Just a brisk 10-minute walk from Grand Central Station, situated on Madison Avenue, is the narrow glass building that is the Morgan Library and Museum. The library hosts free College Nights for New York City college students to mingle and participate in fun activities and raffles after hours at the museum. On Nov. 7, the library and museum hosted one such college night where guests could draw live models, enjoy a scavenger hunt, make buttons based on art in the museum, enjoy an exhibition on the first librarian to work there and inspect behind the scenes books from the library’s collection, all backed by live jazz music. The night culminated in a 20-minute drawing challenge where competitors had to draw a model dressed as Belle da Costa Greene, the Morgan Library and Museum’s first-ever librarian herself, and a raffle event where winners were given a free membership for the year and a library tote bag.
The library and museum were once John Pierpont Morgan’s personal collection in the heart of New York City. Preserved in the museum is the office he lived in instead of returning to his home after working on Wall Street, complete with various paintings, sculptures and jars. Through the grand foyer is a library that looks like it was pulled from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.” The expansive collection has notable highlights, such as one of the original Gutenberg Bibles, displayed to the right as you enter the room. The looming shelves are romantically lit and overlooked by frescoes of influential historical men, such as Michelangelo and Socrates, and various Greek and Roman myths, such as Hades and Persephone.
During the event, the library hosted occasional tours that reviewed the various paintings and history of the library. Downstairs are oil paintings of the Italian countryside and a large painting by John Singer Sargent, among other smaller exhibits, such as the museum’s history. Until May 4, the museum will offer an exhibition on Belle da Costa Greene and her life and service she gave to the museum. Da Costa Greene was the Morgan’s first librarian and worked as the director from 1924 to 1948, when she retired. The museum worked hard to highlight the importance of her work.
For the event specifically, after checking in, students entered the open foyer, which had a table with sketch pads and various colored pencils to sketch the live models dressed from the 1920s. Surrounding the models were chairs and tables to sit at and talk or simply draw the models while a live jazz band set the mood for the evening. To the left was a bar selling drinks and various snacks, such as Rice Krispies Treats and half-moon cookies. To the right was a table filled with sheets with the scavenger hunt on it. Participants needed to take pictures of all the objects on the sheet and mark where they were on the map. The scavenger hunt engaged all rooms and floors of the museum, including Morgan’s personal study and library.
On the lower level, the event also included a button-making station where guests could pick out printed pictures of various paintings in the museum’s collection to be turned into buttons, as well as a large velcro board to create free-form poems that could be added to, scrapped or edited by other guests. Down here, one could also find behind-the-scenes tours where students were taken to a secluded part of the library, where various books from the library’s collection were pulled out for guests to inspect and ask the fellows there. Some were facsimiles, which a printed handout left near the entrance to the room explained as exact copies of an object that are intended to be a highly accurate reproduction. Others were original printed copies of original fairy tales that, despite their age, the color and details of the books are almost intact.
The event reeled in a large group of undergraduate and graduate students from various colleges, but most seemed to be from Pace University and New York University. The event offered a chance for students from various universities to meet other college students living in the same area with similar interests. While life on campus can be exciting, it was refreshing to interact with other people outside of the Fordham University community and hear about their experiences at their colleges or just living in NYC. While most people went to the event with a friend, this did not seem to stop strangers from interacting with each other and creating new bonds during the event, chatting about what they knew about a certain text or bonding over strange interactions in New York.
The Morgan Library and Museum’s college night event offered not only a chance for a free activity on a Thursday night but also created new bonds for students living in the city. The library offers free admission for all college students on the first Sunday of each month and free admission on Fridays. The event had a distinct, upbeat atmosphere that felt both calming and welcoming, backed by a gorgeous curated collection of famous texts and various fun activities. Events like these are fun and free activities to do in the city with friends, and they also have the added bonus of being able to make new connections in New York.
