The Arts in NYC

1

What did we truly gain from this seminar?

I was born and raised in New York City, the most diverse and cultural part of the world, and yet I had never attended an opera or broadway show. How shameful is that? Until Arts In NYC, I never knew of La Traviatta or Dvorak. Although I'm not too art oriented, my family is. My cousin was a first chair celloist throughout high school and in college. My other cousins all were violists and pianists, but I was never interested in such things, except after taking this class. To add on to my family's artistic background, my family owns art galleries, and my cousins all know of operas like La Traviatta and Doctor Atomic. As corny as this may sound, this class allowed me to have better conversations with my family. When I told my cousin that I was going to the Philharmonic to watch Dvorak's symphony, she was so amazed and just kept talking about Dvorak with me. Although I was not too interested in Dvorak's life, it did feel good that my cousin and I shared something in common.

To others, this class may seem more fun than productive, but with all the fun comes learning. Yes, we did go to Operas, and Broadway shows, but we also did have to write papers and discuss the history of these shows. We gained a lot of knowledge and experience from this class. In the last four months I have learned more about New York City than I have ever in my life. This experience has really made me become very appreciative of the arts.

Although all Macaulay Honors students are entitled to take this course, Professor Judell definitely made this class extraordinary. As I have mentioned before, I know many Macaulay Honors students from different campuses, and not one has been able to tell me many positive things about their professor. But, I know that everyone in our class can leave  with a positive thought of OUR professor, Professor Judell. We were all introduced to the Marx Brothers, Michel Foucault, and Paul Taylor. I'm pretty sure that before this course, not many of us were too familiar with these names. As Professor Judell always says, "we can finally go to a cocktail party and have something to talk about".