Night at the Museum

I used to believe that the existence of museums was superficial and could not understand the intellectual depth required to properly understand and enjoy these facilities. Despite not getting an epiphany visiting Brooklyn museum, my first museum visit in 4 years, I now more clearly see the merits of the museum. Each artwork hides a beautiful, rich story behind its vibrant or gothic exterior. Each story is completely different from its neighbor and even the artworks that display the same meaning have their individual nuances. I would highly recommend other Macaulay students to visit museums as the artistic beauty and complexity will enrich their appreciation and understanding of both complex intellectual concepts and themes of the world around us.

Museums are about telling stories through art and artifacts. I am an English major. I believe that my major is a means to discover the world and understand it better. We can better understand the world through new perspectives and experiences – through stories. Each piece of art tells a different story by a different storyteller. Each artwork crafts a story or gives the audience a glimpse into one. They show different times and places. They exhibit New York and elsewhere from the perspective of man or of nature. Sometimes they attempt to lift us towards God. Each painting carries with it unique beauty and story.

This experience reinforced my previous ideas about museums by showing how important museums are for our society. It shows the different cultures, ideas, and beliefs that humans have across the world. And this is important as we enter the field of looking at stuff at another perspective. Seeing other cultures just as important as your owns.

There were many pieces that contrasted each other in terms of historic eras — there were many modern pieces and many old age paintings. I think that there were many cultures and identities that were found in this gallery, especially found anywhere you go instead of being grouped together by topic or cultures, and I think it relates to the diversity of NYC. Although there are groups and communities put together by cultures, many identities and features are found anywhere you go, somewhat like in the museum. There was no division, or not much at least, and the randomness of the placements made it more intricate, matching the uniqueness of NYC.

This experience challenged my ideas about museums because I used to think that museums were boring places with weird and old objects. But something that really stood out to me was how there are by far more paintings than actual objects, the paintings compared to other museums are very colorful and have images that you can recognize and actually interact with. For example paintings depicting things like colonialism, racism or even New York places like the Brooklyn bridge where things and topics I recognized and had knowledge about witch made me feel like I had sort of a relation to them.

Generally, I expect museums to be cohesive. The Brooklyn Museum did not follow this trend. Each room displayed not only a different type of art, but I totally different era and genre. All I could expect from this museum was the unexpected.

I would like to see more recognition of Hispanic art and history in the American art exhibit. Latinos have contributed a lot to the country, whether it be through manual labor or influences on art. Recognizing their importance in American history in the past and now would be great to see.