The famous artwork of the past is easily overlooked with the rise of the digital era. “In the digital age, you can find these pictures online anywhere…” stated Leah Mellmer, the student manager of Pacific Lutheran University’s Lute Air Student Radio (LASR). However, New York’s Museum of Modern Art is still attracting a large crowd to its many exhibits.
For Mercer residents, the MoMA is a short train ride to view exceptional artworks, like the well-known, Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh. The museum gives discount tickets to students with ID’s. For 14 dollars, you cannot go wrong.
Mellmer stated, “If we are talking about art museums in the United States, everyone, I feel like, thinks of MoMA. People come here from all over the world.” Being based out of Washington State, Mellmer came a long distance to have this experience.
She told The VOICE, “It’s an amazing feeling just after knowing something that only had existed in books. It’s like now it exists in your world.”
In the six-story building, hours of art surrounds the building’s interior. Art you can visually dive into, art you can scale with your fingertips, and art that rattles your eardrums overwhelmed the senses, making for a different experience than the average museum.
The Museum of Modern Art has created an atmosphere that is beyond a framed piece of art on the wall. Exhibits such as Reanimation by Joan Jones includes a wide variety of colorful projections along with delicate hanging crystals. Music, both relaxing and intense, captivates the mood of this artform’s overall impression.
“It really took ahold of my attention” Mellmer states. “You walk around the projection, you become part of the projection and the crystals are just kind of mesmerizing and hypnotic. Everything’s changing.”
When it comes to art, The Museum of Modern Art changes its former meaning.“You can almost feel the presence of the artist and the steps that they took when you’re looking at it in person, up close,” Mellmer states. No longer is art just something pleasing to the eye, but now a full body experience, and an experience worth fulfilling.
