The Obamas are in town, so a few members of the New England Patriots paid a visit on their day off Tuesday.
Deatrich Wise Jr., Ja'Whaun Bentley, Kendrick Bourne, Josh Uche, Joe Cardona, Myles Bryant, Sam Roberts, Cole Strange, and Laquon Treadwell all took a field trip to the Museum of Fine Arts to catch The Obama Portraits Tour before it leaves Boston.
"It was awesome to be able to see the Presidential murals. And you know, Michelle Obama and Barack Obama were great, and to kind of understand the history of those artists -- those black artists being the first to do a presidential mural -- it was amazing," said Uche, before mentioning the Portraits of Leadership gallery, displaying art from the community featuring leaders of all kind.
"And to just kind of get some inspiration a little bit -- they had a segment within the museum that talked about community leaders. We definitely had fun on our off day."
Bryant had seen the Barack and Michelle Obama portraits before, but this was his first time at the MFA in Boston and getting to see the work of classic impressionists like Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh.
"This is my second time seeing them -- I saw them in Chicago with my family in the summer of 2021," Bryant said. "But I think my favorite was maybe the Monet section. It was my first time seeing a Monet. I saw a couple of Picassos, and I think my favorite was one of Van Gogh's paintings."
In addition to the Portraits of Leadership, the Patriots group also saw exhibits like the Masterpieces of Egyptian Sculpture from the Pyramid Age, Gods and Goddesses (ancient Greek and Roman art), and Stories Artists Tell (Touching Roots: Black Ancestral Legacies in the Americas).
Wise Jr.'s favorite part was seeing ancient Egyptian sculptors.
"I'm a big historic guy so (my favorite) was the Egyptian exhibit," Wise Jr. said. "I like the local artists (too). That was pretty wonderful. Any sculpture that I saw, like the ancient Greek sculptures, it kind of cool to see that. The pots, the Egyptian sculptures."
For the tour, an art curator tagged along to share the significance of each piece. He'd been to the MFA before, giving him an appreciation for fine art, but having someone there to explain the significance of each piece stood out.
"It was cool because we had a curator there, someone who was able to talk about the artist, talk about the art, the process behind the art, the mindset of the artists, and it brought the picture to life as one of my teammates said," Deatrich Wise Jr. said. "At first it was just art or a photo. Then when you read what the little plaque said besides it, and heard what the curator said, you see it a lot differently."
Check out all of the photos from the trip here.
