SHP Fine Arts Students Visit the Big Apple

However, it had been nine years since a Fine Arts trip was hosted. However, this year, around 40 SHP students were invited to spend their Spring Break in one of the largest art and culture hubs in the world: New York City. From Broadway productions, art school tours, and numerous tourist attraction visits, students discovered the possibilities of the art world outside of the Bay Area. Along with other SHP art faculty, Mr. Moshe Quinn, the Media Arts teacher and Fine Arts Co-Deparment Head was a key figure in bringing back the trip. Regarding past art trips, Quinn stated they “were billed more towards drama.” This time around, while there continued to be a strong emphasis on theater, the trip was re - invented to encompass visual arts as well. In conversation about art at Sacred Heart in particular, Quinn brought up the question, “Do [SHP art students] feel like there is enough available to satisfy their curiosity? [There is] a strong core of committed students to the arts and also a larger set of curious students who haven’t had the opportunity to the right ex - posure to discover how excited they can be about the arts.” While there are spaces for creativity on campus, students would benefit from new op - portunities for artistic exploration, which is crucial as a school with a smaller arts community. According to Mr. Quinn and implied by stu - dents who attended, this past trip has provided a “unique exposure that only a city like NYC can offer to open eyes and broaden horizons about the possibilities of creative expression for one self and to see how that can po - tentially translate into a life calling or potential career.” One way this need - ed exposure was particularly fostered was in the multiple school tours, of The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA), Columbia, NYU/ TISCH, and the School of Visual Arts (SVA) as pictured. Students were offered choices for activities focused around their re - spective art interests and forms. For those focused on traditional or visual arts, a visit to The Metropolitan Mu - seum of Art, as well as the seemingly straightforward, daily walks through the city, served as crucial opportuni - ties for observation and reflection on art history and place in everyday life. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, known more simply as “The Met,” opened its doors on Fifth Avenue in 1880 and has since housed over 1.5 million pieces representing 5,000 years of art across the world (accord - ing to The Met Website). The Met has nearly five floors, with three open to the full public. Students explored vast periods of visual arts ranging from the rich and ancient Egyptian statues and temples, to the gothic and often biblical Medieval, Byzan - tine sculptures and tapestries across the museum’s 17 departments. Even outside the building’s entrance, cre - ativity flourishes — in its majestically crafted classical pillars, the distinc - tive Art Deco and Beaux-Arts archi - tecture of New York City’s reaching skyscrapers and patterned apart - ments, and the street vendors lining the Met mile selling their paintings, and strumming their instruments, in a symphony of jumping music notes, chattering passersby, flashing lights, and screeching cars. Some days prior, the same group of 40 students and chaperones walked along the NYC High Line, transformed from its for - mer life as a railway track and indus - trial hotspot built up and repurposed through the mid-1800s and 1900s. The park is built for the community, and is famous for its green, modern landscape. Intricate and vivid art displays, including countless colorful tags and full wall murals, overlook the bright scene. Simultaneously, art, in a number of forms so naturally in - tegrated into the landscape that view - ers might miss it, is one main aspect of everyday expression and highlights the work of local artists. More specif- ically, it encapsulates the essence of New York City, championing the di - verse hopes, dreams, and experiences of its peoples. At Sacred Heart, Fine Arts Co-Department Head and Drama teacher Mr. Jeffrey Adams believes that “the things rooted in community are also rooted in the arts” and often are the events and experiences most fondly remembered on campus. Take the Chili Cook Off, for example; of course everyone joins together for the excitement of the food, for the shar - ing of our staff and parent cooking expertise. But it wouldn’t be quite the same without the performing arts input, the music to keep the energy high, and the student singers to stir crowd intrigue and the shared awe of the evening. Art amplifies the mood of its setting, and this is only con - firmed walking through the streets of NYC, especially in some of its most widely anticipated offerings for tourists or theater lovers: Broadway. Further “[gauging] overall student interest” and focusing on uplifting collective passions of the trip goers, three productions were selected for the group’s collective viewing, in - cluding “Hadestown”, a take on the Greek mythology of Eurydice and Orpheous, the musical adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s novel of the same name, “The Outsiders,” and a successful new original play titled “John Proc - tor is the Villain.” “Everywhere we go is centered around some cultural or historical context” and New York arts impact, Adams explains.“So [the trip] should be rich in both exposure” as mentioned earlier, as well as “in re - alistically applying the knowledge of one’s creative practice beyond Sacred Heart, Atherton,” or beyond one’s immediate space of comfort. Outside these shows and specific pieces of drama, students observed additional performances by the Julliard Orches - tra at Carnegie Hall, the dancers of the Martha Graham Dance Compa - ny, and a series of live Jazz musicians in clubs such as Smalls and the Blue Note, ensuring that all work of the arts students, no matter their craft, felt reflected along the way. Page 14 April 29, 2025 By AJ O’Donnell Fernando ‘27 and Mira Kubein ‘27 Arts Editor and Staff Writer THE ARTS BEAT Central Park The walking tour through Central Park provided us time to soak in the calming and alluring scenery of one of the cities most well known public parks.