.  Many juniors in the AP Art course were unable to go on the trip because of the limited number of spots. However, next year, the current sophomores and juniors hope to be able to go on the trip and experience all of the artwork for themselves.

The 24 students claimed to enjoy seeing the museum’s variety of exhibits as it exposed them to artwork that they might not have seen before.  Many of the students took a lot away from their experiences, and intend to use the inspiration they got from the trip to incorporate similar techniques in their own future artwork.