Arts Trip to Boston and Cambridge, October 9-11, 2009
(Selena Liss)
The 2010 Boston trip began with a
tour of the gorgeously detailed Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. After a tasty
Cambodian dinner we made our way through the greenery of Boston’s beautiful
Back Bay Fens to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and wandered through the huge
collection that includes everything from Greek and Roman sculpture to
contemporary video art. Students were then free to head out for more fun or to
turn in early.
Saturday morning found us admiring the exterior of the Institute of
Contemporary Art as well as the varied and sometimes challenging art works
housed inside the building. Then it was a walk along Boston’s famous harbour to
historic Quincy Market for great food and great shopping. The afternoon was set
aside for free time and students broke into groups to shop, explore downtown,
wander the Boston Common or enjoy a myriad of other options. After the sun was
down a large group of students and faculty met again to enjoy the immersive
theatrical experience of British theatre company Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More.
Sunday morning we toured the interior and exterior of some of MIT’s most
impressive buildings and public art works. A quick trip up to Harvard
allowed us time to view works in the Harvard Art Museum and to soak up some of
the collegiate atmosphere. Then it was back on the bus as we headed north,
stopping in Hanover to admire José Clemente Orozco’s The Epic of American
Civilization fresco cycle and to have a bite to eat on the way home.
Check out some photographs from the trip.
Here are some of the comments we received from participants
in the 2009 Boston trip:
“Organization was excellent. Had all the information I
needed. Learned to follow my eye when looking at paintings (different
experience)!”
“Teachers and students were very fun which gave a good
atmosphere… I learned a lot and met great people.”
“A lot of the art I
saw was relevant to both past and present classes.”
“I learned what contemporary art is and that my sense of
direction is better than I thought.”
“I liked Sleep No More … for its interactivity. I mostly
enjoyed the free time we had to roam museums but the short tours were very
useful and memorable.”
“Amazing! New
friends, perspectives, outlook on art… thank you!”
Itinerary
| Friday October 9 |
| 6:30 a.m. |
Departure from Marianopolis College |
| about 1:30 p.m. |
Arrival at Le
Méridien Cambridge |
| 2:30-4:45 p.m. |
Tour of the Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum |
| 5:15-6:30 p.m. |
Group dinner at
The Elephant Walk on Beacon Street |
| 6:30–7 p.m. |
Walk to the Museum of Fine Arts through the Back Bay Fens |
| 7-9:45 p.m. |
Museum of Fine Arts |
| 9:45-10:30 p.m. |
Scenic walk back to the hotel (optional) |
| Saturday October 10 |
| 10 a.m.-noon |
Tour of the Institute
of Contemporary Art (ICA) |
| noon–about 1p.m. |
Harborwalk to Faneuil Hall /Quincy
Market
(weather
permitting; we will travel by bus if it's raining)
|
| 1 p.m. onwards |
Lunch and free time. You could:
• walk the Freedom
Trail
• visit Boston
Common and the Public
Garden (audio
guide )
• tour Copley Square (including the Boston Public Library, Trinity
Church and Hancock Place)
• explore the MIT
Museum (free passes for Le Méridien guests)
• visit the List
Visual Arts Center at MIT (free admission)
• tour Harvard
University with a student guide (free)
• return to the Museum of
Fine Arts, if you want to see more |
| evening |
Optional
performance:
Sleep
No More, 7:30 pm (will meet at about 7 pm to get to the venue)
British theater company
Punchdrunk presents "an immersive production inspired by Shakespeare’s
Macbeth, told through the lens of a Hitchcock thriller."
You could also:
• see a different performance: visit the Bostix booth at Faneuil Hall or at
Copley Square (both open until 6 p.m.) for half off same-day tickets
(cash only), or check listings provided by Arts Boston, the Boston Phoenix, the Weekly Dig or the Boston Globe for news about
what’s on to plan your evening before you leave Montreal
• catch a film at the Harvard Film Archive in the
Carpenter Center (Swiss architect Le Corbusier’s only North American
building)
• view Boston from the Prudential Center’s Skywalk
Observatory (last elevator at 9:30 p.m.)
|
| Sunday October 11 |
| 9-9:45 a.m. |
Check out of hotel and load bus |
| 10 a.m.–noon |
MIT Public Sculpture Tour
|
| 12:15–12:45 p.m. |
Quick lunch near Harvard Square |
| 1:15–3:15 p.m. |
Harvard Art Museum and Carpenter Center
|
3:15–5:45
p.m
|
Bus to Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH with screening
of the film Orozco: Man of
Fire |
| 5:45-6:30 p.m. |
View “The
Epic of American Civilization” fresco cycle by José Clemente Orozco
in the Baker Library reserve reading room. (We cannot offer tours in
the library because of noise restrictions, so we suggest you download
an audio guide by art historian Mary
Coffey, anthropologist John
Watanabe, a Q&A session on the frescoes led by scholar and
curator
Jacquelynn Baas or all three. Bring them along on your mp3 player
to make the most of the experience.)
|
| 6:30-7:30 p.m. |
Dinner in Hanover |
| 7:30-11:30 p.m. |
Trip home |