Category Archives: Place-based Learning Reflections

The MET

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Emily cracking up in front of the MET. We where excited

My urban tourism class and I took a trip to the New York Metropolitan Museum on the most beautiful day. We choose this museum because the Met is a huge tourist attraction. I learned of the Met museum before my urban tourism class.  finally visited with my sports and recreation class last semester. The admission price for me was heavenly, free, just how i like it. However, because most of the people that visit are tourist and not residence of New York, according to the Met website they may have to pay; $25 dollars for adults $17 dollars for seniors; $12 for students; and free for Members, Patrons, and children under 12 and the good thing is you can spend the whole day there if you wanted. The museum fee, I agree it may be too much money but I believe that it is worth it and it is crucial for the survival of this beautiful museum. I feel that everyone has the right to see art and experience the feelings that it brings but to other residents I’m sorry, but the people that can’t afford it in New York can still come in for free. When I went to the museum I took the 5 train from Flatbush Avenue and got off on 86 street and walked about 12 minutes from the train. You can also take the 4 train if thats a better route, but eventually you’ll be doing some walking. If not take an uber, or a yellow cab.

sitting On the sides of the fountain

On June 19th, we took a tour with one of our own Robert who is the food and beverage manager of all of the restaurants at the Met. One of the most important things he said was how he actually had a life working at the Met and his life wasn’t all about work. I love that, because I’n the Hospitality world you can always expect to work over time and there’s almost never a time of relaxation. I got the idea that his work can be stressful sometimes with unexpected events happening all around him. Like If some of his team calls out and he as to figure out how to manage the extra work, and wether he should pull someone from other places in the Met. He briefly talked about the retraining of his staff and it sounded stressful, although he did sound very happy. overall I enjoyed the tour because it gave another eye opening to another side of the hospitality industry, which I never thought about as a career option. I loved that we got to tour the rooftop bar because when I first visited the Met I only discovered the cafe downstairs in the basement. I never knew there where so options, no wonder people can spend all day there.

 

upstairs at the rooftop bar

The annual visitors according to metmuseum.org is seven million people. While we where there I seen many different diversity of people. There where a lot of tours going on, and a lot of people. I felt very at home, I was engaging with our tour guide Susan and the rest of my class seemed to be very comfortable. We where all asking questions, taking pictures and where very engaged.
The focuses of the collection inside the Met is a mix of contemporary, realism, sculptures, Impressionism and so much more. The highlight to me was the heavenly bodies fashion and the catholic expression exhibition because that was the first thing I seen from the front before walking in. The exhibition was low in light, and I loved it because it bought out the diamonds on the dresses better. I loved the Victorian style dresses and wish I spent more time there.

The museums website, is very accessible. I can find everything I need.theres a visit section where you can plan your visit to the museum. The events button where we can find current events and programs at the Met. The learning button where very different age group can explore and see what people in there age group will be most interested in. The store button where we can find clothes, jewelry, books, mugs etc. if I wanted to join and give, oh there’s a button for that. We can see all past and present and future exhibitions from the exhibitions button. It was definitely user friendly, they provide a lot of information.

I really loved the Vincent Van Gogh Wheat field with caresses oil canvas. Susan told us that this painting could never be done the same, and was the last painting he did before going into  a crazy home. i loved that i could see movement in the clouds and the fields. After learning a bit more about Van Gogn i love the painting even more. I believe that the tour helped me to appreciate art more because now i feel like i understand the artist. Everything as a back story and i admire that about the sculptures that we saw and the many paintings and some of which the artist completed within months or years.

Thomas Hart Benton – America Today. This painting is the city activities and dancehall

 

velazquez-oil on canvas. this is valasquez slave painted in rome. I love that this painting shows strength and status even though he was a slave. shows that you didn’t need to be rich or of high status to show elegance and power.

 

 

The Museum of Ice Cream is an art exhibit in Manhattan with a ice cream and candy theme. It is initially in San Francisco where they have the actual museum and have decided to create pop up in New York for people to go and have an amazing backdrop for their Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and etc pictures. It was founded by Maryellis Bunn who was trying to bring together the new generation in a fun way. She thought since everyone loves ice cream why not come up with a fun idea to have everyone enjoy!

My cousins and I sitting in the entrance

The banana theme drop back representing the banana flavored ice cream.

The Cherry Flavored Ice Cream Section

 

The Cotton Candy Ice Cream Flavored Section

It is a great place to go and have a good time. They operate Monday, Wednesday, Thursday , Friday, Saturday and Sunday and are closed Tuesdays. It is free admission and very colorful which makes you feel like a kid again, its a only tasting experience. They  have ice cream session where you are able to experience the tasting room by looking at the components of 7 different ice cream flavors made directly by them and only sold in Target and The Ice Cream Museum in San Francisco. They also have what they call the pint session which is a series of workshops which brings together the creativity and mission of others imagination to enrich their passion of becoming social influencers with hands on activities.

 

Hope you guys enjoyed and hopefully you’ll go for some fun and ice cream tasting. I truly recommend trying the “cherrylicious” made of maraschino ice cream  with sugar cookie bites. It was delicious!

Lets Go To The Met

During our trip to the Met Museum on June 19, 2018 my classmates and I were welcomed by Robert, a student at New York City College of Technology who manages all the restaurants in the museum. It had an breathtaking view to our beautiful city of Manhattan and beautiful sculptures. He showed us the restaurant and mention his concept as a manager and the things he has to organize and perform to satisfy his guest.

After spending a good time just feeling the nice breeze and getting some sun we headed down to the lobby of the museum and were introduced to Susan Gordon who gave us the highlight tour guide. She started us off with the marble statue of a kouros. It was one of the earliest marble statues of a human figure carved in Attica. It was made by the artist Fletcher Fund which was of high standards. It was mostly known for being a symmetrical sculpture of the perfect man which marked the grave of a young Athenian aristocrat.

We were than shown the fragments of a marble state of the Diadoumenos which represented youth tying a fillet around his head. This statue was important for its victory in the athletic contest. This represented the perfect body by making his figures carefully as possible to grasp the attention of others from the bodily proportions and stance.

Fragments of a marble state of the Diadoumenos

My favorite part of the museum was the seeing the pictures below. The Met collection of art of the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and North, Central, and South America it was representing diverse cultural traditions from as early as 3000 B.C.E. to the present. We were told by our tour guide that back than in these cultures they use this style in religious ceremonies and funerals by having dances to worship or celebrate. The colors portray morning star.

This image is a free standing instrument which makes voices of the ancestors in which was a way they communicated from different islands back in the days.

The man raising his arms represented sacred heart of success which gave the impression to remain humble.

As we continued our journey we were able to receive some insight on Thomas Hart Barton’s work from 1930-1931 we can see his panel in which we see the advancement of technology and how it changes American lifestyle.

Here we see how music had a lot to do during this time. People would work as hard as they can and still find time for entertainment.

Here we see a different paining of his more abstract styled.

I found it interesting that these paintings were made using eggs.

Another important art was the Vincent Van Gogh – native holland 1985 of the potatoe peeler peasant. It was the start of self potraits which than leaded to paintings outdoors. 

My experience at the Met Museum was lovely I really want to go back and spend a whole day exploring it. I wasn’t able to see everything I wanted to because of the time and responsibilities but it was such an amazing well organized museum. You feel so free although many people are in the way you feel like you’re in another world and you  start to appreciate the importance of art.

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Patricia Vermudez- Museum assignment 2

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I decided to go to Whitney Museum of American Art for the museum visit assignment.  The museum focuses on twentieth century and contemporary American art (“About the Whitney”).  The museum was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.  It was opened the following year on West Eight street in Greenwich Village (Schjeldahl, 2015).  I found out about this museum from a classmate of mine a few semesters ago. She had a PowerPoint presentation about the Whitney Museum for one of the hospitality management classes.  I got very interested after watching her presentation.  I did not get a chance to visit the museum though.  This museum was also mentioned a couple of times in Urban Tourism class too, the reason why I decided to come here.

Just like other popular museums in the city, the general admission for adults is $25, $18 for seniors and students. Visitors who are 18 and under get to go inside for free (About the Whitney”).  When I went to the counter, I showed my CUNY ID to the staff.  I was also readying my credit card to pay for the student admission.  I was surprised when the employee handed me the ticket without asking me to pay.  I asked her if I have to pay, she then told me that CUNY students get to visit the museum for free.  I feel like $25 has been the standard fee for museums in New York. Because of that, I think that the price is reasonable.

The closest subway station is the 14thStreet station that has A, C, and E train lines (“About the Whitney”).  I took the C train to go to the museum. After getting out of the subway, I have to walk for about ten more minutes before arriving to the museum.  While doing some research about the Whitney museum, I found out that the building was new.  From Madison Avenue, the museum moved to Downtown in the meatpacking district in 2015 (Schjeldahl, 2015).  This explains why the building looks so clean and new.  The architect who designed the new building, that cost $4422 million (Weiss, 2016), was Renzo Piano (Schjeldahl, 2015).  I really like the location of the place.  There are a lot of restaurants and shopping stores in the area.  Chelsea Market is also a few blocks away.  The building is also placed near the waterfront. The High Line is also overlooking. For some reason, the building reminds me of a shopping mall.  The staffs working in the museum were very polite and accommodating.  I was greeted nicely, and I felt very welcomed.  The interior of the new building is modern, which matches the contemporary arts that the museum is showcasing.  I also noticed that there are restrooms almost most of the floors.

Based on Lois Weiss’ article, the museum has about 340,000 numbers of visitors annually.  However, Adam Weinberg, Whitney’s director, said that they were hoping that the new museum would double this number (2016).  During my visit, I noticed that there were a lot of millennials visiting the museum.  Probably fifty percent of the guests were millennials, and the other half was a mixture of baby boomers ad Generation X.  I also did not notice a lot of kids inside.  There was probably only about five of them.

There are five galleries in the museum, but the gallery on the fifth floor is close. The first gallery that I saw was the one on the third floor called “Flash.”  This is a photography collection by Harold Edgerton.  In sixth floor, some photographs, paintings, and other art forms regarding the history of protest are being displayed that made me feel gloomy because of the tragedy that happened and is happening in the country.

All this museum is very educational.  I enjoyed my visit in the museum.   I would not be surprise if becomes more popular in the future and that the number of annual visitors would be doubled or tripled.

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

About the Whitney. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://whitney.org/About

Schjeldahl, P. (2015, June 19). The Whitney’s Downtown Move. Retrieved from.  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/27/new-york-odyssey

Weiss, L. (2016, August 29). Whitney Museum drowning in water bills: Report. Retrieved from https://nypost.com/2016/08/29/whitney-museum-drowning-in-water-bills-report/

 

The Met- Patricia Vermudez

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the most popular museums not just in New York, but in the world.  It welcomes about seven million visitors.  It is also said to be the most visited museum in New York City for both domestic and international crowd (metmuseum.org).  I found out about this museum through my auntie.  I still remember the first that I went here, my aunt was touring me around Central Park until we get to this museum.  We went inside and were about to buy tickets, but we thought that the tickets that cost $25 for general admissions were too expensive. My aunt thought that it was free, but she was unsure.  We decided to just stay in the lobby for a little bit and left.  Based on the museum’s website, the general admission fee for adults is $25.  For seniors, it is $17.  For students, it is $12 (Penn, 2016).  Since I was not a student during my first visit, I have to pay $25.  I thought it was ridiculously high, and just rather spend that amount of money to food.  When I found out that the $25 admission fee was just a suggested price, so I told my friend to come visit it with me.  I get to visit the museum for the second time, and this time I get to go inside and not just in the lobby.  However, I did not get to enjoy it that much because it was only less than an hour till the museum closes.  The museum usually opens at 10 am to 5:30 pm on Sundays to Thursdays.  For Fridays and Saturdays, it opens until 9 pm (metmuseum.org). I found this information through the museum’s website, which I find very user-friendly.

The class had field trip in the Metropolitan Museum of Art last June 19th.  It was my third time to visit the museum.  I arrived a bit late because I had a class that ended at 11 am on that day. The closest subways to the museum are 4, 5, and 6 (Penn, 2016).  I took the 4 train from Borough Hall station and it took me about 50 minutes to an hour to arrive in the museum.  I also have to walk for about 12-15 minutes.  Good thing GPS was invented.  Without it, I would definitely get lost.  As usual, there were a lot of people touring inside the museum.  Just like my first and second visit, I noticed that some staffs were a bit impolite to some visitors.  The staffs in the information desk were very helpful though. However, the employees who were working in the register were showing lack of interests towards the guests. Since the Met is a very popular tourist attraction in NYC, I think that the employees should be friendlier and patient to the visitors.

Since I only get to explore a little part of the museum on my last visit, I did not expect how big the place is.  Because the museum showcases over 5,000 years of art from around the world. The museum did not just focus in one collection, but many—including Asian art, European paintings, American history and many more (metmuseum.org).  My perspective has changed since my first visit to the museum.  As we tour around the museum, I realized that the admission price was worth the visit.

I get to see the Slit Gong or the Atingting kon, which I found out that it was the biggest gong.  I also get see Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings that I only saw online.  The tour guide also mentioned Van Gogh’s painting technique “impasto” that has a thick texture that leaves visible brush strokes.  Bronzino’s “Portrait of a Young Man” is the opposite to Van Gogh’s technique.  In Bronzino’s painting, there is no visible brush stroke compared to Van Gogh’s “impasto” painting style.  The tour guide pointed out the gargoyles in Bronzino’s painting.  She said that these gargoyles may represent masks.

After the tour, I walked around the museum.  I will definitely come back to this place again.  I feel like I went time traveling as I look at the sculptures, paintings, and historical objects in the museum.

 

 

Work Cited

Penn, A. (2016). Guide to the Met Fifth Avenue. Nycgo.org. Retrieved from https://www.nycgo.com/articles/guide-to-the-met-fifth-avenue

Metmuseum.org. Retrieved from https://www.metmuseum.org

the Slit Gong

Mural

Wheatfield

Portrait of a Young Man

Experiencing New York

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Enjoying the view of New York City from Governor Island

Enjoy unique and delicious shaved ice dessert called “Kakigori” at Bonsai Kakigori in Canal Market, Chinatown. Plus it’s an instagram worthy picture.

Enjoy unique drinks in New York City at Boba Guys, Chinatown. The drink that I ordered is called “Matcha Strawberry Latte”.

Enjoy a sunset/night view from the waterfront at the West side of New York City.

MET Visit Reflection

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I went to the Metropolitan when I was first in New York in 2012. I remember after entering the heavy entrance doors the feeling of being overwhelmed. There were so many people and school groups. After my family and I got our tickets, going to see the actually exhibit was another overwhelming experience. There was just so much to see and different period rooms to explore. When I heard we going to go as a group, I was excited to go back to see the other exhibits I did not see last time. But so many things have changed since my last visit.

Ensemble autumn/ winter for 1984-1985 by Mugler, French

Evening Dress by Thierry Mugler

As we lead by Robert, the manager of food and beverage in the MET, he walked us through the Heavenly Bodies exhibit. There was the soft tones of organ playing in the background. I felt so peaceful even as the there crowds of people to weave through. It was organized chaos as people would just stop to take pictures or just stop to observe the exhibit.

 

 

 

Heavenly Bodies Exhibit

The Heavenly Bodies Fashion exhibit was probably one of favorites during this visit to the MET. I liked how they utilized the whole space to feel like we were in church.

 

Wood carving

Domino Park

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Last week our class visited the former Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Once the largest and most productive sugar refinery in the world, this site has a rich history of significant growth and development of Williamsburg and the industrialization of the Brooklyn Waterfront. It contributed to the rise of New York City as a global economic powerhouse. Operating between 1856 and 2004, Brooklyn’s Domino Sugar Refinery was the last major active industrial operation on Brooklyn’s once bustling East River waterfront.

Former site of Domino Sugar Factory

Domino Park was built as a tribute to the history of the site and dedicated to the diversity and resiliency of generations of Domino workers, their families and their neighborhood. There are many subtle and not-so-subtle nods to the locations past, including the actual refinery building and the syrup tanks.

Artist painting an advertisement Cheese taco, chips with salsa and guac, and Mae Syrup tanks

On our way to Domino Park, we saw a mural being painted to advertise a movie.  While we were there, we saw people of all ages having picnics and enjoying the sun with their children, their dogs, and their friends, while others were out for an afternoon jog.  It seemed to be a place where everyone can feel welcome and accepted.  Groundskeepers and other park-goers were eager to take a group photo for our class.  I really enjoyed the friendly, easygoing atmosphere.

Before our class concluded, we had a bite to eat at Tacocina, a Union Square Hospitality taco stand that will be open year-round in the park. After spending a few hours walking in the sun, it was a perfect refreshment.

I enjoyed our trip to Williamsburg, and I enjoyed learning about the history of the location on the park’s website.  I’m eager to tell my friends and family about it, and hopefully get to visit again soon.

 

The Met

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

I really enjoyed my visit to the Met Museum on Tuesday with my Urban Tourism class. I was surprise that I enjoyed it so much because I always hate the idea of going to a museum. The Met is the largest art museum in the United State. Apart from its exhibition, the Met also host traveling shows throughout the year such as the famous Met Gala. According to Wikipedia.com, in 2016, the Met was the third most visited museum in the world with 7.06 million visitors.

Getting to the museum was easy for me. I took the number 4 train to 86th street and walk three blocks west to fifth Ave. The walk took approximately 10 minutes to the museum.

The museum was really busy but I did notice that they have staff all over the floor that is always ready to assist if you need assistance. They have an information desk with maps and brochures with information on special exhibits. I did also notice that they have a lot of gift shops especially in areas with special exhibits. I also notice that on the day of our visit there were a lot of school groups there as well.

I also did notice that the line to purchases admission tickets wasn’t really crowed. I did see people using the new kiosk the Met recently installed to get their tickets as well so maybe that’s the reason the admission lines wasn’t long.

Susan Jordan our tour guide was amazing. She was very knowledgeable about her job and she brings life to the exhibits in the way she passionately talks about each piece of artwork. The way she even explain the brush strokes on each art piece shows her passion for the arts. I was very intrigued by the story she shared with us about the Velazquez painting of his slave. It was very heart felt and have me looking at the artwork in a different light. I enjoyed the guided tour and I would only do guided tours at museums from now on.

The roof top garden was breathtaking. The view of the city was something to experience. I will have to go back on my day off with my family.

 

“Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” was my favorite area. I love fashion and the items that are on display are something to marvel at. Especially the piece by Yves Saint Laurent which is called “ Statuary Vestment For The Virgin Of El Rocio, ca 1985”. I believe this piece was the inspiration for many celebrities who attend the 2018 Met Gala such as Rihanna whose outfit was similar in design.

Overall this was a really good museum experience for me and I will definitely visit again.