as a cultural historian claiming space for women artists previously omitted from the canon. Students enthusias- tically engaged with Chicago’s questions on the visibility of women in today’s society under the banner ‘if Women ruled the world’, answering through video vox-pops with their own personal interpretations. These were cherished moments, as it was clear that so many of our young minds are already deeply in tune with the underlying stories of Chicago’s campaign. The Whitney Museum, on the Hudson in the Meatpacking District, set the scene for our upcoming Eco Week with the more than 100 works on display in Ruth Asawa’s ‘Through Line’. The exhibition captured the boundless energy and generous spirit of Asawa, who believed that ‘art is not a series of techniques, but an approach to learning, to questioning, and to sharing’. Natural forms and beautiful everyday objects were celebrated in all their quiet beauty. Onwards and Uptown along the High Line, the elevated parkscape embedded into a disused railway track, there was time for sketchbook observations en plein air . Snoop- ing round the eclectic Chelsea galleries was a great way to see the more commercial end of the art market; having been introduced to all the big galleries, it was here that the students got to see the more contemporary work selling around the New York art scene, and a reminder of the sto- ries from our recent ArtSoc talk by art dealer Harry Blain. Occupying the Guggenheim Museum’s iconic spiralled rotunda, the exhibition ‘Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility’ presented more than 100 works by 28 artists, the majority with black heritage. Partially obscured or hidden figures were positioned both literally and metaphorically at the ‘edge of visibility’ where the phrase ‘going dark’ is understood as a tactic whereby artists visually conceal the body in order to explore a key tension in contemporary society – the desire to be seen and the desire to be hidden from sight. The images on show will undeniably set up new and engaging conversa- tions in future A-level sketchbook investigations. Popular tourist look-out points – including New Museum’s panoramic Sky Room, the aforementioned High Line and our mandatory Circle Line cruise around the city’s iconic 93-metre-high goddess, the Statue of Liberty – provided us with many unforgettable drawing and photo opportu- nities, while our final stop at The Met reminded us of the power of looking back at the great masters and engaging with art from all corners of the world; each student found their own place and genre to discover as part of their own personal pursuit in arguably New York’s most visited museum. ◉
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