Straying away from tradition, 30 National Art Honors Society members visited the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City on Dec. 2. NAHS advisers Laura Fallon and Shelley Ortner chose this museum over past options, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim.

“Mrs. Fallon was aware that [the museum] did major renovations to make it very interactive,” Ortner said. “We felt that students more inclined to be designers deserved to see more of a design-related museum rather than just fine art.”

The trip began with an interactive tour and project with a museum attendant. Students were led to a few major exhibits to discuss the artworks’ elements, principles of design and messages.

The group was then brought into the museum’s “Design Lab” where they were given a prompt and, with a partner, had to create an ad that included at least two of the types of art they discussed. After this, students were free to roam the museum to observe the other exhibits.

But the thing that mattered most to the advisers was ensuring that the trip attracted enough students. It can be difficult to organize a big trip for a reasonable price, due to costs of the tour and the cost of getting a comfortable bus for the long ride, Ortner said.

The Cooper Hewitt Museum impressed many of the visiting students, including junior Kathryn Willis of Tinton Falls.

“It was a really enjoyable opportunity to visit such a unique museum that I might have overlooked on my own,” Willis said. “To see such a beautiful and old building present very forward-thinking technology made for an interesting contrast.”

Ortner said she hopes NAHS visits a larger museum next year, such as the MOMA or the Whitney Museum, as they have visited in the past.