As we’ve been all saying since the beginning of this school year New York is a Mecca for arts. Lately, giving a tour of Greenwich Village to my French friend, I got inspired by another example of arts in NYC- store windows.
People become so creative in order to promote their merchandise that they create a form of art in their own genre. It is not only about the clothes they sell or the price they sell it for, but about the brand and its exposition. They use symbols that customers can assimilate with or status they desire to have.

The China Festival at Carnegie Hall was an enjoyable experience. Although I don't play any instruments and the music at the concert wasn't anything that I put on my mp3 player, I was paying close attention to the performers and the way they were playing. The first pianist was boring me a bit in the beginning because he started off slow and somber. Then, suddenly, he hit a very fast "Tom and Jerry" pace. I noticed that he had a look of intense concentration throughout.

I have to admit that our meeting with the artistic director of Carnegie Hall was not quite what I had hoped it would be. He didn't really give much insight as to what his role is at Carnegie Hall, and I felt like he spent more time promoting the venue than he did expressing his love for his job or his appreciation for the arts. It was interesting to hear about the amount of planning that goes into creating events like the Chinese Festival, but I think I would've liked a more personal perspective on what it is like to have a career in the art world.

I remember last summer, I was in Paris, and I went to the Pompidou Center, a very odd building with infrastructure on the outside, painted in bright colors. There, I saw an exhibit on Kandinsky, which I liked a lot (and mentioned in my photography paper for this class). A couple of months later, back in New York City, I started to see advertisements for the same exhibit at the Guggenheim museum. I have been debating with myself on whether I should see the same exhibit again.

Attending the Metropolitan Museum of Art was an eye-opening experience for me. I still don't think I fully appreciate the opportunites we as Macaulay Honors Scholars have. The chance to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in general is amazing in itself. But we as scholars have the chance to visit the museum for free, whenever we please. I took the opportunity to visit the MOMA after our visit at Carneige Hall with the art director. There were many exhibitions being held at the MOMA, but we (Sara, Ross, and I) decided to take a look at the Monet's Water Lillies exhibition.