It is crucial students engage and interact with artwork they are researching, according to Assistant Professor of Art Christina Lamb Chakalova.

Chakalova organized a trip to the Detroit Institute of Arts for students and faculty on Sept. 16. The DIA has an extensive art collection featuring art from Ancient Mesopotamia to Andy Warhol.

“The impetus was my seminar on American art. There are 12 to 14 students who are writing a research paper,” Chakalova said. “I’ve assigned them a work of art at the museum in the collection of American art. We’re going there to do some first hand research with those objects and then my students will transform that into a larger paper for the semester and a class presentation.”

People should see artwork in person, according to Chakalova.

“It has always been fun for me to see that students don’t just go to the DIA and appreciate the art, but they really intimately interact with it,” she said.

Chakalova argued that classroom is not the best place to experience the art about which her students are learning. 

“When you’re taking artworks out of their original context, you’ve also blown them up on a PowerPoint slide or perhaps reduced their size,” Chakalova said. “You don’t get a sense for material quality. You don’t get a sense for scale. You don’t have a sense for the original setting where that artwork was meant to be viewed. All of that is stripped away from you.”

Chakalova also explained the downfalls of viewing artwork online.

“It’s not the same thing to look at a picture of Hawaii as it is to go on vacation in Hawaii,” she said. “You get a sense of it, and that’s what we’re doing. We’re getting a sense of it in the classroom, but now we have to go see it for ourselves.”

People should take advantage of the DIA’s extensive collection, Chakalova said.

“If we have these original objects nearby, it’s imperative that we go see them,” Chakalova said. 

Junior Madelyn Bunch, who had a class with Chakalova in a previous semester, said she appreciated the opportunity to visit the DIA with more time to spend in the exhibits.

“They have Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet and other big names,” Bunch said. “It’s neat that it’s only a few hours away from Hillsdale. Even one of my English professors was on the trip, and it was cool to have a different perspective and to get to spend more time looking at the exhibits.”

Bunch said Hillsdale students should learn to appreciate art if they do not already.

“In the same way we encourage so much literature to be read at Hillsdale, we should also encourage examining art,” Bunch said. “Having a visual and artistic expression of goodness, truth and beauty, and seeing how art changes and stays the same over time is very interesting.”

Senior Hope Schlosser said people should have an open mind when looking at artwork.

“Everyone should go to art museums,” Schlosser said. “A lot of people on this campus tend to be very critical of modern art because they don’t know the background to it. People are too often very closed off to different mediums and different periods and styles in art.”

Sophomore Abigail Palubinskas described the process of artistic interpretation.

“Once the painter does his thing and creates this masterpiece and puts it out there to show people it’s not completely his anymore, because when you look at it, you get your own experience with it. And that’s something that I would wish for everyone,” she said.

Echoing the words of her professor and her peers, Palubinskas encouraged people to visit art museums.

“Even if you don’t look at art often, or that’s not your thing, even if you’re an athlete or scientist,” Palubinskas said. “I think being affected by beauty and paintings is an incredible experience. It’s your experience.”