The Pine Grove Area Art and Travel Clubs took a trip to the Grounds for Sculpture Sculpture Park in Hamilton, New Jersey.  The park has many statues and art pieces, large and small. Some pieces have deeper and more abstract meaning, while others have an extremely obvious message or theme. The both clubs went to Grounds for Sculpture to learn about the artists and their work. Most students enjoyed themselves being with their friends and discussing the works of art they witnessed.

There were hundreds of statues at the gallery. One of the statues witnessed was Double Check by Seward Johnson. This piece is a memorial for  9/11, the statue depicts a businessman checking his briefcase, scattered around is the rubble, ash, and debris from the attack of the Twin Towers. Other students also felt great interest in other statues, “The Nine Muses… statue made me feel powerful, just being around it,” Pine Grove Area junior, Jada Major, spoke about her favorite statue. The Nine Muses was a group of statues that was influenced by ancient art, and was based on ancient Greek, Egyptian, and Pre-Columbian culture . The statues were built on an stone base surrounded by a water feature. The statues seemed to give the impression of an ancient temple. A sophomore, Emmalee Neidlinger, stated that her favorite sculpture was, “Copyright Violation… I like the fact that it’s setting up a scene that is being painted by another statue, It allows you to see what exactly the artist is seeing.” This statue depicts a scene of different people enjoying their day-to-day life by the lake. Hidden in the back, a statue rendition of an artist painting the scene in front of him.

Other students spoke briefly about how enjoyable it was seeing different ideas in a sculpture format. It caused major discussion between friends and ultimately allowed the members of both the Art and Travel Clubs to find common ground and come together as a group.