Fall 2017 Travel: Emily Richards

"I was kindly awarded a travel art scholarship to visit Los Angeles, California from December 29^th to January 5^th. The aim of this trip was to visit the Los Angeles art museums and immerse myself in the art district and culture which would ultimately inform my work as a Studio Art senior at Rollins. Specifically, I wanted to see how contemporary art is presented in popular art museums and view classic religious artwork that pertains to my topic of research for my artwork.

            When I entered LA, I checked into the hotel and stayed there for the night. The next day, Thursday, I went to the Broad museum to view their collection of contemporary art. It was amazing to see many of the artworks that I had learned about in my classes in person, such as work by Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, and Takashi Murakami. Unfortunately, I was not able to see the Yayoi Kusama exhibition as I had hoped since the lines were very long. Throughout the week, I was also able to visit the Getty Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), the Geffen Contemporary Art museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). In addition, the food scene and various districts, such as the arts district, Little Tokyo, and Chinatown, were bustling and made me feel like Los Angeles is a great place for an upcoming artist like me to reside and express her creativity. I was also able to meet some great people and make connections, such as a fashion designer who was staying at the hotel and a Korean woman who later sent me a Yayoi Kusama artists book.

            Overall, the trip to Los Angeles was amazing and far more gratifying and informative than I could have ever imagined. I was able to learn about how contemporary artwork is installed and presented in modern art museums as well as learn about traditional paintings of biblical women, such as the Virgin Mary. Through traveling, artist’s can also learn more about themselves, and I realize that traveling allows me to gain more independence as an emerging adult and expand my knowledge about another city’s culture and art history."