Night at the Museum (N@TM) is the common event of Macaulay’s Arts in New York honors seminar, where we invite first-year students for a special encounter with art and conversation. At Night at the Museum, no other guests, except for Macaulay students, have access to the museum’s galleries and collections.
This year, the N@TM will be on October 21, 2025. For more information about the N@TM, including when & how to get there, and what exhibits will be available, check out this site: [OpenLab site for N@TM}
Art Senses
What are some ways of interacting with art, both during the N@TM and when encountering other visual art?
“I see, I think, I wonder”
When looking at a painting, sculpture, mural, etc, ask yourself the following questions:
What do I wonder when looking at it? What questions come to mind?
What do I see ?
What does it make me think about?
Deep Looking
Going about our daily lives, we have so much to look at, and we often just have time to glance at what we see walking around the city, on a social media stream, in class.
See how long you can look at an artwork. Put on a timer for 60 seconds, and then another 60 seconds. Jot down what you notice and think about in that time.
When you look at it for 60 seconds, what do you notice that you don’t in a few seconds? What do you notice when you look at it for two minutes that you don’t see in one minute?
Try It Out!
These images are from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Open Access Collection. You can find more about each at the links to them, but try any of the activities above first if you do!
Unidentified artist
late 18th–early 19th century
John White Alexander American
1911
ca 1820 (Iran)
Ambrose Andrews, American
1835
