Metropolitan Museum of Art

I

Introduction

Metropolitan Museum of Art, art museum in New York City, one of the largest and most comprehensive art museums in the world. Founded in 1870 by a group of civic leaders, philanthropists, and artists, the museum has occupied its current location in New York’s Central Park since 1880. Its collections include more than 2 million works of art spanning 5,000 years of culture from every part of the world, from ancient times to the present.

Popularly known as the Met, the museum is a private institution. Its collection is housed in a building owned and maintained by New York City. Visited by millions each year, the museum is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city. It is also a major educational institution, offering a wide array of programs for children and adults. In addition, scholars of archaeology and art history conduct advanced research projects at the museum.

II

History

In 1866 a group of Americans in Paris, France, gathered at a restaurant to celebrate the Fourth of July (American Independence Day). After dinner, John Jay, a prominent lawyer and grandson of eminent American jurist John Jay, gave a speech proposing that he and his compatriots create a “national institution and gallery of art.” During the next four years, they convinced American civic leaders, art collectors, and philanthropists to support the project, and in 1870 the Metropolitan Museum of Art was incorporated. During the 1870s the museum was housed in two different locations in New York City, first in a building at 681 Fifth Avenue and later at 128 West 14th Street.

In 1880 the museum moved to its present location in Central Park on Fifth Avenue between 80th and 84th Streets. The first structure was designed by American architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould. Many additions have since been built around this building, but its west facade is still visible in the museum’s Robert Lehman Wing. American architect Richard Morris Hunt designed the central pavilion and the neoclassical facade on Fifth Avenue, which opened to the public in 1902 (see Neoclassical Art and Architecture). The architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White designed the north and south wings, which were completed in 1911 and 1913, respectively. Additional wings have been built since 1975 to house the museum’s growing collections, to expand gallery space, and to accommodate art conservation and educational facilities.

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III

Operations

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is divided into several curatorial departments, each responsible for acquiring, preserving, studying, and exhibiting works of art in its field. The museum obtains objects for its collections through bequests, gifts, and purchases with funds specified for acquisition. Curators evaluate works proposed for acquisition in terms of their perceived quality, importance, and rarity, as well as their overall contribution to the collection as a whole.

Works of art are preserved, cleaned, and restored (when necessary) by conservation departments specializing in one of four types of media: paintings, three-dimensional objects (such as sculptures), works on paper (such as prints), and textiles. Objects on exhibition are carefully displayed to avoid overexposure to light, dust, and other environmental hazards. Objects in storage are kept under optimum conditions appropriate to their medium, age, and state of preservation. See also Art Conservation and Restoration.

Only a small percentage of the museum’s permanent collection is on view at any given time. However, the museum regularly rotates its exhibits, enabling returning visitors to see a large proportion of the museum’s holdings. In addition to displaying the permanent collection, the museum mounts special exhibitions every year, accompanied by catalogues, lectures, symposia, and related activities.

The museum regularly presents guided tours for museum visitors. It also presents gallery talks, lectures, concerts, films, teacher workshops, and other educational programs. The museum publishes many catalogues, periodicals, scholarly books, and popular guides each year.

IV

Scholarship

The Met has several libraries that house reference works, exhibition and sales catalogues, books on archaeology and art history, and photographs and slides. These libraries are open to scholars, who may either visit the museum or access part of the collection online via the Internet. Scholars are regularly invited to study the collections and to present papers at symposia or through the Met’s scholarly journal, the Metropolitan Museum Journal. Special research projects, such as one tracing the origins of the museum’s holdings, are funded and housed. The museum’s Egyptian and Ancient Near East departments sponsor archaeological expeditions in the Middle East and regularly publish their findings in leading scholarly journals.

The Met’s education department works with New York City’s public and private schools to offer on-site and outreach programs. The museum also offers internships to high school and college students. Interns learn about museum careers by working on departmental projects, giving gallery talks, or working at the visitor center.

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