Senching Hsia ’21’s grandfather encouraged her to pursue the arts. Photo by Derek Ng/The Choate News
On Wednesday, October 20, all ten Visual Arts Concentration students travelled to New York City. OnThe students left Wednesday afternoon, theyto visited the Guggenheim Museum, and. oOn Thursday, they toured the Met before returning to Choate that night. The trip juxtaposed the Met’s classical and historical art with the Guggenheim’s modern art. It was an exercise in inspiration meant to educate, enhance, and inform Choate’s young visual artists.
Although Stella Dubin ’21 dabbles in all forms of visual art, she specializes in oil painting. She said that she had a fantastic experience at the Guggenheim because it bolstered her desire to become more “modern and non-representational.” A Guggenheim installation from artist Catherine Opei awakened Dubin to the importance of art and her artistic powers. “I often worry that the art I make, despite being technically good, lacks as much significance as art I really love. It’s been helpful seeing how personal [artwork] can be just as inspiring as political [artwork]. A personal statement can be very [powerful].”
In contrast, Alex Denhart ’20, who focuses on traditional media, valued the concrete aspect of being in a museum. “Seeing where art is going now is really interesting to see. Especially going into the field of art, it’s good to see what other people are doing — to take inspiration from that and also use it to say, ‘How do I want to be different?’” This trip promoted departure into the “different,” and both artists felt artistically influenced. “I’ve taken a lot of pictures of pieces I like, and I’m planning on going back and doing studies based on the pictures,” said Denhart.
Organized by Ms. Jessica Cuni, Ms. Smita Sen, Mr. Aaron Sober, and Arts Director Ms. Kalya Yannatos, this is the biggest Visual Arts Con field trip taken all year. The arts department conducts other, smaller excursions, but the size and style of this trip impressed Dubin and Denhart, who hope that the trip will be recreated next year. The duration, museums visited, and group dynamic all coalesced to make the trip “a little special,” as Denhart put it.
“Usually big museum trips are visual-arts wide, not just visual arts concentration. It was nice going to a museum in a very small group that could have long discussions about [the art we were seeing],” explained Dubin. Last year, Visual Arts Con students went to the Brooklyn Museum, but due to traffic, they could not take full advantage. This year, because it was an overnight trip, there was unstructured free time to soak up the culture and scene of New York and its museums. “These kinds of things are really important for bringing people together and taking them outside of the work environment. It changes everything — it’s more of a hands-on thing rather than a ‘go do your own thing’ thing,,” Dubin said.
Visual Arts Concentration is an intensive, arts focused program, and trips like this are important or immersion. It was a genuinely edifying and illuminative experience for the artists that went to New York. Dubin said, “There were really just pure fun moments, and the people in Arts Con need that. I think everyone came out of it truly inspired.”
