Music blared from the front of one of the most posh and elegant buildings in the city. College students gathered outside and flooded the entrances on Thursday. The words of one person are enough to explain what is going on.
“If you ever wanted to throw a party in a museum, this is pretty nice,” said Daniel Kim, a sophomore from Emmanuel College.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it was college night at the Museum of Fine Arts, again. Although the museum is free for college students, once a year, the museum puts on a big party for the community’s college students. The night is a great way to attract the students to the museum. This year, it’s also a great chance to show off the recent changes to the museum, which include the recently opened contemporary wing.
“It’s a great chance for the students to a get an introduction to the museum,” said Herbert Jones, the museum’s coordinator of volunteers and intern programs, a four-year veteran of the night’s shindig.
Students are able to roam the halls of the museum, see pieces from ancient Rome and Greece, explore European history, and discover the inner complexity of American art. There is also the aforementioned Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art, which opened last weekend and sports several eye opening pieces by artists from Lynda Benglis & Mark Bradford to Andy Warhol & Fred Wilson, among others.
Free food was provided by Pinkberry and Chipotle. There were also several activities going on, including hulu-hooping and a small sketch demo with a male model.
All of this was for the students– and they were suitably impressed.
“I came to see the contemporary wing,” said Sharon Grant, a freshman at Northeastern University. “I’m from Boston and I always came as a kid, so I wanted to see if anything had changed.”
At the same time, some students were just trying to find their way through the major attractions in the city.
“I have only been in Boston a couple of weeks, and I haven’t seen anything,” said Alex Carroll, a freshman at Suffolk University. “All I’ve seen is Fenway. My mom told me about this and said, ‘I needed some culture,’ so I guess this fits the bill.”
Although there were no exact numbers, there was a great turn out for the museum on the night. This bodes well in the mind of Jones, who wants the museum to be more than just a place with pictures for the students.
“I want this to be a resource for students,” he said. “I want it to be a destination in the school year.”
For more information on the museum, go to mfa.org to learn about upcoming events and exhibitions.
