Art and History of Art New York Trip
Lower Sixth Former, Isabella Robson, reviews a recent trip to New York for our Sixth Form Art and History of Art pupils.
At the beginning of the Christmas holidays, the Sixth Form Art and History of Art pupils had the opportunity to go on a trip to New York City. This trip was jam-packed with some of the city’s most famous galleries and it really was a privilege to be a part of it. We wasted no time and on the evening of our arrival the trip began in earnest with a visit up the Empire State Building. The views from the top were extraordinary and everyone braved the wind for a glimpse at the famous skyline.
Our first full day began by walking the highline towards the Whitney Museum, on the way we took a detour into the Gagosian gallery in Chelsea, where we saw work by Anselm Kiefer. Although not originally on the itinerary, this gallery was a real trip highlight, the large scale post-apocalyptic-esque paintings were truly breath-taking. I particularly enjoyed the layers of paint used here and the scraping back away to create texture. The Whitney itself had an ongoing exhibition of Edward Hopper’s New York scenes. As an artist that I had studied before this was fantastic to see especially in the city that had fostered so much inspiration for him. That afternoon we visited the Brooklyn Museum and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge before getting some free time to find some dinner and explore the city at its prime.
On our second day we visited the Metropolitan Museum and the Guggenheim, both staples within the New York art scene. The Met for me was a personal favourite and I spent hours wondering round the numerous rooms filled with every style imaginable. Ironically one of the best exhibitions there was one of the Tudor years containing all the great portraits from the dynasty, it was on tour from London, but as I had never seen these paintings in person before it was amazing to see them in real life. There was so much to see in the Met and although we barley scraped the surface with how much artwork it held, it remains one of my favourite aspects of the trip. The Guggenheim was a very cool building and Teddies pupils enjoyed a visit to the café over the course of the visit. We ended the evening by seeing The Book of Mormon on Broadway. It was hilarious and slightly lewd, and we all enjoyed the show immensely having Hasa Diga Eebowai stuck in our heads firmly by the end of it. 
Another highlight of the trip was ice skating in Central Park. The iconic scenes felt like we were straight out of Miracle on 34th Street and whether a budding figure skater or not we all enjoyed it thoroughly, although some fell over more than others! Our final gallery was the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). This again was home to so many masterpieces including, Starry Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh, some of Monet’s Water Lilies and Andy Warhol’s Campbells Soup Cans. This museum also contained a lot of sculptural art, and I enjoyed sitting and sketching some of the statues on display in the museum.
On the topic of my sketchbook, our last day included a trip to Grand Central Station to have some time to draw aspects of it. As someone who specialises in looking at architecture this was fantastic. It was incredibly relaxing to sit and draw amongst the fast-passed nature of the station and I will never forget the grandeur of the main hall.
In addition to the jam-packed itinerary, we were allowed some free time every evening and in the afternoon before heading back to JFK. We split into smaller groups and explored every corner of the city from visits to Soho, Greenwich Village, the 9/11 memorial pools, the Broadway Museum, the Rockefeller Christmas tree and some traditional American ‘thrift shopping’. We were all grateful to have the freedom to explore as individual groups as we could all look at areas of specific interest whilst we had the opportunity of being in the city. Along with this we all got to try some classic New York food and many bagels, huge pizza slices and ‘extra salty’ pretzels were enjoyed throughout our stay.
We enjoyed an unforgettable trip and would love to thank Mr Hahn and the rest of the teaching staff who made it possible for us to enjoy such an amazing short week in the US that allowed us to broaden our understanding of art, especially in such a globally influential city.