One week after graduation, 15 Upper School students and three faculty sponsors took to the streets of New York in a five-day arts-themed trip.
Middle School teacher Mr. Bayard Templeton came up with the idea for this trip after several successful Broadway trips with Middle School students. After hearing about the GAXP program, a program which provides Upper School students with valuable experiences at no charge to their families, he wanted to bring his past experiences with Broadway trips to an Upper School program.
The five-day, four-night trip strived to incorporate aspects of various forms of art through fun and insightful experiences. Students visited a variety of museums including the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Broadway.
The students also got to take part in an acting workshop and saw both an off-broadway production of “King James” and the hit Broadway musical “Sweeney Todd”. In addition, students went on an art gallery tour around Chelsea, had dinner at the iconic 54 Below, and bonded as a group with karaoke and game nights.
By the end of the trip, students and faculty sponsors agreed their experience was simply magical; many saying it was one of their favorite experiences at GA. “I’ll remember the connections that I never would have made without the trip,” senior Maddie Quinter said. “Meeting so many new people exploring a city that I’ve been to hundreds of times but in a new light.”
For Lauren Sass ’26, her goal for this trip was to answer the question, “What is art?” Through her experience, she came up with a response. “There is no one answer; art is however you interpret it, and you can only figure it out for yourself.” She continues by noticing how, “art exists everywhere. From the guy playing the trumpet in the train station to the Chinese food that was plated so beautifully in Chinatown, I was starting to see art literally everywhere.”
The GAXP program at GA’s main goal is for the experiences to leave a lasting impact on students. Mr. Templeton’s way of achieving this is by tasking the 15 students to create an independent project of their choice over the summer to reflect what they learned on the trip and they will then share with the GA community in early October.
“There’s so many great passions and talents,” Mr. Templeton explains. “To be able to give students a way where they have a lot of choice and it’s completely open ended is valuable for them, but also for everyone else to see and hopefully to inspire them.”
Neha Jonnalagadda ’25 feels the importance of the project is because, “it really helps us bring out the passion and the talent that we all have inside of us. And every time we think about our project, we reminisce on the trip.”
“I think a lot of people will really appreciate it because art is such a strong foundation at GA,” Quinter agrees. “Having a bunch of pieces stand out for an experience that a bunch of students have gone through together and united to do will be really special.”
Each student and faculty member on the trip left Trenton station with a new perspective on art and their community. They created a bond with the others on the trip and found a new love for the old city. “It was one of the best things I’ve ever done in my career…it was more than I could have imagined,” Mr. Templeton said.