Visual Arts Field Trip To Hospital Of Emotions Exhibition

From Johnny King, Sahina Jerome-Kossoff, Liam Murphy, and Peggy Gardner, Field Trip Chaperones:

A large group of High School students took a train from Oceanside to Union Station in Los Angeles on September 18, for an all-day Visual Arts field trip. After arriving in Los Angeles at Union Station, we boarded an LA subway train to get to a cafe in downtown Los Angeles, where we grabbed a quick bite to eat. Then, we took a bus to the Hospital of Emotions art exhibition. This large-scale pop-up art exhibition is staged in one wing of a former hospital, with 80 rooms devoted to art installations by 70 different artists. Each department in the hospital explores a different emotion, from joy and love to fear, anger, hope, sadness, gratitude and resilience. Our students moved through the building room by room, discovering installations that transformed hospital spaces into emotional environments. The experience in each room was immersive, as the artists had transformed every part of the space including walls, ceilings, floors and furniture. The building was formerly the St. Vincent Medical Center, which is now being reimagined as the St. Vincent Behavioral Health Campus that will be a dedicated behavioral health facility centered on mental health, recovery, and community care. The proceeds from the Hospital of Emotions exhibition are helping to fund this transformation.

After our tour, we traveled by bus to the Grand Central Market for lunch, where students could choose between cuisine from many cultures. To finish up the day, our students had the opportunity to take another bus ride to visit the Fashion District, before taking a metro train back to the commuter train station and heading back from Union Station to Oceanside.

The purpose of the trip was to give students an opportunity to experience art outside of the classroom in a different city. Traveling to Los Angeles gave students an opportunity to directly engage with professional works of art, and the cultural communities that inspire them. This trip was designed to expose students to diverse art forms, helping them understand how art functions across different spaces and audiences. It also connected classroom learning to real-world practice by allowing students to see how artistic ideas, movements, and techniques are applied in the context of an immersive art exhibition. Our students and teachers were able to deepen their understanding and appreciation of art, and the trip provided them with experiences that will help to inspire their growth as artists. Another important benefit of this trip was that the students were able to experience taking trains and buses around Los Angeles in an urban environment.