At the end of my first week of teacher prep at my new school, all of the admin, support staff and teachers went on a staff Retreat to the Cathedral and the San Jose MOMA. We were split into two groups to explore each location, and my group started at the Cathedral first. We were able to get a behind the scenes tour, and were able to peek at the organ upstairs and at two gorgeously carved & painted pulpits from one of the earlier churches on this same site.

I had been to the Cathedral once with one of my college classes at SCU, but hadn’t gotten as in depth tour. We had an amazing tour guide, with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of all the church’s different nooks and cranny’s.

I was an art major at SCU, so seeing the ceiling details up close made me all excited. The intricate details of all minute wall carvings, elegant statues and gold leaf paint was just amazing. My pictures really don’t do it justice.

From there we walked over to SJ MOA, where we explored a variety of their exhibits, but had tour guides explain things for their Indestructible Wonder exhibit, which was hauntingly beautiful. One of my favorite pieces was Inferno by an artist called Sandow Birk.

If you have time on weekend, you should go check out the upstairs exhibit. It was one of my favorites out all the ones we saw. His detail work in his painting was amazing. From there we ate lunch, and the majority of the staff walked over to the musical swings in the Plaza De Cesar Chavez. It’s a traveling exhibit where when people swing on a swing it plays a musical tone, so when you have more people on it, it creates music. It was beautiful and a lot of fun. They are only here until the start of October, so you’ll have to check it out soon. Here’s a short clip of a few of us teachers swinging. It’s a little loud with background noise, but hopefully you can hear the music.

It was a great retreat, and I’m so lucky to work at a school that values the arts and sets aside time for our staff to bond and learn about our community.

Have you been to SJ MoA or the Cathedral? Would you be willing to give the musical swings a go?

Love,

-S