Night at the Museum

Your Reflections

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.

  • Compare how this experience reinforced or challenged your previous ideas about museums. Would you encourage other Macaulay students to visit museums?

    Tonight both challenged and reinforced my ideas, and how I feel about museums. I have been very lucky in the sense that I’ve been able to have exposure to museums my whole life. I have always appreciated them as a place of history, culture, art, and conversation. Such was reinforced tonight as I had conversations about how we saw different pieces, what struck us, and how we felt about what the artist was trying to convey. It was an intellectual, and social experience that I enjoyed.
    However the literal way I see museums (as far as the space itself) was challenged. I have never seen rooms of art organized in the way the rooms were today. It challenged me to think about different aspects of the pieces then I might normally to try and find some connection between everything that was there. Some felt easy (like the use of color, or what was being portrayed), and some were deeper. Like pieces that conveyed the identity of the artist or subject; or pieces that you have to read into the history of what it portrays to see connection.

    Kayla Marie Gonzalez

    John Jay College of Criminal Justice

  • 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.)

    This art made me feel calm. Even though the trees are all decimated, the ray of sun shining through the clouds gives off the feeling of the calm after the storm.

    Armand

    Hunter College

  • 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.)

    The art piece I wanted to highlight in my response is “Shifting the Gaze” by Titus Kaphar. This painting caught my eye as soon as I saw it. The white streaks over the detailed painting behind it was so intriguing. Why would an artist cover up something so beautifully painted? As I read the small blurb about the painting, it hit me that the people that were covered up were slave owners and the only person who was visible was a black servant boy. This simple act of covering the faces of the White people in the painting spoke volumes. It reminded of another painting called “Bélizaire and the Frey Children.” This painting had 4 children on it: 3 White and 1 Black child. Over time, the Black child named Bélizaire who was assumed to be a servant to the White family was painted over. Recently, it was discovered that he was in the painting all along. “Shifting the Gaze” is an incredibly powerful painting. We are no longer bringing attention to the White slave owners who dehumanized Black people, but rather we are focusing on the Black people who suffered and persevered for the freedom of future generations.

    Zoe George

    John Jay College of Criminal Justice

  • 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.)

    The piece of art that invoked the strongest feelings in me today was Iago’s mirror by Fred Wilson. Its immense details and gothic aesthetic was so beautiful in my eyes that I stood in front of it for a long time. The lights from the ceiling reflected off certain crevices in the piece and really made it shine. I liked Iago’s mirror a lot because I’ve never seen something so unique before.

    Sienna Kwok

    Baruch College

  • Where and how do you see yourself, your communities, and/or New Yorkers in this museum?

    As I came up to the top of the staircase, opened the fifth floor staircase door, I immediately noticed a blend of cultures, histories, and narratives that reminded me of the diverse and vibrant community I belong to in New York. It felt like I stepped into a brooklyn living room, the artwork from the b16 bus stop sign to the adidas in the storage area the exhibit felt like a reflection of the city’s spirit—an ever-evolving tapestry of different identities. In particular, I saw myself in the exhibits that celebrated immigrant experiences as i was greeted with reggae music and urban life, two themes that resonate deeply with my background as someone who has grown up in one of the most diverse cities in the world.

    Lehman College

  • 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 of the pieces that really spoke to me was by Ernest Methuen Mancoba. Mancoba really challenged European and American perceptions of African creativity and its possibilities. Later in his career, Mancoba further defied conservative expectations for Black African artists, pioneering a shift beyond the tradition-based works. The artist moved toward abstraction and used energetic gestural marks, spontaneous linear configurations, and diffused tones of color. This made me think more consciously about how artists and painters defy norms and expectations through their art even though it may not be apparent on the surface level. I also really liked the quote from Mancoba.

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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 challenged my previous ideas about museums because there were so many themes mixed into the exhibit like the water, nudity, pull in a chair, floral, all mixed into the 5th floor. There were so many stories and pieces exhibited in this one place that it challenge my thought of a museum that specializes in mainly one thing.

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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.)

    A piece of art that really spoke to me was the piece “New York, Late afternoon, Winter” by Childe Hassam from 1900. It is a painting of lower Central Park on a chilly day in an NYC winter and it really spoke to me as it reminded me of the winters I experienced growing up here in NYC. There would always be so much snow and I remember going out into the snow to play with my siblings. Nowadays, we don’t get as strong winters with full snow days so to see it in paintings was a nice reminder of what we used to have. Besides it’s message, it is just a stunning painting as there is the effect of seeing snow all around while still being able to see the lights of shops and street lights through the haze. It really has the effect of being in NYC and seeing the snow straight through your own eyes as you’re drawn into the setting.

    Marwa Ahmed

    Brooklyn College

  • Compare how this experience reinforced or challenged your previous ideas about museums. Would you encourage other Macaulay students to visit museums?

    This experience challenged my previous ideas about museums. Before I came, I thought that just looking at everything would be remarkably boring. However, I was able to appreciate the depth of what I found. I appreciated the ancient Egyptians relics that were thousands of years old. I recognized that real people spent time making those, that these objects are pieces of art history. I also liked looking through the American art section with subjects and mediums that made me not just look at them but see them. Overall I enjoyed the museum. I would encourage other Macaulay students to visit different museums and see new art.

    Alexander Marty

    Baruch College

  • 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.)

    The Acadians in the Achafalaya, “Evangeline,” by Joseph Rusling Meeker invoked a sense of tranquility and reflection, the overhanging branches of the trees throughout the lake convey a dark, calm and serene mood,

    Koudjedji Sylla

    City College