Mr. Leistler Brings Students to The Met

On October 26th, students from the Art History class traveled from Deerfield to New York City to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET). The Sunday trip brought the class members face-to-face with artwork and culture that they had been studying.

For Art History Teacher John Leistler, the trip to the MET was a continuation of a long-standing tradition. “I used to teach in the suburbs of New York, and so I used to take my class [to the MET] once a month,” he said. “It didn't feel like a school trip—it was a group of somewhat friends going to the MET.” Since coming to Deerfield, Mr. Leistler had worked to organize several of such visits each year. “It's not a required trip, but just to get to go and see the enormity of the space, see the crowd, see some of the art that we've studied, and see what it’s like to see them for real instead of just a slide of it in class,” he explained.

Mr. Leistler’s accumulated knowledge of the museum allowed him to curate an experience that directly connects to the Art History class’s curriculum, while allowing students time to explore independently. “At one point, when I was younger and in graduate school, I went five or six times a week to the MET, mostly because I had a terribly small apartment,” he said. “And so I know the MET well, I've done a lot of tours over the years there, so it feels like a second home to me.”

Both teacher and students speak to the impact of seeing art in person as opposed to in class. “It is always better to see the actual thing and the real size and how it is displayed,” Mr. Leistler noted. “And I think when you see any artwork, and not just seeing a picture of it, you're reminded that somebody made this. Somebody had a vision to create something.” Mikaylah Meertins ’26 echoed the sentiment, saying, “It was my first time in the MET, and I was taken aback when I first entered…It was really cool, and a lot better than seeing it on a slide.”

For this trip, the group mainly focused on the Greek and Roman galleries, as well as the newly opened African and Oceanian wings. “The Oceania and African wings have been closed for the last five years…and I wanted our students to not only see the art, but to think about what is new,” Mr. Leistler explained. “A lot of what the MET aims to do is to infuse as much dignity into art that was once viewed as exotic…I wanted them to really think about what The MET is trying to do with the arts of Africa, and whether it was successful for them.”

One highlight of the trip for Meertins was the Greek section of the MET, where she encountered kouros statues: ancient Greek sculptures of young men used in funerary practices. “It’s supposed to be the depiction of the ideal young man,” she explained. “When you look at it, you’re supposed to feel that you have the potential to go on and be great…it’s really inspiring.” Mr. Leistler expanded on the same piece, saying that “Greek mourners would go to the graveyard to be sad about somebody who had died a loved one, but when they saw this funerary sculpture, it would remind them that when they leave, to go live their lives as best as they can.”

For both, the trip was a needed break from the classroom. “I would love to do it again…It was super refreshing to be able to get out of the classroom and be in a place that’s as significant as the MET,” said Meertins. “Art History is the course that I teach where people feel the smartest the fastest,” Mr. Leistler remarked. “If you learn one artwork well, you feel empowered in a way that you did not half an hour ago…so it’s always fun for them to see it for the first time themselves.”

For Mr. Leister, the trips to the Met ultimately serve as a reminder of what makes art, and the study of it, so relevant. “You don’t have to make art—I am totally untalented. But mine is appreciation, and mine is the historian’s thing,” he said. “We all spend time on our phones, and we're all assaulted by thousands of images a day, and so it is always wise for us to just sharpen our own understanding of how visuals can work on us.”