This page compiles your reflections on art, community, museums, and more, informed by your time at Night at the Museum.
To have your own reflection appear on this page, submit a reflection of your own.
Analog fan? You can also respond to these prompts on paper and peruse the responses of others. Come find our table on the third floor.
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Compare how this experience reinforced or challenged your previous ideas about museums. Would you encourage other Macaulay students to visit museums?
Every time I have been to a museum, especially with a lot of artwork, I thought it was pretty boring and I would skim through a lot of the descriptions of the pieces. But now, ever since I had my required museum visit at the MoMA and read through everything, I realized I learned so many new things about history and the importance of analyzing artworks from certain time periods. It gives you a sense of how life was for certain groups of people. I would definitely encourage Macaulay students to visit museums more often because it allows you to be more knowledgeable about the world!
Aliana Baez
Queens College
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Compare how this experience reinforced or challenged your previous ideas about museums. Would you encourage other Macaulay students to visit museums?
This museum experience is much more of a community experience than other museum experiences I’ve had before in the past. Since I knew a lot of the people around me, it was an enjoyable experience viewing art with people as a group experience, sharing our thoughts as well. Especially the theatre experience was very communal.
Suah Kim
Baruch College
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Choose a piece of art you saw that invoked strong feelings for you. Describe the response you had and why. (Don’t forget to include the title and artist.)
One piece of art I chose that I saw invoked a strong feeling in me was The Polish Girl (ca. 1929; Oil on canvas) by Ivan G. Olinsky. I picked this piece because when I first saw it, it gave me a strong feeling of loneliness. The girl is looking beyond the canvas’ borders, almost like her eyes are longing for something. Possibly, she is longing for a better life, a better future that she does not currently have. The picture’s environment looks like a kitchen, a common place a woman was expected to be during these times. The women might have just finished household chores, seen by her head covered in a maid’s bandana, ultimately expressing her exhaustion of this labor she is practically forced to do. I particularly felt a sense of loneliness from the painting because it seems like she is the only one present in this environment, maybe not physically, but mentally she is alone. She is alone because no one is around to support her dreams, her aspirations that she longs for with her long stare.
City College
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Compare how this experience reinforced or challenged your previous ideas about museums. Would you encourage other Macaulay students to visit museums?
This experience reinforced what I previously thought about museums. I believed that museums were places to view some interesting experiences and make intellectual insights about the hidden meaning behind certain pieces and how they still maintain relevance to modern society. This visit to the Brooklyn museum reinforced that idea by showing collections of paintings that maintained a common theme of intellectual insights not commonly found in everyday life.
Vic Chen
City College
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Compare how this experience reinforced or challenged your previous ideas about museums. Would you encourage other Macaulay students to visit museums?
I often had a negative connotation about museums often thinking that they were always boring and a waste of time. But the night it the museum changed my perspective. Often times you aren’t allowed to speak loudly or freely or laugh as you would be either disturbing the atmosphere or disturbing other folks. But being able to speak freely on the spot and compare and contrast perspectives of the different interpretations of art pieces of different people. I loved it and other students should also attend.
Tahmid
City College
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Where and how do you see yourself, your communities, and/or New Yorkers in this museum?
I saw my community represented especially in the painting called four genders were born by Nanibah Chacon. This painting is meant to depict the way that gender binary did not always align with indigenous worldviews. I am not indigenous myself but as a trans man I feel a sense of understanding when I first saw this painting, the way that sex does not depict gender nor does one’s gender always fall into the binary of being either female or male.
Finn rodriguez
Hunter College
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How would you relate your current major or field of study to your experience at Night at the Museum? What connections can you see?
As an education major, I can relate this field to my experience because as a museum wishes to educate the masses, I wish to educate my students. These artifacts can help connect people across time just like I want to eventually connect with my students.
College of Staten Island
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How would you relate your current major or field of study to your experience at Night at the Museum? What connections can you see?
I would relate my current major (biology), to my experience at Night at the Museum because of how many diverse cultures I learn. My goal is to become a doctor. With the many diverse cultures I learn, I hope to bring my knowledge of diversity and create a connection with my patients.
Arif Mohamed
City College
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How would you relate your current major or field of study to your experience at Night at the Museum? What connections can you see?
I enjoyed the film exhibit by Marclay. At first I was confused as to what was happening but I realized it was different movies synced up and they would cut when a character entered through a door. I’m interested in majoring in film so it reminded me a lot of what we learned in class (camera movement, editing style, technicolor, silent era, etc).
Pooja Perera
Brooklyn College
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What would you add that is missing or what would you like to see in the American art exhibit in the future?
I believe that I would like to see more American art based on discriminatory aspects such as BLM and Asian American hatred during the COVID pandemic. I believe a tackle into more modern situations would be interesting to view in forms of art.
Travis Sebastian
Baruch College
