Rather than visit the Dallas Museum of Art for its annual field trip as the National Art Honor Society has done in years past, the officer team chose to let participants choose their location with Meow Wolf – a massive interactive art exhibit in Grapevine – being the destination on Friday.
“I really wanted to ensure that students had a great experience going on a field trip,” NAHS officer, junior Tuhina Das said. “There’s a lot that gets put into this. We’ve been planning this trip for a while, so we really wanted to make sure that wherever we ended up going, it would be someplace that inspired the students and someplace that they found fun.”
Meow Wolf allows students to learn more about contemporary, modern, and 3D art compared to previous trips to the DMA. This exhibition has a “Choose your own Adventure” vibe, which allows students to have personalized art experiences.
“There’s a huge emphasis in our education to focus on a lot of classic art styles going back in time, but also going forward in time to me as an artist is really important because it shows how we can synthesize new things and spark our own creativity,” Das said.
These massive, contemporary, immersive art displays are a new development in the art industry, and they are completely revolutionizing what it means to experience and view art. Meow Wolf already has 4 unique exhibits across the country, with another one opening this year in Houston.
“It is a massive industry, and at first the art world didn’t really know how to handle it,” art teacher Emily Delarios said. “Museums had always been ‘the way to view art’, but Meow Wolf introduced this new immersive almost theme-park way to be surrounded by art.”
Allowing students to not only choose their field trip, but also choose how to spend their time at Meow Wolf helps promote the values NAHS tries to promote in growing artists.
“It’s their club and they’re kind of calling a lot of the shots which leads them to be more independent,” NAHS advisor, art teacher Elise Bentley said. “I think since they have the choice, they’ll probably get more out of the experience. Students can walk around and really dictate how they appreciate the art. They can apply this creativity and independence to future art projects, which helps them become really strong artists and more confident in their work.”
