Students explored the Guggenheim’s impressionist, modern, and contemporary art collection and exhibitions, including “On Kawara—Silence,” a display of date paintings, postcards, telegrams, and maps created by Japanese conceptual artist Kawara; and a two-part exhibit called “Infinite Possibility” by Iranian artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, which included a collection of plaster reliefs, mirror reliefs, and large-scale mirror sculptures. “It’s fascinating to see how Monir integrated her culture into her work,” noted multimedia design student Talia Ovadia, who discovered Arabic lettering in one of the drawings. Professor DeCastro used several impressionist and modern paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, Edgar Degas, Edouard Vuillard, and Paul Cezanne, in the Guggenheim’s permanent collection, as a springboard for a discussion on points of view, highlights, and shadows.

 As Rachel Salem sketched Degas’ ballerinas, students Nechama Zukin and Elianna Simon—a dancer herself—shared their love of the artist's work. Zukin also noted Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s “Portrait of a Lady,” which she enjoyed partly because of its colors and shadows but mostly because she loved the expressions of Renoir’s figures.

 “You can almost see what she’s thinking,” she explained.