NAEC students experience the bright lights and big city

Valerie Allan | Nov 09, 2016

On October 27, a packed bus left NAEC early in the morning for a trip to Toronto. Students started their program with a visit to the Royal Ontario Museum. There, they saw the work of Dale Chihuly, a famous artist who works in blown glass. Students saw boats filled with huge glass globes, a landscape of glass including creatures from above and below the sea, various vessels, and some installations called “Persians”, inspired by the patterns in Persian Rugs.

As well as seeing the Chihuly exhibit, students visited other areas of the ROM, including the dinosaur exhibit, the Chinese exhibit, the bat cave, and the rock exhibit.

The group split into two for the next part of the day. Photos are not available for this part of the day, because one group was in the pitch dark, while the other was in an art gallery (a traditional “no-photo” zone).

Ms. Dunphy and Ms. Shepherd accompanied students to “Onoir”. This is a restaurant where the food is consumed in total darkness. The premise behind this is that all the diners’ senses are concentrated on their food, rather than being distracted by their surroundings. Students and staff reported having a delicious meal, and said it was a lot of fun to eat in the dark. Many said they would like to go again.

Ms. Allan and Ms. Harnden took their group to the Art Gallery of Ontario to see the “Mystical Landscapes” exhibit. This featured an international array of different landscape artists, such as Van Gogh, Gaugiun, Monet and Georgia O’Keefe. There was also a good representation of Canadian artists, including Emily Carr, Tom Thompson and the Group of Seven. The focus of the exhibit was the concentration of artists on the soothing effects of the natural world in times of upheaval. Students were pleased when they recognized the works of artists they knew, but also enjoyed seeing the works of artists th