Metro Art Access: NYC 2026 trip wrap up

Western students stand in front of a large sign reading "Cooper Hewitt"

Metro Art Access: NYC is an annual summer pilgrimage to NYC and select regional museums led by professors Garth Amundson and Pierre Gour. The course is open to all majors and no prerequisites or art background are required.

The 2026 cohort has wrapped up their June-July trip, photos and journal entries from which they've shared on the class blog.

What an incredible experience! This dynamic group brought the class to life with curiosity, creativity, and energy! We’re not done yet! Keep an eye out for more details about the exhibition in the B-Gallery during the Fall 2026 term. We can’t wait to see everyone’s NYC inspired journals & projects!

an artist in a studio talks with students from Western — Students met with artist curators and specialists. Here, students meet with Sheila Moss in her studio. Sheila received her BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and her MFA from Syracuse University. She also holds a Master’s in Landscape Architecture from the Spitzer School of Architecture at City College, City University of NY (CUNY). Sheila is an interdisciplinary mixed media artist that explores the relationships between mark making, the environment, and process over time.

The trip is structured around visits to commercial galleries, unique site-specific installations, and major institutions, such as: the historical art collections in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim, and The Frick Collection.

two museum specialists demonstrate for students — The Metro class meet with staff members of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Thomas J. Watson Library. Andrijana Sajic and Christina Amato shared Russian constructivist journals dating back to the 1900s. They shared their career experience and talked about the objects in relationship to the mandate of the Met and responsibilities surrounding conservation.

For more cutting-edge contemporary art the class visited venues like the New Museum, MoMA PS1, and the International Center of Photography.

Another highlight was a day trip by train to DIA Beacon, located on the Hudson River, which is one of North America’s largest art venues, hosting artwork from the 60s to the 70s that addresses the minimal, the conceptual, and the monumental, all held within 300,000 square feet.

Learning about Louise Bourgeois and Crouching Spider then seeing it in person just weeks later was a new experience for me. It was probably my favorite piece in the museum today. The meaning behind it really hit, and her work is impressive not just for its size but for how she turned sketches into something so alive. Walking through its legs made me feel anxious and comforted at the same time.

One student shared their experience seeing a Reneé Green installation at Dia Beacon. Western's campus also boasts a work by Green.

a museum librarian with students — Thomas J. Watson Library study room. The Metro class met with Holly Phillips and she walked through an overview of the study room including but not limited to hand-made pop-up books by a local New York artist.

Seeing [Scene 9 from Méliès 1902 film "A Trip to the Moon"] unexpectedly in person, just hanging on a wall at MoMA, felt like running into something that had always existed for me only as a memory or a page in a book. It was one of those moments where a piece of art stops being a reference and becomes a real thing.