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Williamsburg High School for Architecture and Design

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You are here: Home / The Column / Whitney Museum Arts Education at WHSAD

Whitney Museum Arts Education at WHSAD

April 14, 2021 By Sheena Luke

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On Tuesday, March 16th, the Whitney Museum had a digital collaboration with WHSAD to present and analyze art work with the students. This interactive event made a lasting impression on students by providing the opportunity for stimulating and entertaining discussions. Arts educator, Jano Cortijo, discussed with freshmen students various subject matters, from portraits to architectural observational drawings, each provoking its own response from students. 

To provide a student perspective on the event, several students shared their opinions and overall takeaway from the Whitney Museum sessions.

Nataly Hurtado

The most interesting aspect was how interactive the presentation was. We all got to participate and give our opinions.

It taught me something that I consider very important: how to analyze an image. It could be anything, from a painting of a building to a drawing of a human showing some sort of emotion, of how the shadows and shading can make such a big difference and how to detect small details or even mistakes. I would be able to utilize this information when I am working on my art. I will try to use all the advice and all I learned to make my art more accurate and more visibly pleasant.

Overall I enjoyed it a lot as it was very interactive. They took everyone’s opinions, and we all had a chance to talk and share our thoughts. It was fun to analyze the pictures, and I’m sure the rest of my classmates also loved it. 

Jkai Blyden

To me, the most interesting aspect of the event was when we were observing certain images that we would then try to figure out in what specific time period that artwork was made. This was very interesting to me because it gave me a chance to closely observe the evolution of art techniques and the different kinds of art that were produced during those times. This event taught me the uniqueness of an artwork and the amount of skill and precision that was put into the artwork. As a student of WHSAD, I can utilize this information in the future because I understand what kind of changes are made when the drawing style of artworks change, and this is very important because it allows me to think of different ways to change my artwork. In the end, I feel like this event was very informative and expressive in the different styles of an artwork. 

Darrell Duncan

The most interesting aspect of the event was the paintings because all the paintings show very nice details. It also shows that the artist took their time on it. 

The part that was particularly engaging to me was how the paintings show hard work to the point where it was questionable to see what the paintings are trying to show or resemble.

The event has taught me to be creative. If I were going to create a painting that would show a lot of details and effort to it because it is important to artist to show that and see where they are coming from when they create paintings.

As a student at WHSAD what I have learned from the event is that you could paint anything, but you also have to show effort and skills when your creating a painting. This can also help me in the near future if I ever come across to create a masterpiece.

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About Sheena Luke

Hello, my name is Sheena Luke. I am currently a 9th grader attending Williamsburg Highschool for Architecture and Design. Presently, my goals include, primarily focusing on academics and getting situated in some extracurricular studies which may be useful in the future. The hobbies of which I partake in during my free time, consist of drawing, editing, and writing. There isn’t necessarily much to me, however, I do strive in attempting to create a better future for myself.

Click here to read more articles written by Sheena Luke.

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