The Arts in New York City

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On an ordinary late night, I truly witnessed the idea that “Art is where you find it” in the Union Square subway station. As I descended the stairs to the platform, I heard music being played. When I got to the bottom, I saw a man in his sixties playing the accordion. A couple in their twenties slow danced in the open space in front of the accordion player. They slowly spun around in a circle as they whispered in each other’s ears. People paused to stare at them, but they acted as if they were in their own little ballroom. Moment later, another young couple joined in. I could not believe what I saw. Although the music coming out of the accordion was not even pleasant to the ears, I began to think that it was romantic sounding. The scene that I witnessed that night was beautiful and confirmed that art can indeed be found anywhere.

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Diwali is a significant festival in Hinduism, which originated in India. It is the celebration of the return of Lord Rama, king of Ayodhya. He returned from a fourteen year exile in the forest. People of Ayodhya celebrated by lighting rows of lamps. Today in present day, people celebrate Diwali by lighting candle at home and also at the temple. In our house, we lit up candles on the stairs and on the front steps. In addition to the candles some also light firecrackers at night. I remember lighting firecrackers when I was in Bangladesh. On Diwali my brother and I used to get money from my grandparents and light them in our backyard. There used to be so many different types of them. However it is hard to do such a thing here in New York City. Instead we light different colored and sized candles in our house. Last weekend on Diwali my sister made a few patterns with the candles. When I turned of the lights, the light was remarkable to look at. These patterns could be seen differently in everyone’s eyes. It is amazing how a religious holiday can result in art.

The last gallery tour I attended at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has left a huge impression on me.  I went back for another visit on October 26, Friday.  This time I attended a gallery talk called Hinduism: In the Realm of Gods and Goddesses.  The guide’s name was Marie-Hélène Weill.  The gallery talk was much more different than the gallery tour I had been to a few weeks ago.  Rather than being very informative about the sculptures in the galleries, she told many stories about the Hindu gods and goddesses, which were very interesting.  (more…)

The last place i thought i would find art is in the subway. I have been using the 74th Street – Roosevelt Avenue station for about the passed nine years. Nine years ago this subway was not in such a good condition. There were a lot of graffiti, broken down doors and dirty walls in the subway station. But over the passed four to six years, there have a lot of renovations done in that station. Part of these renovations included new stairs, more entrances, and other things. I had noticed the changes when I would go to the subway once in a while. A few days ago I was waiting for the 7 train for a long time due to a problem on the track and noticed some artworks on the glass wall of the platform. Instead of boring one colored walls, they decided to put in these glass walls. There were many different abstract designs done the glass. These designs consisted of simple shapes transformed and colored. This reminded me of the exhibit called recollections from the Hall of Science. I was amazed to find art in such a place as the 74th Street subway station. I did not even notice these till few days ago. So look at your local subway stations I bet you will notice new artwork and will be amazed by it.

I had never been to the New York Hall of Science till last week. While I was walking into the Hall of Science, I was thinking how am I going to find art here? After all it is the Hall of Science, where little kids go to learn science while they are having fun. I was absolutely wrong. The Hall of Science has great deal of artworks. There are art galleries on the second level as well as many opportunities to create your own artwork. (more…)

I am sure everyone here has been to the MET sometime in the passed years. I remember going to the MET almost every year for my school trips. Since I have been there so many times and basically seen the same exact exhibits over and over, I thought my visit to the MET would be another boring one. But there was an unexpected turnout. I went to the Robert Lehman Collection tour last Friday. I had never been on a tour before inside the MET. It was a new experience for me. The tour guide Carmeta Barone, was very informative. But since there was a time limit on the tour, she had to get through a lot of painting in a short amount of time. I would rather have her spend more time on a few specific paintings. The tour consisted of paintings from Renaissance to Impressionism. That is a lot to cover in an one hour tour. It would have been better if the tour focused on only the Renaissance paintings. I knew some of the Renaissance paintings from before but the information about the other paintings were hard to follow. I think this tour is mainly for people who are already familiar with the paintings in the Robert Lehman Collection.

The exhibition, “New York Divided: Slavery and Civil War”, takes an in-depth look at not only the impact of slavery in the state of New York, but the toll that it had on the nation as a whole. The progress ofNew York State came after an era of controversy concerning slavery. The exhibition shows us the struggle of the African American slaves as well as the after effects of the abolition of slavery in New York. (more…)