Big Apple Welcomes Valkyrie Art Students

Last week, Sacred Heart art students made the trek of over 15 hours to experience the iconic art and culture of New York City. The art department travelled to several world famous art museums in search of inspiration for their upcoming projects.

After a bus ride from Sacred Heart to their New Jersey hotel, the Valkyries headed to their first art museum of the trip: the Metropolitan Art Museum. From ancient Greek and Roman sculptures to the world-famous paintings of Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet, students spent hours exploring the exhibits and gaining inspiration for their own artwork. IB Art junior Emily Richardson was particularly moved by coming face-to-face with the works of artists like Picasso and Matisse.

“Seeing my favorite artist’s pieces in person was very inspiring,” Richardson said. “Also, seeing other creative and new ideas and exploring other artists. I’m motivated to try new things with my art.”

A visit to the iconic Museum of Modern Art was the highlight of the Valkyries’ next day in New York City. The day also consisted of a guided tour of the city of Manhattan and of the prestigious art college, the Parsons School of Art and Design. The visit to Parsons gave SHA art students the exclusive opportunity to see what attending a major arts university is like.

The art students’ last day in the Big Apple was yet another jam-packed outing full of some of New York’s most interesting art exhibitions. The museum visits included the Whitney Museum of American Art, Solomon Guggenheim Museum, and the Cloisters, a medieval architecture museum.

When not traveling from museum to museum, art students were immersed in the culture of the city that never sleeps. Valkyries lived like local New Yorkers by dining in Chinatown and Little Italy, attending a live Broadway performance of Phantom of the Opera, and viewing the city skyline from the top of the Empire State Building. Other favorite destinations included St. Patricks Cathedral, Greenwich Village, the 9/11 Memorial, Rockefeller Center, and Central Park. Students claimed their overall experience in New York has sparked their creativity and motivated them to improve their artwork.

“I was super inspired by the American, modern, and medieval artwork that we saw,” said IB art junior Jane Harris. “Being in the city makes everyone feel a certain way and I was just generally more inspired to keep creating work and getting better at doing it!”

While the students had the time of their lives in the Big Apple, the Sacred Heart community is pleased to welcome the Valkyries back to the Ville, and can’t wait to see what work the art students will create next.