Month: October 2017

This past Thursday, I had the opportunity to go to the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology with one of my friends. When I first told him about the assignment, he recommended that we go there, which was convenient located on his campus and a couple of blocks from Baruch.

When we walked into the Museum we were greeted by one of the workers and were handed two booklets, each describing the exhibits that we could find inside. As we stepped past the first group of doors, the darkish room was filled with mannequins dressed in designer clothing. The stage lighting let you see the clothing in a similar way as you would see on runway shows.

Since I was young, my parents always told me and my brothers that the way we were dressed would always leave a lasting impression on the people we meet. With that in mind, I was always drawn to certain fabrics and from there a passion for clothing silhouettes and designers developed. I spent a lot of my time in high school with my friends talking about clothing, designers, and the influences that the latter had on the youth culture, particularly celebrities and the skating scene. It is rare nowadays to see a celebrity or a media personality that does not have designer clothing.

One of the first mannequins that I was drawn to was the one shown below with the green sneaker boot and grayish-light brownish overcoat/cape. One of my favorite things in styling is the mixture of oversized clothing and clothes that are tailored for the person. One of the other things that drew me to this mannequin was the incorporation of the shoes in general. The shoes made by one of the, in my opinion, strangest designers, Rick Owens, always looked weird to me. Normally I had seen the black upper with white/creamish outsole, which would then be paired with all black clothing.

This trip made me realize that I have a passion for clothing, design, and anything that has to do with the arts in general. I spent a lot of time in the past couple of years trying to figure out what I wanted to study and why, but I never really questioned why I wanted to do business. Business, to me, was just the easiest way out and that’s why I chose Business. Seeing things a little more clearly now I’ve realized that I don’t really want to pursue business as a career, but use it as a base to build on other things.

Last week I attended a T.E.A.M. Baruch orientation meeting. This event was an informative session to gain students’ attention and influence and encourage them to submit applications. At this meeting, I learned that T.E.A.M Baruch is a powerful program. The acronym itself, T.E.A.M. Baruch, which stands for Together Everyone Achieves More, is a perfect description of the mission and goal that the group wants to achieve.  The goal of T.E.A.M. Baruch is to teach students to be leaders both inside and outside of the classroom and school community.  The group is full of individuals who are looking to make an impactful change in the world around them.

In order to become a T.E.A.M. Baruch member, you have to fill out an application and participate in an interview.  During the interview you must explain why you want to become part of the group.  Then, you have to do another interview for the specific job(s) that you want to apply for. It’s a great opportunity that allows you to get more involved in the school and become part of something that is bigger than yourself.  I believe that getting involved in the school community is a great way to not only help others but to enhance your own school experience.  Being involved makes the school environment much more enjoyable.  It will make school seem like less work when you enjoy the work you are actually doing.  Also it allows you to gain experience for any job interviews you may have in the future. Joining T.E.A.M. Baruch would be a great way to become more outgoing and open towards others, which is a quality trait to possess. It seems like a great organization that will help develop important qualities in a person while also introducing them to the responsibilities that come with having a job. T.E.A.M. Baruch is something that can open up many doors for its members as it exposes them to opportunities that are usually not available to other students.

One of the main reasons I attended this event was to learn more about the responsibilities of a Resident Assistant in Baruch’s dorms. A Baruch RA has many roles and duties, including building a residential community through programming, being a familiar first resource for students with academic or personal questions, needs, and concerns, and enforcing residence policies.  I would consider becoming a Baruch RA because I would like to help build that sense of community amongst the students in the dorms.  In all, this group this group is a fun, productive and innovative way to get involved with the school, prepare for the future and make an impact on the lives of your peers.

 

 

Last week I visited The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Having spent most of my childhood there, memories always sweep into my mind as I walk into the grand halls, laced with gorgeous paintings. Only a few turns and you can jump continents and centuries of art. This semester I am taking Art History and Global History and both subjects find the Met to be quite handy. I went to my favourite place in the Met, The Lehman collection.

Walking the round galleries, filled with Reniors, Van Goghs, Monets, and Degas, the impressionist beamed before me. It made me very happy that I go to college in the best city in the world, in which an infinite archive of the most talented artists in the world have their art housed all together. It only takes about 25 minutes to get to The Met from Baruch, so as I sit in my art history class and see pictures of art, I often times wonder how much better it would be if field trips were still a regular thing.

Later this week I will be going back to the Met, this time with my History professor. She will offer us a tour, that will count as an assignment(isn’t that lovely?). As I walked through The Met, I saw art and artifacts presented to me in both my art history and global history classes. Seeing many works of art from the same period all together allows one to gain a new perspective on the time period, gives greater visual memory of the essence of the time period, and contributes to one’s learning experience when they see their academic subject matter in such a special setting. The Met has one of the best collections of Ancient Egyptian artwork in the world, which even includes a while Temple(The Temple of Dendur) that was transported from Egypt just for the museum.

So as my history midterm comes closer and closer, I see The Met as a great tool to study, but I also see it as an amazing opportunity to explore the art I love and connect with the culture that the city that I’m so lucky to call home has to offer.

For my academic activity I went to the Museum of the Moving Image located in Queens. Although, I’ve always lived nearby I never had the chance to visit and it was an exciting opportunity visiting the different exhibits they had. The museum was holding several different exhibits like the Jim Henson Exhibition. It explored his career in film and television as well as his work on shows like The Muppet Show and Sesame Street. It was really interesting seeing evidence of his thought process while creating the different Muppets and characters on Sesame Street. There were also famous characters like Big Bird, Elmo, Kermit and Miss Piggy.

Besides the exhibition there were also permanent objects throughout the museum. The other exhibition focused on the different aspects of making shows and movies which included the music, audio effects and camera work components. There were also many interactive parts of museum which I enjoyed taking part of like making a flipbook and stop-motion animation.  Overall, I had a great time visiting the museum and learning more about the work that goes into making movies and television shows. The historical aspect and seeing how far technology has come to the point that I can readily enjoy binge watching my favorite shows was very interesting.

The experience I had in the Museum of the Moving Image motivates me to visit other museums in NYC besides the MET. I love visiting the MET but I also want to take advantage of the amazing opportunity I have to visit other unique museums around the city. By having a CUNY ID I have access to so many museums for free and I want to visit as many as possible. Since this is my first semester in Baruch and I’m adjusting to my classes lately I’ve only focused on school work. However, I also want to enjoy my time by taking part in the many opportunities being a Baruch student offers.

Last Thursday, I was presented with the opportunity to attend the T.E.A.M. Baruch Information session during club hours. There, my peers and I were informed of what T.E.A.M. Baruch really stands for, as well as steps that can be taken to get involved in the club. The acronym, T.EA.M. is symbolic of their mantra, Together Everyone Achieves More. This team seemed to be extremely dedicated to improving Baruch College as a community through social and academic outreach, while also improving the health and well beings of the students here on campus.

One of the main reasons I attended this event, was to learn more about the requirements and responsibilities of a Resident Assistant (RA) in Baruch’s dorms. A Baruch RA has many roles and responsibilities, including building a residential community through programming, acting as a para-counselor for students, being a familiar first resource for students with academic, institutional, or personal questions, needs, and concerns, and enforcing residence policies.

There was another T.E.A.M. Baruch position that appealed to me. The Peers Advocating Wellness Services also known as PAWS, is responsible for health and wellness outreach on campus. By working in PAWS, students are given the ability to grow and develop subjectively while helping other students within the Baruch community. As someone with both personal and professional interests closely tied to health and wellness, I have taken a strong interest in PAWS, as an organizer and leader of events promoting healthy habits and lifestyles.

This meeting opened up my eyes to the magnificent variety of positions that T.E.AM. Baruch has to offer. The common factor linking all of the positions together is the fact that all members must balance their schedule and priorities with the needs of the students they are supporting, and above all, a T.E.A.M. Baruch member must lead as an example and uphold the professional and personal reputation of the college.

This past weekend my little cousins were in town and I decided to take care of five birds with one stone by taking them to the Met. This worked for this assignment, one for History class and 2 other extra credits, so you know I made those kids look at some paintings and sculptures form years they didn’t know even existed.

 

Anyway, while going around the museum completing my assignments I learned some very interesting things, specifically the methods of naval transportation for ancient Egyptians. Did you know that ancient Egyptians had a different boat for just about everything done on the water? There were specific boats for fishing, transport, sport, leisure and much more. The Met had scale recreations of these boats on display in their ancient Egyptian wing, as well as the papyrus scrolls which described and portrayed the boats themselves to make any recreation possible.

 

Along with the Egyptian wing we visited an exhibit on the very best of the Modernist movement, which featured such famous painters as Georgia O’Keefe, Jackson Pollock and Pablo Picasso. Many well known paintings were featured in the exhibit, but my favorite was the View from the Williamsburg Bridge by my favorite painter, Edward Hopper. I loved the way Hopper captured the lighting of the east side of Manhattan. Ever since I was a kid I was a big fan of the Modernist movement in the 1950s. Seeing many of the paintings I had grown up looking at in my picture books was a pleasant coincidence on a day where I was just supposed to look at ancient art for a school assignment.

 

On Thursday September 28^th I have attended the opening night of the “Soulful Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt” exhibition in the Brooklyn Museum as part of an extra credit assignment for my History 1001 class. The night included art history lectures by the exhibition’s curators Ed Bleiberg and Yekatrina Barbash and a lecture by Salima Ikram who is a professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo. The topic of the lectures and the exhibition itself was Egyptian animal mummies, animals played a big part in the religious and cultural life in ancient Egypt and for that reason many animals were mummified. Modern technology allows researchers and archeologists to examine and analyze the millions of animal mummies like never before, using CT scans and X ray we now have a better understanding of what kind of animals were mummified and why. The exhibition shows dozens of mummies from more than 30 different sites in Egypt and a variety of animals such as dogs, birds, cats and many others. As mentioned I have attended the event in order to get extra credit in my History class where we have just discussed ancient Egypt culture and leaders. I am very interested in world history and I grew up not far from the Egyptian border, also I have traveled to Egypt with my family as a kid and I felt that regardless of the fact that this was an academic assignment I will enjoy the evening and enrich my knowledge in a subject that I did not know much about and that was exactly the case. I have a broader approach to Egyptian studies thanks to Prof. Boozer and the extra credit assignment and my interest in global history is growing during my first semester in Baruch.

Bar Tamir