For a passionate art student, there is nothing better than to explore the work of professionals in a place that is local to them—it helps to draw a connection between the students and art and allows them to see that there are people doing amazing things with their creativity just an hour away from home. In this case, LHS art students had the opportunity to experience Chelsea’s over 300 art galleries in Manhattan on March 6.
Art teachers Vincent Lentini, Michael Kunz, and Tom Sena organized the trip. Opportunities like this one are seen as extremely important for not only their students, but also for their teaching. Such trips help inspire their students, making them more engaged and excited for all of the new projects they will be working on in their respective art classes.
Members of Printmaking and Sculpture, AP Drawing, and Portfolio Prep were able to attend this trip; in total, 27 sophomores, juniors, and/or seniors attended. Many split into small groups that not only gave them the opportunity to explore the different galleries, but also to have fun roaming around a beautiful part of the city while learning.
The teachers gave each of their students different incentives for the day, and students were motivated to achieve the goal given to them. Lentini, the Printmaking and Sculpture teacher, challenged each of his students to see 10 galleries during the day, but if they wanted extra credit, they had to see 20. Junior Nova Rozas noted, “I didn’t think we were going to be able to see 20 [studios], but we ended up doing it. It didn’t feel long at all. We all had so much fun, and since so many of them had such different stuff, it helped each one to feel unique.”
Portfolio Prep seniors Catherine Christakos and Madison Watson expressed that their favorite gallery was the AP Space gallery featuring works by Byung-Rock Yoon. Yoon specializes in hyper-realistic oil paintings of apples done on Korean paper. According to the AP Space gallery website, “Yoon’s works are admired and collected by the National Museum of Modern Art, Daegu District Public Prosecutor’s Office and Daegu Culture & Arts Center.” Christakos added, “It felt like you were looking at a picture of apples when you walked in.” Yoon’s intricate collection was one of many others that students were able to see throughout the day.
In addition to being a learning experience for students, some were even able to take what they saw at the galleries and incorporate it into ideas for their current projects. Junior Addison DiFiore is currently enrolled in AP Drawing and draws inspiration from a hobby of hers—sewing—for her AP projects. At one of the galleries, she saw an artist incorporate a method of embroidery in a way that was new to her. When everyone returned to the bus to depart from the trip, she found out that Kunz had taken a picture of that same work specifically to show her. This gesture is not only a testament to how dedicated the teachers in the art program are to making students’ work the best it can be, but also to how experiences like this one can help artists gain access to ideas they might have never seen beforehand.
Also enrolled in AP Drawing, junior Payton Stalter shared, “…it was so cool to see so many people’s art being displayed and sold at this scale…art is something I want to pursue, so it was really cool to see people doing that and the possibilities of it.” Stalter also added how it was a great way to unwind because “[students]…had a day to ourselves to be independent and venture out a little bit…it gave us a good break from the normal school schedule.”
The countless mediums and works featured in the galleries in NYC’s Chelsea served as a representation of the uniqueness of the art students at LHS. Students have their own preferences when it comes to aspects of their projects, but this trip was a way to connect these students through something they all love and appreciate.
