“The Night at the Museum” is a phrase that I commonly heard upon entering Macaulay. Rumored as one of the best Macaulay experiences, I experienced anticipation for this trip. Earlier in the day, I ran errands, ultimately taking the bus to campus. The weather was extremely unpleasant, as it was cold and slightly windy. After arriving, it was nice to see everyone and take a bus to the Brooklyn Museum; it felt as if I was reliving my middle school field trips.

Assyrian Palace Reliefs, 879 B.C.E.

Upon arrival at the museum, we were directed into a spacious and brightly-lit room. The first piece of art that caught my eye was the collection of Assyrian Palace Reliefs. These relics were actually the first main piece of artwork that I came across after entering the museum, and ironically, were the ones to resonate the most with me after leaving. The reason for this is because I come from an Armenian background which shares some commonalities with the characteristics of Assyrian culture. For instance, both groups were among the first to adapt Christianity, both groups have suffered persecution under the same Muslim rulers, and both groups were victims of genocide under the Ottoman Empire. The presented artifacts appeared extremely historical and therefore intriguing. After reading the description, I learned that Assyrian palaces were decorated with such objects in order to overwhelm the ancient visitors with the king’s power, revealing the supernatural world where the king existed. Those on display decorated the palace of one of the greatest rulers in ancient Assyria, Ashur-nasir-pal II, which was before the common era, showcasing its intricate nature. The carvings on these materials conveyed images of kings, divinities, sacred trees, and magical beings called apkallu (human bodies with wings and either human, eagle, or fish heads), along with inscriptions. Accordingly, the Assyrians believed that apkallu survived a mythical flood to serve the king.

The Bridge, 1938

The paintings that I appreciated the most were those that resembled real life and were effective in clearly portraying specific images. For instance, the work depicting Venice was very beautifully conveyed, using watercolor techniques and portraying a place that I, myself, desire to visit. The drawing is very simple, elegant, and comforting, revealing the artist’s usage of Impressionist style and transition into Post-Impressionist application of color. The talent in this composition was undeniably evident and I enjoyed looking at the unified presentations with the section themed by water’s presence.

Afterwards, we walked to different floors and explored them. Although it was aesthetically nice to enter differently decorated rooms, I was mostly overcome with tiredness. My favorite part of the museum was the exhibited storage room, full of antiques and glassware. The displays themselves were very nice and it was cool to witness the distinctions among each setting. While one room was water-themed, another was decorated with vibrantly patterned walls, and another was all black and white; these variations were all present on the same floor. Nevertheless, I was not able to connect with the art and even found myself questioning the presence of certain items such as chairs hanging on walls. Overall, this experience was definitely very unique and will be memorable to me, despite my afterward exhaustion.

I found Tuesday’s Night at the Museum to be an incredibly gratifying experience. Although, regrettably, only two floors of the museum were open to us, I don’t suppose I can complain about that since the Brooklyn Museum was open after hours specifically for us Macaulay students, and the floors we did have access to were filled with fascinating exhibitions. Starting from the top down, I first explored the fifth floor. My most significant impression from the artworks on this floor was how diverse they were in origin, time period, etc. I found the juxtaposition of modern art with that of a more classical background very thought-provoking, as it inspired me to ponder the similarities between the two. I also thought that the fifth floor exhibits did an incredibly good job at highlighting the inequalities so ever-present in the art world. Here, Black, Indigenous, and Asian art was highlighted in a way that is so uncommon for most art spaces, as these communities are commonly underrepresented in the museum world which I notice tends to favor, for lack of better phrasing, dead white guys. I noticed a major theme of examining the reason why these marginalized voices have historically been so cast out of academic and artistic spaces and I felt that the fifth floor almost served to stress how art from historically marginalized communities belongs in a museum just as much as that from white artists.

One of my favorite parts of the fifth floor exhibit was probably that dealing with orientalism in art. As I had learned from a description on the wall, American artists throughout history fetishized Arab culture despite many of them never even having visited it. Of course, to these American artists, an Arabic scene was just generically Middle Eastern, with traditions of different countries being blurred into one vague, exotic ideal of what they thought the region was like. The same is true for East Asia as well, especially as chinoiserie came into vogue in both Europe and America. Something I noticed was that white women painted in kimonos looked modest, whereas Asian women painted in kimonos were hypersexualized by the artist. I felt that putting these paintings in the same exhibit serves to facilitate a meaningful conversation about the history of unfair–to say the least–depiction of women in art based on their race.

The third floor served as a stark contrast to the fifth, as it was filled with ancient Egyptian art. Ancient Egypt is close to my heart, as I admittedly was very into ancient Egyptian mythology as a child…in any case, I highly enjoyed looking around at the ornate tombs and artifacts. One of my favorite works was a mummy portrait from the Roman Period known as Woman with Earrings. I found myself drawn to this portrait because the woman looks so realistic. Compared to Egyptian art of other periods, I found the Roman influence incredibly apparent. Something about her, perhaps because she looks like just another woman I could see on the street, piqued my interest. She is beautiful in a very approachable way, I suppose.

If given the chance, I would instantly come back to the Brooklyn Museum. Not only did Night at the Museum offer me the opportunity to visit a museum I hadn’t been to beforehand, it also gave me the opportunity to connect with my Macaulay peers from other campuses, and I even got to reunite with some old friends from middle and high school! In summation, I believe that events such as this one are instrumental in bringing together Macaulay students from all campuses and giving us a space to culturally enrich and intellectually challenge ourselves.

I knew the Night at the Museum would be a great day once I took a wonderful 30 minute nap after eating some delicious pizza (thank you Lisa and Anita). The second I walked in I took a picture of the giant wood statues of the KAWS figures. I find it cool when I see something of my generation in a museum. A day like the N@TM made me even more thankful for being in Macaulay, showing how much that the program truly cares about the students, you won’t find that at any other college in America.

Being with the other Macaulay students was cool, I met new people and also saw familiar faces. I did the first assignment in a group with Jackson, we used the painting of 2 African Americans with their homes wrecked from a flood, showing how the impoverished areas are affected by natural disasters.
This picture is from the Brooklyn museum website I didn’t take the picture there.

The work by myself was a cool picture of a Native American man with a gun in his hand and he was riding a horse. It turns out that the man was a failed businessman who was moving west because of the recent westward expansion, and he was going to become a rancher.

The Night at the Museum was a great experience and I can see why it is hyped up early on in the year, to be able to close out a museum for the students. The use of group activity and solo activity was a great way to get the students engaged in the art.

     When I entered the Brooklyn Museum, I was greeted by a giant statue of two humanoid figures and continued onward to the auditorium. There I met many Macaulay peers, and we were all seated. A philosopher then explained that a museum is a place where culture is in conversation with itself. After that, we were dismissed from the auditorium to explore the museum in groups. 

     My group went to the fifth floor, which was full of paintings and sculptures of extremely high detail. The first painting that caught my eye was one of a raging waterfall. There you could see all of the fine details of the water crashing down onto the rocks below, how the lighting shines on the sky, and the details of the trees in the background. The crashing waves in the artwork reminded me of my trip to Canada, where I saw Niagara Falls.

      I continued to the next room, where I was greeted by another large and detailed painting. This had a detailed view of the mountains, a lake, and the sky. Additionally, the lighting of the painting also stood out to me, which was applied to the mountains, clouds, and even the small trees. In the middle of this artwork, the artist demonstrated their ability to show depth by fading out the view to a dark and distant valley. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the painting also included a Native American camp and them chasing their prey. This addition to the painting proves the careful attention to detail, ultimately revealing that this artwork took a very long time to create.

     After that artwork, I continued exploring the fifth floor, stopping and inspecting several works of art. It was clear that all of the paintings or sculptures were made by excerpt artists. Then I came upon a room where there were several works of art stored in glass containers. In the center of that room there was a metallic statue of a man looking at his hand. This statue showed all of the slightest creases in his clothes, thus making the statue look extremely realistic. As I continued to the rest of the fifth floor, no other work stood out to me as the others that I observed, and with that, I finished my experience with the Brooklyn Museum.

My time at the Night at the Museum trip was a really fun and unique experience; being in a museum closed off to the public, free to wander and observe many pieces in a short amount of time with peers, was very enjoyable. My favorite part of this opportunity, aside from viewing the many beautiful pieces on display, was being surrounded by diverse minds that I could hear and involve myself with in discussion, proving to me that art is truly subjective and that everyone has a different interpretation.

Upon entering the fifth floor, I was surrounded by protest art, especially many works depicting protests relevant to the United States and even New York City (which, from bias, was my favorite). For example, my group gravitated toward the large painting labeled Shifting the Gaze. This painting appeared to be painted over in thick white strokes, covering its initial beauty. However, it was done in a strategic and rather symbolic manner. The White family members’ bodies were covered, leaving the Black boy, the family’s servant, completely uncovered and thus the new focal point of the painting. This made it so the audience focused on the commonly overlooked subject, which was originally camouflaged. The history of this art fascinated me, especially since it was done to make light of the underrepresented community rather than hiding them. 

     

Additionally, I found that this museum was most fitting for embodying the many types of art we have learned about in class. For example, many oil paintings often depict noble persons and possessions as repetitively indicated by John Berger. Being able to see these many oil paintings extremely up close made light how realistic and textured these paintings truly feel. Another display I have not yet experienced was the art storage room. Although to me it seemed like a small-scale Ikea at first, it actually had quite an impressive assortment of art pieces, varying from furniture to canvases, which struck my interest. I was left curious as to why these many pieces were in storage, as to me it appeared random. I did enjoy this randomness, however, it was entertaining jumping from one thing to the next.

Overall, on the Macaulay Night at the Museum trip, I had a fun time looking at the extremely versatile displays together with my friends. The trip has also opened my eyes to methods of art I have learned about but have not viewed yet first-hand.

 

When I first heard we had a “Night at the Museum” trip, I immediately thought it was going to be like the movie where a T-Rex skeleton comes to life, but then I realized that stuff is impossible to be a reality. There may not have been any talking statues or Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt, but I still had an interesting time at the Brooklyn Museum.

For starters, I was excited to go because I didn’t have any classes that day and a coach bus was bringing us there. I was ready to be immersed in the artwork and I got the chance to check off another museum I haven’t been to before. When we arrived, I was shocked by the architecture of the museum and thought to myself, “Well if the outside looks this cool, then inside it will be just the same, if not better.” As I sat in the auditorium with over 500 people and listened to the provost speak in a very philosophical manner, I found myself indeed agreeing with his interpretation of what is a museum. It truly is a place where culture is in conversation with itself, and it was proven to me as I explored the different exhibits.

Straight out of the auditorium, I noticed abstract and geometric patterns along the walls. Something about them was appealing to just stop and stare at them for some time. They were satisfying to look at, but they weren’t the abstraction that defined Picasso’s art, which I really enjoy analyzing. Contrastly, the Assyrian art that followed did not speak to me, to the point where I just glanced side to side and ended up at the end of the hallway without realizing. History is not my thing, so when I see it infused in art, I don’t really give it a second look. At the end of the hallway was a “perfect time” for a mini photo session of Macaulay CSI, and the mini groups we formed made the rest of the experience fun.

Afterwards, some of us went to the 5th floor where it was less crowded, and I could tell there was going to be something here that I would actually like looking at. The first thing that stuck out to me was this work called “Bring a Folding Chair: A Portrait of Shirley Chisholm”. Obviously, I did not touch it, but it was very tempting because I could tell there was a lot of texture to the work. The folding chairs on the skirt was something new and I didn’t understand it until I read Shirley Chisholm’s quote: “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” The way I interpreted this was that if you’re not welcomed somewhere, carve out your own place and prove why you should be there. There were also a lot of oil paintings and I was able to connect what we talked about in the seminar to what I was seeing. There were paintings of fruit and landscapes, but also a blue wall covered in flowers and a painting of Virgin Mary surrounded by fruit.

The last stop for me was the storage room, where I saw a lot of furniture, specifically chairs, and some old paintings. The chairs did not look the most comfortable and I didn’t understand why they were placed in a museum. The one thing from the storage room that I liked was this lamp that had a cover similar to the roses and vase in Beauty and the Beast. Overall, I had a good time on the trip and now I can say that I have had my own Night at the Museum experience.

♥Introduction♥

I had the pleasure of attending Macaulay Honors College’s annual Night at the Museum event at the Brooklyn Museum. As a class, we focused on floors 3 and 5, which showcased Ancient Egyptian art, Native American art, and African American art. I am both Egyptian and Black, so finding artifacts I can relate to allowed me to learn things about myself and my culture that I did not know before.

♥Hair is Art♥

It is important to note that art is a conversation. You are having your very own discussions that are influenced by the art you see and how you react to it. For me, these exhibits involving hair spoke to me. Growing up, I was always ashamed of my kinky, frizzy, curly hair. I desperately wanted to have straight hair like my friends because their hair seemed “prettier” to everybody else and I did not know how to style my hair. Today, I am not ashamed to go to college with my hair in a protective style, and I am not ashamed to go to events with my curly hair out. Seeing these exhibitions spoke to me because hair that looks like mine is displayed as art in a museum. My hair is art. After feeling like I had ugly hair for so long, I can finally see myself in art as early as 2000 B.C.E.

Counting (Laura Simpson, 1991)

To me, this piece showed the beauty of counting. The beauty in aging. The beauty in a house after it’s built. The beauty in braiding hair. But this beauty comes with time, precision, and effort. While my hair takes more time to do than straight hair, the time and effort it takes tells a story about how I care for my hair, which makes it art.

Bound (Kehinde Wiley, 2014)

This statue was created to show that Black women are bound to their hair. Hair harbors connections to history, people, and family. The way we do our hair tells a story about the purpose we do it for. Braids, in this case, are a protective style. Yes, it protects our hair and scalp, but it protects us too. Rice and seeds used to be hidden in African braids to survive the Middle Passage. Braids are also used to identify which tribe or country you are from. These are some perfect examples to show why Black women are bound with hair.

Hairdressing Scene (c. 2008-1957 B.C.E.)

This scene shows me that not only was the presentation of hair important since the beginning of time, but Egyptians used to embrace curly and braided hair. Today, Egypt has become very Eurocentric in terms of beauty standards, so curly hair is straightened, protein and keratin treatments are on the rise, and being curly isn’t considered presentable. My vacation in Egypt was the start of my insecurity with my hair, and I straightened it every day. Representation influences how people view themselves, and it is important to include everybody for this reason. Prior to this museum trip, I did not realize that curly hair was embraced in Ancient Egypt, and it only makes me prouder to wear mine.

♥Conclusion♥

Representation influences how people view themselves, and it is important to include everybody so people are uplifted, knowledgeable, and comforted. In this museum, I felt very included and I walked out of it feeling happy that I could finally look at art and see myself in it. The conversations I’ve had with these exhibits about my hair have healed the part of me that was too worried I’d never find something to relate to, and I now understand the difference between looking at art and seeing it.

INTRODUCTION: 

       After finishing all my Tuesday classes on October 15th, I was filled with excitement in having the rare opportunity to meet up with all four hundred of the Macaulay students. And so, I took the long fifty-minute drive to Prospect Park in preparation for this event. When I arrived, security greeted me and as usual checked my bag. I was able to easily locate all my Macaulay CSI friends, as they were all walking toward the auditorium on the third floor. Following multiple speeches made by the directors and deans of Macaulay, everyone parted ways throughout the museum, and off I went to my next art museum journey.

 

SECTION 1 (EARLY DYNASTY PERIOD CIVILIZATIONS):

“Cosmetic Palette” and “Cosmetic Dish in the Form of a Fish” Artifact

“Third Display” Artifacts

       For more than thousands of years, the Brooklyn Museum has given me the invaluable opportunity to learn that art had always existed in early human civilization. As represented in the “Cosmetic Palette” artifact, both men and women had commonly used palettes like those in creating color paints when grinding certain materials. With sharp materials that were disposed of by these ancient humans, I’ve learned that they also find enjoyment in creatively carving stones to certain recognizable shapes around them, such as fish as shown in “Cosmetic Dish in the Form of a Fish.” The second display with the beaded necklaces fascinated me the most within this particular section of the museum because of its patterns being used in cultures that exist in the modern day. In many documentaries shown in school, I recall seeing indigenous groups and even modern-day tribesmen in Africa crafting beans out of wood and using stones to form lines of patterns on string, which created this sense of historical recognition when I first saw the third exhibit. 

 

SECTION 2 (ANCIENT EGYPT):

“The New Kingdom Pair Statue” Artifact

“Relief of Amun, Ahmose-Negertari, and King Amunhotep I” Artifact

       Ancient Egyptian cultures have fascinated me the most, as it has been widely documented and universalized in news articles and even pictures of the Great Pyramids of Giza. Upon looking at some artifacts, I’ve seen that many of them were made out of clay and were used highly to symbolize their rulers and certain animals that were common in Egypt. For example, I’ve learned that many Egyptian sculptures express bonds through sculpting two individuals like the “The New Kingdom Pair Statue”, which represents the connection of a scribe to a singer who appeared to look like one of the Egyptian goddesses. For some of these Egyptian artifacts, like in “Relief of Amun, Ahmose-Negertari, and King Amunhotep I”, I originally thought that the symbols around it were made for decorative purposes. After a quick Google search, I made on my phone, however, I learned later that the symbols were actually early Egyptian hieroglyphs that were used as their primary writing language. This made the art much more interesting to me, as many of the artifacts had embedded words that the artists wanted to openly express to their audience. Another interesting thing I’ve found that I forgot to take a photo of was the authentic mummies that were on display. It felt eerie when I looked inside an opened coffin with its interior contents on display. It raised a lot of questions to me of the sort of tasks archaeologists had to go through when uncovering a coffin in a crowded and unsanitary pyramid.

 

SECTION 3 (WESTWARD EXPANSION)/CONCLUSION:

“Man’s Shirt Cut” Artifact

“Painting #2” Artifact

       The brand new fifth floor was an experience I was grateful for, being one of the very first few people to enter it before it was opened to the general public. Upon entry, I noticed that many of the works of art were dedicated to showing indigenous culture. The “Man’s Shirt Cut”, for example, gave me a look at the typical style of clothing many Native Americans were wearing before the early European colonization. Many of the pictures, like “Painting #2”, gave me a saddened emotion when seeing the early American settings during that time, especially the advanced machinery that farmers were using to display Native American land. These works of art have connected well to the feeling I’ll always get when entering my high school U.S. history class, having seen many of them on my teacher’s walls as well. After exploring the fifth floor, I was quick to examine other floors and see other cultures’ historical artifacts, but found out that I had run out of time. Despite this, I left the museum with a smile having seen artifacts and paintings that altogether told a story of how early civilizations had developed into the modern society that I live in today.

Going into the night at the museum I was physically exhausted from playing basketball for 3 hours. On the bus ride I took a short nap, however it was cut short, so I was not in the mood at all to visit a museum honestly. So, my opinion on the museum will probably be heavily influenced by how I felt going into it. The museum had a great entrance, and I think it certainly left an impression. Looking at the architecture I can already tell it had a lot of history behind it, and I was amazed by the design. However, that view was short lived as we entered, got welcome, and entered into the auditorium to hear the prepared presentation.

I don’t really remember much of the presentation because I was so tired and the man sitting next to me was a tank so I was distracted, but I did find the philosophical questions and the idea of “seeing” interesting. Oftentimes we hear a term so much we forget to think about what it means. A question like “what is a museum” made me think about what we were really visiting in the first place. I also remember the notion of “seeing” and really viewing the art piece before doing any research. It is easy to just quickly search up what an art piece means and move on, but frequently art is ambiguous so just trying to find one “correct solution” is incorrect when it comes to art.

I Know’d it Was Ripe by Thomas Hovenden

This was the piece of artwork that caught most of my attention at the museum. For whatever reason I thought this painting was done recently. The realism caught my attention; it was almost like a photograph taken just yesterday of someone enjoying a watermelon. But, what changed the entire meaning of the painting for me was just the time period alone. This work by Thomas Hovenden was done in 1885, and if you know that time period you know the horrible atrocities being committed to African-Americans then. The boy’s happiness in the picture was a shock considering the history of the time. 1885 was post reconstruction America which is often called the Gilded age. In this period the Southern slave states returned to local control and we saw the rise of segregation policies in the form of Jim Crow laws. So, I thought his happiness may be a facade forced upon by the artist to capture an enthusiastic picture of the young black boy. However, I researched the painting and apparently the artist is actually in fact a black sympathizer since he was married to Helen Corson, who was a Quaker abolitionist. I am glad that his smile isn’t forced, but this painting may have had an unintended effect of showcasing that African-Americans were alright after the reconstruction era and simplified their suffering. Although I am sure the artist had no intention of doing so it may have had that effect during that time meaning that now when I look at the “happy painting” I almost feel sad because of the effects and time period it may have been taken in.

Overall although I was very tired, I enjoyed my trip to the museum and it was a lot of fun. I will say the art from this museum seemed more relevant to the time than the other museum visits we did so I was able to connect with the art more here. The artwork here, although sometimes simple in appearance, I think had a lot of meaning behind them and it was very enjoyable to try to find their meanings.