As an art history student, I was provided with the opportunity to go to New York City with my class to tour art museums, visit famous architectural sites, and explore the culture of New York. Being a theatre die-hard, travel enthusiast, and in the middle of a tiring junior year, I jumped at the chance! For four days and three nights, my classmates and I were completely immersed in the art and architecture of New York City.
After leaving Darlington at 5:30 a.m., we arrived in NYC and jumped into exploring the city. The first day, we viewed the Oculus (the World Trade Center's transportation complex), saw the NYC skyline and learned about the history of skyscrapers at the One World Trade Center, and paid respects at the 9/11 memorial and visited the museum. After that, we ate dinner at a restaurant specializing in outrageous chocolate desserts, then subwayed up to Times Square to enjoy the shopping and views.
Starting Thursday, the journalism students went to Colombia University to attend a journalism conference, and art history students began their trek throughout the city. While the journalism students attended their conference Thursday and Friday, we saw countless art and architecture exhibitions, many of which we learned about in class. We visited the Whitney (and saw some amazing Andy Warhols!), took a rafter tour of the largest Gothic cathedral in the world (St. John the Divine), visited the Cloisters Museum (entirely dedicated to medieval art!), and toured the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was amazing to see so many of the architectural styles and characteristics we learned about in class come to life, and the excitement in the room soared every time we discovered art that had been examples to us in class or on our tests. We were exposed to different artistic styles and characteristics, and at the MET, we were able to learn in real time about expressionist and impressionist painting while looking at the actual painting in front of us. We were so excited to see the Van Gogh & Matisse paintings and tour an exact replica of an Egyptian temple at the MET.
Aside from art, we had our fun in NYC! Our tour guide was amazing, and we were able to visit Grand Central Station, walk through Central Park, go to Rockefeller Center, view the brand new Hudson Yards neighboorhood, eat the best bagels of our lives, and stuff our face with pizza and pasta (we're still high schoolers, after all 😊 ). One of the highlights of the trip was being able to see two Broadway shows: "Kiss Me Kate" and "Come From Away" (on opening night!). With "Kiss Me Kate," we stage-doored and got our playbills signed by all of the leading actors (Kelli O'Hara, Will Chase, and Corbin Bleu). As kids who grew up in the 2000s, Corbin Bleu (aka Chad from High School Musical) was a MAJOR celebrity, and we took the opportunity to get a picture with him.
This trip was an amazing experience, and I couldn't be more grateful to Darlington (and everyone who supports it!) for giving us the opportunity to travel and experience real-life, hands-on, interactive learning. From seeing the Adorfini altarpiece (an intensely studied art history piece) at the Cloisters to laughing my head off in Chelsea Market with my friends, this trip has been an experience that I will never forget, and always appreciate.
