The Met as the Metropolitan Museum of Art is popularly known, just turned 150 and is marking the anniversary with an exhibition titled “Making the Met: 1870–2020”.  It commemorates the 150th birthday by charting its history—and the broader history of Western art collection—from the end of the American Civil War to the present day.

The museum reopened in August this year after months of lockdown. 

This weekend, The Met reopens—and we can't wait to see you!

While The Met is the same place you know and love, you'll notice a few changes to ensure the health and safety of all visitors. Here's what to expect.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

Welcome back—we're ready when you are.⁣ ⁣ pic.twitter.com/KuwtKqGPub

— The Metropolitan Museum of Art (@metmuseum) August 28, 2020

It was launched by a group of businessmen and civic leaders in the year 1866 as an idea without a work of art to its name. This institution got its first artifact in 1870 and soon the collection grew to a house for thousands of objects.

The Met became an internationally renowned treasure of cultural heritage that attracts more than seven million visitors each year.

The visitors who are interested in checking out the collection personally can purchase the entry tickets online. And those who want to take a part in it from home can also watch it online as the museum is also offering a virtual tour.

 

 

 

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A trip to an #EmptyMet on a Wednesday morning? Count us in! Join us on a silent tour to visit 10th-13th century sculptures from Cambodia and Thailand in Gallery 249. Keep an eye out for “Buddha 2” a work made of rattan by contemporary artist Sopheap Pich. P.S. If you like this tour, let us know in the comments. Keep an eye out in our Instagram Stories to submit your request next week when we'll visit another space in the Museum.

A post shared by The Metropolitan Museum of Art (@metmuseum) on Oct 21, 2020 at 8:40am PDT

Art lovers, you can listen to the audio tour of some of the highlights from this exhibition which has been narrated by actor Steve Martin.

All those who are interested in the behind the scenes of the museum can browse seven stories about the conservation of the Met’s most iconic works or watch a short documentary on the museum’s iconic Fifth Avenue architecture. The other option is viewing the rarely seen footage which is a silent 1928 documentary. The exhibition’s 250 objects are presented in an order that they were acquired in the museum.

The list of the selected artifacts includes the seated statue of the female Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut, Edgar Degas’ bronze Little Fourteen Year Old Dancer, contemporary works such as El Anatsui’s large scale Dusasa ll among many others. The exhibition curates the museum’s collection over the decades.

It also features the Monuments Men – a group of men and women who worked to preserve the art looted by the Nazis at the time of the Second World War and curators who pushed the conservative Met to embrace contemporary art.

One of the highlights of this exhibition is Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague Stricken of Palermo, a painting by Anthony van Dyck that was one of the first artifacts to enter the Met’s collection. It depicts Saint Rosalie who saved the Italian city of Palermo from plague in the 17th century.

The show has ten sections which has moments of great change for the museum, from the early decades of World War II and the embrace of modernism in the 20th century. 

Find out more here.