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From the Director of the Met Museum in New York City; Storytime With The Met, MetSketch, MuseumCrushMonday, Met Stories Project
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Dear Friends of The Met,
I hope this email finds you safe and healthy at home. Since we announced our decision to close the Museum a mere three weeks ago, the world around us has become unrecognizable. Protecting our staff, volunteers, and visitors remains our first priority, and keeping the Museum closed and our staff at home is crucial to fighting the coronavirus pandemic. These are unprecedented and challenging times for all of us, still The Met is not just a place that you can visit, but has many other ways to engage its audience. Despite the uncertainty we all face, I want to share with you some of the remarkable stories of how The Met community, like everyone around the world, has been thinking about how we can meaningfully contribute to the effort to stem the spread of COVID-19, aid those in distress, remain an active, vibrant, and accessible institution, and continue to plan thoughtfully for the future.
Our robust emergency plan is reliant on the dedication of a group of essential staff who are still reporting to work onsite, maintaining our infrastructure and checking on the condition of the art. One of the privileges of being Director is that I have been able to come to the Museum periodically, and I have personally witnessed the heroic work of teams from Security, Buildings, Custodial, Pest Management, Construction, and the Collections Care group, among others. Please join me in thanking them for their dedication and outstanding efforts. |
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The mornings that I walk through the empty Great Hall, where even the famous flowers are gone for now (although Kent Monkman's majestic paintings are there to keep me company), I think about how we cannot wait to welcome visitors and staff back to the Museum — once it is safe again. But I am heartened that even though our physical spaces are closed, The Met's mission in our new shared reality remains the same, and that we have many ways to engage our audiences even during this time of closure. We know that art has the power to provide joy and comfort, foster understanding and compassion, and enlighten our lives, especially in the most difficult circumstances.
After we ensured that our people and our collections were safe, we began working creatively to bring The Met collection, our digital content, and our staff expertise into people's homes around the world. The Digital, Social Media, and Education teams have led these efforts, which we are calling #MetAnywhere, and we invite you to experience all that The Met has to offer, no matter where you are right now. Let me highlight a few of those activities: |
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Visitors can explore our completely remodeled website metmuseum.org to find a broad range of engaging resources, including Primers on many of our exhibitions (e.g. the recently opened British Galleries), the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, educational materials for teachers, students, and families, and much more. I spent some time the other night in the section on early histories of photography in West Africa (1860–1910), which I encourage you to read. |
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We are using our website, Facebook, and YouTube to share live streams and exclusive videos. Tonight, Friday, April 3, at 7 p.m., you can watch a recording of The Mother of Us All, a groundbreaking American opera that was performed at The Met earlier this year. Next Saturday, we will also have the exclusive digital premiere of the full-length documentary Gerhard Richter Painting, which is featured in the exhibition Gerhard Richter: Painting After All at The Met Breuer. |
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Also make sure to follow our yearlong Met Stories project. It shares unexpected and compelling stories gathered from the many people who visit The Met, whether artists, teachers, curators, actors, Museum staff, designers, thought-leaders, or public figures. |
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On our social media, you will find great ways to engage with our collection, mission, and staff. Two of my favorite hashtags are #MetSketch, which invites our talented followers to share their drawings, and #MuseumCrushMonday, which we use to recognize the contributions of our museum colleagues around the world. I'm also excited for a new initiative that will share selfies of our essential staff inside the Museum and invite our followers to send digital greetings to them. |
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If you have young kids at home, you should tune in to the weekly "Storytime with The Met," as of this week presented online by our amazing library and education staff on YouTube and Facebook. My kids— well, teenagers — may be too old for storytime, but you can guarantee that our family will be checking out the rest of these digital offerings. |
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With everyone at home now is the time for some extended reading, and for you to brush up your knowledge on topics like Fencing Illustrations between 1500–1800, American Sportswear in the 1970s, or Pyrotechnics in Prints & Drawings. All of these as well as 1,697 other publications are available online for free on MetPublications. | | Pages: 1 · 2
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