Apparently, I saved the biggest museum for last. The galleries of The Metropolitan Museum of Art cannot be seen in a day, let alone in the few hours I had left before it closed on one of my last days in the city. Rather than spending my time exploring the temporary exhibitions, I found myself drawn to my usual haunts: 19th & 20th century paintings.

While I love discovering new artists, I also love returning to those whom I’ve studied and appreciated for years. As part of my first Art History class in college, I wrote a paper on an artist named Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. After spending a good two months “with” the French painter and poster-maker, I feel a certain connection with his art. Now, whenever I find myself in a position to look at late 19th-century art, I instantly search for any of his work!

In the case of the Met, I easily found what I was looking for.  I had visited this wing often enough. There I stood in front of this painting and others by my favorite painter, transfixed by a magic one feels when seeing the exacting strokes of another person’s vision. The rapidity of the brushstrokes, the brightness of the colors, the texture of the cardboard canvas. (Obviously, this little picture doesn’t do it any justice.) 

After spending a sufficient amount of time gazing at Toulouse-Lautrec’s works, I decided to use the last ten minutes before the museum’s closing to my advantage. I just had to seek out a new favorite section of the Museum. 

Within the Asian wing of the Met are a few galleries dedicated to the art of India. In them I found ancient statues of Hindu gods and goddesses taken from temples and ruins that I had visited during my travels in the country. In those final ten minutes of my visit, I had found another way to reminisce from afar!

So I guess that’s the takeaway from my summer of learning -- always be looking for something new to love.

Besides the statues of deities in the ancient Indian art rooms, I also discovered these centuries-old royal earrings.  I know I never saw anything like these while in India -- and I know that I definitely have something new to love!

Until we meet again!

- Nadine

One of the main things I love about museums is learning about other cultures. This is also why I love traveling. I spent this past winter and spring studying abroad in Jaipur, India. I made many friends and memories there, and it has been tough to come back to the United States and adjust back into my “old” life.

My post-study abroad life now includes a lot of Indian take-out, watching too many Bollywood movies and visiting museums which exhibit Indian art and culture. Chief among New York institutions dedicated to South Asian culture is the Rubin Museum of Art.

I made it a point to visit the Museum on a Wednesday, when they present a weekly free concert series featuring South Asian music. When I studied in India, I lived with an incredible host-family who all happened to be professional musicians.

As a fellow musician who also comes from a musical family, I could not have felt more at home (yet still very much a foreigner) when I could overhear my host-dad’s sitar lessons and my host-mom giving voice lessons. Besides my host-father, my “brother” and “uncle” also played sitar, so the sounds of this instrument truly colored my experience in India.

Thus, it was with both the happiness of memory and the sadness of distance that I listened to this instrument in Manhattan, 7388 miles from my Indian home.

After the sounds of the sitar died away, I went about exploring the galleries of the Museum; one exhibit in particular resonated deeply with me - Candid: The Lens and Life of Homai Vyarawalla. Vyarawalla was India’s first female photojournalist, snapping away during the time of Independence in 1947. Her photographs include numerous of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and its famous freedom fighter Mohandas Gandhi. Seeing candid pictures of these two men was heartwarming yet jarring, as I had spent a semester learning about them without seeing so much humanity and personality in my textbooks.

Of all the photographs, my favorite featured Victoria Terminus, a train station and a beautiful relic of the colonial age in Mumbai. After traveling in the city, both this building and the man shown peddling his wares are familiar sights to me; it made me smile and tear up to see them again in this photograph, welcoming me back into my memories of India.

Seeing such a familiar landmark through another’s eyes reminded me that I’m not the only one who misses a far-off land and culture; we all have an India in our hearts and it’s something special when art can recall a memory for us.

 And now I return to my Indian take-out… After all, it’s also something special when food can recall memories.

Until next week!
- Nadine

Candid: The Lens and Life of Homai Vyarawalla can be seen at the Rubin Museum of Art through January 14, 2013. Take a summer trip to India without even leaving the city.

Image 1 courtesy of the Rubin Museum of Art.
Image 3 courtesy of thedailybeast.com

Ever wondered what an intern actually does? Well at Cool Culture, it doesn't involve fetching coffee! What it does involve is hard work, dedication and answering questions for our Web site.

Some of the coolest interns joined us for the summer to work on our blog, our upcoming Cool Culture Fair and even enrolling hundreds of schools into the program for 2012 - 2013. Learn all about them!

Like most New Yorkers, I ride the subway every morning and every evening. I must say, I adore the city’s public transportation system. I love commuting without needing to drive (or even walk very far). I love seeing new faces every time I enter the train. I love wondering about these new faces and where they are going in such a rush. And I definitely love being able to blame public transportation if I’m late for something, even though it was probably my own fault.

Despite spending so much time on these trains, I have realized that I know next to nothing about a system so integrated into my daily life – or at least I didn’t, until last Saturday when I paid a visit to probably one of the world’s only underground museums: The New York Transit Museum.

For someone who loves art museums, this might seem like a strange choice, but I find the subway system so incredible that spending the day learning about it was very well worth it.

Well…I suppose the subway doesn’t seem so incredible when I’m crushed between fellow commuters on the A train, getting upset at how long it takes me to get into midtown.

Then I remember how much work and planning went into the trains, the stations and the routes. I mean, who decided which stations express trains would stop at? And how did they decide where to build all these stations? How do the trains even stay on the tracks?!

I’m happy to say that I learned some answers to these and numerous other questions I had about public transit in New York. At the Transit Museum, I learned all about the old systems of horse-carts, trolleys and elevated trains. I learned about the 1941 Harlem bus boycott that resulted in the Fifth Avenue Coach’s hiring of black employees. I learned that there was a special Diamond Jubilee subway token used from 1979-80 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the subway system. I learned that it used to cost a nickel to ride the subway. A nickel!

Most importantly, I learned about something that I use every day in the city: something that millions of New Yorkers and visitors (myself included) take for granted all the time.

After leaving the old subway station that now comprises the Museum, I called my grandmother – a native New Yorker and Arizona transplant who loves to hear about everything I do in her city. We chatted about how, as a teenager, she used to take the train from her home in the Bronx to Rockaway. She and her cousin would comb the beach, and as she put it, go “pick up some sailors” – she eventually found the right one in my grandfather.

She’s always amazed that that same train ride now costs $2.50.

Then I used my hard-earned $2.50 to take the A train home.

Until next week!
- Nadine

The Transit Museum has several long-term exhibits on display, including: Steel, Stone & Backbone: Building New York's Subways 1900-1925 and On the Streets: New York's Trolleys and Buses. 

Check out their family programs here: http://www.mta.info/mta/museum/pdf/NYTM_ccalendar.pdf

Image 1 courtesy of the New York Transit Museum.

I have always prided myself on wanting to learn about others: other cultures, other lifestyles, even far-away lands. In my mind, there are two main ways that this can be successfully (as much as such a task can be successful) achieved: through travel and through discourse. The first involves a physical change, the latter, a mental shift; I have experienced and enjoyed both this summer.

Coming from rural Maine, a summer in New York City is like nothing else. New people, new cultures and new stories surround me. The variety of people that I pass on my way to the subway every morning and on my way back to my Crown Heights apartment each evening never cease to astound me. If I don’t want to cook dinner for myself, I have the option of ordering-in any of a dozen different cuisines.

Like most city-dwellers, I don’t often speak with people I see on the street…but I do think about them – neighbors, passers-by, shopkeepers. I make up stories about the man who sits outside the Laundromat and bids me a good morning; I share a sense of camaraderie with those who I attempt to cross busy Atlantic Avenue with; I wonder how the man who tends the Greenmarket cart can stand in the heat all day, every day.

Recently, the Brooklyn Museum offered me the chance to more deeply engage with others. This time, however, I would be listening to real stories and perspectives, rather than simply watching and wondering.

“Question Bridge: Black Males” is an interactive film composed of the questions and answers of 150 black men from all over the country. It is framed as a dialogue between the men, who play the roles of interviewer and interviewee. They discuss family, love, community, education, violence, and the place of black men in American life. Hopefully, it also sparks dialogue between its viewers.

Although being neither black nor male, I found myself very drawn to what the participants said. They spoke of love and life, their hopes for the future: universal ideas that resonate across us all, regardless of background.

I'll admit, I thought I would have nothing in common with the men in the video and with my new neighbors, but I was wrong. We’re all here together experiencing family, love and community in ways that may seem different but are actually very much the same. And usually, that’s enough, isn’t it?

Until next week!
- Nadine

“Question Bridge: Black Males” is no longer on display at the Brooklyn Museum. However, you can learn more about the project and watch clips from the film here: http://questionbridge.com/

Image 1 courtesy of Cool Culture.
Image 2 courtesy of www.raqueldeanda.com.

Last year, I signed up for an Art History course on a whim, mostly because the title sounded interesting, but also because two of my best friends happened to be taking it (that’s college for you). “Modernism and Mass Culture” turned out to be my favorite class. The course focused on social art history: linking the creation and reception of art to historical and social causes.

This classroom was where I learned about the power of explaining what I was seeing and feeling – voicing my observations. At first, whenever a new painting was shown on the projector screen, I remember feeling anxious at the possibility of having to speak about the work of art. I am no artist, and definitely didn’t feel like I had the “vocabulary” to describe all the elements I was seeing.

When asked to speak about a painting, I often wondered what I could say about it that hadn’t previously been said! Looking at a classic, adored by millions, what could I say? But sure enough, I found myself simply explaining what I saw before me instead of worrying about whether my ideas were novel or “right.” Pretty soon, I would feel excited, rather than anxious, at the prospect of dissecting a new painting.

I was reminded of my own shift in art-looking this month while viewing “Rineke Dijkstra: A Retrospective” at the Guggenheim.

 Dijkstra’s photographs and videos often focus on children and the relationship between artist and subject.

I was struck by one video in particular: “I See A Woman Crying (Weeping Woman)” (2009).

The piece is comprised of three video screens which show a group of schoolchildren voicing their observations of Pablo Picasso’s “Weeping Woman."

While you (the viewer) aren’t shown the Picasso, the children’s descriptions paint a unique picture of the artwork. At first, they seem nervous and cautious in their observations, yet eventually the speed and creativity of their ideas grow until all are adding their own two cents.

 They spend most of the video wondering why the woman depicted is crying; “Maybe she’s sad because she looks so weird, and no one else looks like that.”

By the end, however, one brave boy wonders, “Maybe she’s crying because she’s so happy, like when someone wins X Factor.”

Who knows? The important thing is to do the wondering.

Until next week!
- Nadine

“Rineke Dijkstra: A Retrospective” can be seen at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum through October 8, 2012.

Image 1 courtesy of Cool Culture.
Image 2 courtesy of www.flickriver.com.

Hi, my name is Nadine and I’m a museum-aholic. My life has consisted of periods of binging and purging on the arts - binging when my family and I would take trips to New York City, purging when we returned home to small-town Maine, where my cravings could not be sufficiently satisfied. Home was a place so far removed from the museum world that all one could do was anxiously await the next trip.

This love has since translated into academic interests and career possibilities, which is why I come to you today as the Communications Intern at Cool Culture. Access to the arts was so critical to my development as a child that I want to help make this access possible for thousands of New York families.

So what’s so great about learning in museums? For me, the experience of walking around a corner to find a piece of art I’ve never seen before, something new to discover and admire – something new to learn about – is thrilling. Even more, I love walking around a museum corner and running smack-dab into an artwork that I’ve studied in my Art History coursework – now I get to see it in person and relate back to all that I had previously learned.

I love the experience of looking at a new and confusing painting, reading its description, and then looking back at the work and seeing something novel within it. Even more, I love coming up with my own ideas about the painting, working my way around what the placard says, what the painting says and what my Art History professor says.

Cool Culture’s motto is “Your family’s ticket to a lifetime of learning.” Well, over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing my experiences on this blog as I continue my lifetime of learning – sharing what I’ve gleaned from the early education and museum worlds, non-profit work and city-living. Every Thursday, check back in to join me on my summer of cultural discovery.

Until next week!
- Nadine

 Cool Chat: Family Moments at the Egg Rolls & Egg Creams Festival

A great big THANK YOU to everyone who joined us in celebrating culture and community at the Museum at Eldridge Street's 12th annual Egg Rolls & Egg Creams Festival on June 10th. We loved learning about Jewish and Chinese traditions alongside so many of you during this free block party.

It was definitely an action-packed afternoon! We spotted families dancing to live klezmer music on the street, decorating yarmulkes and Chinese paper fans at the arts and crafts tables, preparing bread at the challah-making workshop, practicing new words at Chinese and Yiddish language lessons, and getting their faces painted with colorful designs.

Some Cool Culture families took a quick break from the festivities to chat with us about their favorite moments of the day. Check out their comments below!

Marinez Family: Cool Mom Daffnie and Cool Kids Ayevah (age 6), Daimien (age 8) and Dhani (age 21 months). 

My favorite part so far has been making the bread. – Ayevah 
We did the challah making and the kids said “oh, this is cool, it smells like bread!” They're also really excited about the dragon art activity. We're immersing ourselves in different things today and learning about the Jewish and Chinese cultures. – Daffnie

Huang Family: Cool Parents Tracy and David and Cool Kids Brandon (age 4) and Christine (age 2 ½).

The children loved getting the balloons and having their faces painted. And I had never tried an egg cream before. I really liked it! It is important to explore cultures and learn something new. – Tracy
We've been to this museum before and learned about the history of the Jewish people. I wanted my children to also see the Chinese culture and just let them have fun. It has been a great day! – David

Richter Family: Cool Mom Chani and Cool Kids Racheli (age 5), Esther (age 3) and Shalom (age 5 months).

I liked everything! – Racheli
We're Jewish, so it was interesting to learn about the history of the congregation. The girls got their faces painted and decorated yarmulkes for the baby. They also had fun with the Hunt Card looking for the big blue window. We had a great time! – Chani

Check out more photos on our Facebook page, and watch a video of the Festival on Youtube! 

 Cool Chat: Family Moments at the Egg Rolls & Egg Creams Festival

A great big THANK YOU to everyone who joined us in celebrating culture and community at the Museum at Eldridge Street's 12th annual Egg Rolls & Egg Creams Festival on June 10th. We loved learning about Jewish and Chinese traditions alongside so many of you during this free block party.

It was definitely an action-packed afternoon! We spotted families dancing to live klezmer music on the street, decorating yarmulkes and Chinese paper fans at the arts and crafts tables, preparing bread at the challah-making workshop, practicing new words at Chinese and Yiddish language lessons, and getting their faces painted with colorful designs.

Some Cool Culture families took a quick break from the festivities to chat with us about their favorite moments of the day. Check out their comments below!

Marinez Family: Cool Mom Daffnie and Cool Kids Ayevah (age 6), Daimien (age 8) and Dhani (age 21 months). 

My favorite part so far has been making the bread. – Ayevah 
We did the challah making and the kids said “oh, this is cool, it smells like bread!” They're also really excited about the dragon art activity. We're immersing ourselves in different things today and learning about the Jewish and Chinese cultures. – Daffnie

Huang Family: Cool Parents Tracy and David and Cool Kids Brandon (age 4) and Christine (age 2 ½).

The children loved getting the balloons and having their faces painted. And I had never tried an egg cream before. I really liked it! It is important to explore cultures and learn something new. – Tracy
We've been to this museum before and learned about the history of the Jewish people. I wanted my children to also see the Chinese culture and just let them have fun. It has been a great day! – David

Richter Family: Cool Mom Chani and Cool Kids Racheli (age 5), Esther (age 3) and Shalom (age 5 months).

I liked everything! – Racheli
We're Jewish, so it was interesting to learn about the history of the congregation. The girls got their faces painted and decorated yarmulkes for the baby. They also had fun with the Hunt Card looking for the big blue window. We had a great time! – Chani

Check out more photos on our Facebook page, and watch a video of the Festival on Youtube! 

Egg Rolls & Egg Creams

This Sunday, join us at the Museum at Eldridge Street's 12th annual Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Festival! Come out for a celebration of Jewish and Chinese cultures at the signature Lower East Side celebration.

Cool Culture + Egg Rolls & Egg Creams
For the first time, Cool Culture will be participating in the block party event, welcoming families with fun resources, Culture Hunt Cards and a cool prize giveaway contest (if you have a Family Pass, bring it to the Cool Culture info table when you sign up). 

Don't miss out on the live prize drawing at 2:30 (other prizes will be awarded after the event, so don't worry if you come to the event after 2:30). Your family and friends are sure to have a great time!  

Learn More About Museum at Eldridge Street
Family Time magazine feature (page 2-3)
June e-Family Time feature
Cool Culture Hunt Cards

We'll see you there..won't we? Let us know you're coming to #eggrollsandeggcreams:
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Eldridge Street, between Canal & Division Street 10002