The Black and White

by Kaylie Martell

On December 17, 2025, Pilgrim’s Italian students traded their usual textbooks, assignments, and lessons for a special cultural experience when they visited Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition at Warwick Mall. The field trip offered a rare opportunity for students to experience the world of Italian Renaissance art and history, without even leaving their state! 

The exhibition, which opened on October 17, 2025, and will run through January 18, 2026, brought 34 of Michelangelo’s most impressive frescoes to life in a life-size scale. Rather than studying small textbook pictures or slideshows, students were able to walk through and engage with each fresco, expanded reproductions of iconic masterpieces like The Creation of Adam and The Last Judgement. This made students truly feel as if they were transported into a place that would ordinarily only be seen in person in Italy, when in reality, they were inside their local mall!

Unlike the very crowded, time-limited, and photo-restricted experience of visiting the real Sistine Chapel, this touring exhibition allowed students to explore each fresco freely, at their own time and pace. Each piece was paired with informative texts that described both the artistic details and the historical context and significance behind Michelangelo’s work, allowing students to not only view, but truly learn and deepen their understanding. Many students also used the QR codes that were linked to audio guides or watched some videos that were next to some of the masterpieces. 

This trip was organized and chaperoned by four of Pilgrim’s world language teachers, Mrs. Fava, Mrs. Corpolongo, Mrs. Deluca, and Mrs. Lancellotta. However, this visit was more than a simple field trip; it was an opportunity for students to deepen their understanding of Renaissance art and history, replacing the need for international travel by bringing the impressive masterpieces to them.

“I thought it was good! Very nice display of different arts and paintings. It was bigger than I thought because I was thinking, in the mall, how much space do you have, but it ended up being really nice“, explains one of the chaperones, Mrs. Fava.

However, there were some criticisms. She explains how only five audio devices were available, evidently not enough for the entire group. She criticizes how “it would have been more effective if we had a guide”. 

After reflecting on the trip as a whole, she explains how the trip was “overall very good, something different for students to see. Everyone was great, we didn’t have any issues. Everything went very smoothly. It was very nice to interact outside of a school setting – really nice.”