Shades of green and rapid brush strokes create the picturesque, reflective effect that makes Calude Monet’s “Lily Pond” painting so recognizable. It, unsurprisingly, drew freshman Lily Chen’s attention when she visited The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Aside from the coincidental fact that she shares her name with the painting, Monet’s work of classic impressionist techniques captivated her, as it has thousands of others.
“When I was standing in front of the painting, it just felt as if I was at the Lily pond,” Chen said. “It just felt really peaceful.”
This sense of peace lives at the forefront of Chen’s mind when thinking about how art makes her feel. In Paly’s demanding environment, art has become a way for her to take a moment for herself.
“Usually, our life now is really fast-paced; we have a lot of things to do,” Chen said. “When I was looking at [Monet’s] work, it just made me feel like everything slowed down. I got to have a time where I felt like everything just paused and it [was] just me and the painting.”
This feeling Chen gets when looking at art is the unique experience that museums are fostered towards. Advanced Placement Art History teacher Sue La Fetra said art — and thus visiting museums — is important for all demographics, as art transcends typical preconceived notions.
“Art is a universal language,” La Fetra said. “It’s [been a] part of the human experience from the very beginning of time. To not visit a museum and see art that is made by other cultures and things that aren’t in your environment [means that] you’re missing out on information and understanding from all different cultures.”
For many, being fully immersed in a painting can solely be experienced in a museum. So, when it’s clear that museums have so much to offer, why are they hardly brought up in teenage conversations?
In senior Michael Li’s eyes, the answer lies in the fact that museums lack interactiveness and do not have the ability to engage teenagers.
“I’ve been to a lot of museums that were snooze-fests, where they just have an exhibition and an essay on a plaque next to it in a blank, empty room,” Li said. “I felt like I was in an insane asylum when I went to some of these museums.”
Art can also be boring or daunting for some people due to its open-ended nature. And in a competitive community like the Bay Area, it’s easy to feel deterred by this quality according to Cantor Art Museum’s Associate Director of Academic and Public Programs Vivian Sming. However, this ambiguity pinpoints the beauty of art, Sming explained.
“[Art should be] approached with a sense of openness, instead of [believing] there’s one right answer that I have to get,” Sming said.
Sming said people should avoid feeling caught up in how they think a piece of art should be perceived. Instead, viewers should allow themselves to ask the questions that art triggers for them and approach art in a similar way to how artists do themselves: with an inquisitive nature.
“I would just encourage asking questions,” Sming said. “[Then, they should] think, ‘What are the questions that can be answered, what are the questions that aren’t? What are the questions that the artists are posing?’”
Sming grew up in the Bay Area, where she used art as her outlet to escape the confines of such a technology-centric place. Her experience of being surrounded by technology shaped her perspective on the lack of teenage involvement in museums, going beyond simply that some teens find them boring.
“Growing up in the Bay, the focus is always tech-heavy, and it feels very homogeneous in terms of culture,” Sming said. “For me, anywhere there was art [became] such an important space for me, just to feel like I could think about things like life.”
One way that Paly students have the opportunity to experience museums is through the AP Art History course. In the class, students learn about pieces of art from all over the world and go on field trips to museums which provides them with an understanding and appreciation that they otherwise may not have.
“The students really enjoy being able to apply their knowledge, and they’ll see something they hadn’t seen before,” La Fetra said. 
“They’re like, ‘Oh, I know what this is about, I know how this is made. I know why it was made,’ and it really gives them a lot of self-confidence in their abilities.”
For example, Senior Teresa Wang enjoys visiting museums, especially when she is able to connect with the art and apply her knowledge.
“The fun of museums comes from having context about the contents of the museum,” Wang said. “An art museum can be boring if you don’t understand what the art is depicting, but if you recognize the piece and the context behind it, it becomes a lot more interesting.”
However, Wang feels that art serves more than just an educational purpose: It connects people to each other, their environment and the world.
“[Museums] help people go outside, interact with their city and come together,” Wang said. “There’s also value in seeing things in person; everything has more impact when you see it with your own eyes. Museums offer intellectual enrichment for people from all walks of life.”
One aspect possibly overlooked of museums is the overall environment of the building. For freshman Youna Lee, this in-person experience is what makes museums so valuable and is yet another reason to visit art face-to-face in lieu of online.
“The point of going to museums is enjoying art, but the atmosphere inside a museum is unique,” Lee said. “It can be loud and chatty, but you feel calmer inside. You get to overhear words from a tour as you walk by, and you get to see in person how the light reflects off of certain pieces. It’s so much more than just an informational experience.”
To many teenagers, visiting a museum is seen as an all-day commitment, which may further demotivate their engagement. However, the opposite can be true.
“It’s not prescriptive — you don’t have to sit through anything,” Sming said. “You can just come for half an hour and look at one work, or [you can] spend the whole day here. It’s very unstructured and open-ended, and I do think that it is valuable for teens to have open, unstructured time in their lives.”
Even with technology making it possible to view art online, Li emphasizes the importance of continuing to visit museums in person.
“You can look at photos or videos, but they don’t replace the feeling of actually being there.” Li said. “Beyond the art itself, museums are also shared cultural spaces where people slow down, reflect, and engage with history and ideas together. That shared, in person experience is what gives museums lasting relevance, even in the digital age.”
Oftentimes, teenagers are told that they are the future and that it is up to them to make a difference. This makes their presence at museums especially meaningful. Visiting museums is worth more than just learning about history and other cultures — it helps to maintain a space that will cultivate valuable conversations for generations to come.
“[Museums] are collections of the past, but they’re really meant for people in the future,” Sming said. “Youth and teens are really important in shaping that conversation in terms of how museums can still be a role in their lives.”
