I think that the art that is currently in the museum should have a suggested song to listen to while viewing the piece. This adds another layer to the type of feelings the artist wants you to feel when admiring their work. I think it would be a nice, interactive aspect of the museum and would appeal to a greater audience.

Museums contain art, culture, and perspective. After attending Macaulay’s Night at the Museum, I can confidently say that this experience has reinforced my ideas about museums. I was able to observe many interesting paintings and sculptures which all exhibited these aspects of what a museum truly is. I would definitely encourage other Macaulay students to do the same!

The meuseum covering centuries of American history, was able to coverpeices that even today remain relevant and poignant. The epices in this exhibit are centers not only around art history but on the human experience itself, covering things like social movements, cultural revolutions, and political reform all through different mediums of art. The exhibit did not shy away from showing pieces just because of controversial modern events, like the sculpture from Iraq in the Egyptian section despite the war in Iraq and like the Black Lives Matter sculpture, with the three women with braids. Instead the musesum embraced this controversial nature, and showcased these pieces leaving the viewers to interpret the pieces in there own way. The meuseum changed my viewpoint on mueseums, they are not only places of historical research but a bridge between multiple cultural communities and histories, bringing people from all walks ogld life together through a single painting. The museum thus has a much bigger role in society, serving as a center for social change by pushing reform through its diverse selection of art. I would certainly reccomand this mueseum to furture Macaulay students, or any student really, as it allows you to view things with a new perspective forcing you to open your mind and put aside any controversies and inherit biasness.

I am studying environmental science and pre-med because I want the work in Public Health field with environmental diseases. For what I want to do, examining relationships with people and the environment is crucial. Seeing all of the different artworks from different cultures across time. What I found interesting was the way different cultures depicted their relationship with the environment. The artists in the Japanese Art section choose to focus on the mountains of Japan in their work, while Artists from New York chose to depict more man-made structures like the Subway and Skyscrapers. When we think of the environment, we usually think of the former, but the latter counts as the environment as well. I think it is important to know especially as an environmental science major how people in different regions adapt and react to a rapidly changing environment.

I would definitely encourage other Macaulay students to visit museums as this really helps understand what we learn in the classroom. It is difficult for me, personally, to appreciate modern art and more recent music trends because I am not aware enough of the classical foundations that these modern styles rebel against. To recognize the significance of a banana taped to the wall, one has to spend hours staring at antique Roman busts and Renaissance maidens. Museums help one build up this foundational knowledge. I appreciated the way in which the museum used space in an artistic way; paintings were hung together to show contrast and provide context, identify historical relationships and underline the message that more modern works carry. This was very helpful to the viewer.