The Metropolitan Museum of Art-Blog 5

The beginnings of the Met date back to 1866 in Paris, France, when a group of Americans agreed to create a "national institution and gallery of art" to bring art and art education to the American people. John Jay was mostly responsible for the project after he returned to America from France. When Jay became president, his Union League Club in New York rallied civic leaders, businessmen, artists, art collectors, and philanthropists to the cause, and on April 13, 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art became open to the public in the Dodworth Building at 681 Fifth Avenue. 

Since this time, the museum`s collection has grown tremendously and today, tens of thousands of objects are on view at any given time in the Museum's two-million-square-foot building.  Throughout the nineteenth century, the museum grew and purchased several collections including the 1874–76 purchase of the Cesnola collection of Cypriot art which helped to boost the Met`s reputation.  By the twentieth century, the Met had become one of the greatest art center`s in the world, featuring works from Manet, Matisse, and Renoir.  The museum has continued to add to its many collections, some of which include: arms and armor, the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, ancient Near Eastern art, Asian art, costume, drawings and prints, European sculpture and decorative arts, Greek and Roman art, Islamic art, medieval art, modern and contemporary art, musical instruments, photographs, and the Robert Lehman Collection.

Throughout its history, the museum has undergone architectural projects and expansions, including a more recent one completed in 1991 which allowed for the addition of more collections including the Arts of Korea gallery and several others.  Throughout the year of 2014, the Met has attracted 6.2 million visitors from around the world and continues to grow and preserve art for the public to see.

*Feel free to click on the underlined or bolded collections to view them on the Met website

 

 

Museum Mission Statement

The mission of The Metropolitan Museum of Art is to collect, preserve, study, exhibit, and stimulate appreciation for and advance knowledge of works of art that collectively represent the broadest spectrum of human achievement at the highest level of quality, all in the service of the public and in accordance with the highest professional standards.