Art students headed to the Philadelphia Museum of Art Wednesday, Feb. 29, to view the legendary artwork of Vincent van Gogh.

The “Van Gogh Up Close” exhibit, on display from Feb. 1 to May 6, compiles about 40 of van Gogh’s greatest masterpieces, borrowed from collections around the world.

“It’s a perfect seize-the-moment kind of thing,” said art teacher Jean Diamond, who organized and sponsored the trip. “To see a major exhibition like this is extraordinary because it’s not coming to any other places.”

Junior Phoebe Schmidt said she felt the experience was very worthwhile because it gave her a better idea of van Gogh’s art.

“It was really cool to get up close to it,” she said. “To see his brushstrokes and almost see what he was thinking was really amazing.”

Diamond stressed the importance of students seeing great art in person to help themselves learn to stretch the boundaries of their creativity.

“Kids need to be going to museums, so they can be stimulated by seeing other styles of artists, and so they’re no longer in a little box and only relying on their own visual expression,” she said. “Kids need to see art.”

Schmidt said she appreciates the lasting impression of van Gogh’s work and feels it might serve as inspiration for her own art.

“The way van Gogh works with color, and the shapes he uses were really amazing,” she said. “I really want to work with color the way he did.”