Camping outside the Tang for a chance at a Matisse or a Warhol for our dorm room

Slowly, I stuck my head out from my sleeping bag and waited for my eyes to adjust 迎着晨光. Around me, I could hear hushed sounds from dozens of other students, who, along with my roommate and me, had camped out overnight outside the Tang Teaching Museum as part of its annual 室友: Living with Tang Art program.

相对较新，但越来越受欢迎 火博体育传统 allows Skidmore students to check out dozens of pieces of art from the Tang collection and experience the art by living for with it for an academic year in their dorm rooms 校园公寓.

Looking around on a Saturday morning in September, I could feel the energy of all the students who had slept outside hoping to get a good spot in line, so they could 从博物馆借他们最喜欢的东西.

Tom Yoshikami, assistant director of engagement for the 唐氏教学博物馆, emerged from the Tang building to announce there were pastries and coffee for all 我们的. I eagerly took in a chocolate chip pumpkin bread and some caffeine.

吉上告诉我和其他成员 唐氏学生谘询委员会, a group of peers who volunteer to act as ambassadors of the museum and collaborate 要举办活动，那就是这个想法 室友 是几年前学生的. 起初，他说这个概念似乎很激进. But after some research, the Tang realized that the opportunity would offer priceless learning opportunities for students, who could live with the art, experience it greater depth, and respect the creative labor involved in producing it.

The Tang packages the art up carefully and gives student detailed instructions on 怎么挂?. Instructions also appear on a tote bag that students get to keep. Besides, anyone who would camp out overnight outside the Tang must be passionate enough 火博体育艺术要好好爱护它!

Starting in 2020, the Tang began loaning out about 50 pieces including a Dalí, a Picasso, 还有马蒂斯的画. This year, that number increased as the Tang added a Warhol and 24 其他艺术品，共计75件. 每件艺术品还配有一本日记 让学生写下他们的经历.

室友已经迅速成长为心爱的人 火博体育传统 for eager art lovers willing to bear the weather for something beautiful. 有一天, Yoshikami said, the Tang hopes the artworks will become a way of connecting students and alumni who lived with the same work of art over the years.

我听说过室友的事 my roommate, whose sister had participated in the program when she was at Skidmore a 几年前. Renée, my roommate, was intrigued because she’s a 工作室艺术 major, and the 室友 program caught my attention, too: Although I’m pursuing a 自称大 in multimedia journalism, art has always been an interest of mine.

Seeing 75 artworks in varying mediums and styles at a viewing party at the Tang, flipping through the journal entries of years past, and listening to other eager students talk about camping out to get their first choices quickly convinced us we wanted to participate, too: It’s first come, first served, so if you want a big-name artist, you need to 为之努力吧.

虽然学生们下午4点就开始上课了.m. 前一天晚上，仁杰和我到了 晚上十点半左右在唐家.m. We brought sleeping bags, pillows, and cushions to 睡在. 我们周围的人都有帐篷和气垫. 虽然有一些友好 “competition” between different parties over who would get the best piece, it was clear that most participants didn’t take things too seriously.

It was a chance to stay up late and spend time with friends all excited about the 同样的事情. 笑声一直回荡到深夜.

We were lucky, of course, that there wasn’t any rain. 虽然空气很冷， 天气晴朗，星星向我们微笑.

In the morning, we were given numbered buttons to represent our place in line. 一个 by one, we filed into the museum to choose our pieces.

沃霍尔是第一个离开的. 在没有. 排在第32位，我得到了我的第一选择 马蒂斯，也许明年吧!). I selected a mixed-media painting by Lisa Sanditz of a unicorn surrounded by cars and trash cans, a play on the famous medieval tapestry “独角兽在花园里休息。.” It now sits above my fridge in my dorm and is the 我进入房间后看到的第一件事. 我室友买了一件镶框的合成纤维作品 by Victoria Manganiello, which she hung above her bed.

Now we walk around campus with our 室友 tote bags and know we are making a statement: The tote bags show that we are one of the 75 students on campus who braved the cold to participate in the 室友 tradition, because art matters to us.