My Day In NYC: Day 9 The Met
Today was the day where we finally entered the monster that is the Metropolitan Museum of Art, otherwise known as The Met. To describe the sheer enormity of the collections would be impossible, so I can only conjure up the image of high ceilings and endless halls filled with art and treasures the world over.
Despite the prestige and size of these collections, I found myself reflecting on the museum in terms of what a visitor must really be seeing and feeling when they’ve come here with certain expectations. No matter the size, most regular patrons will come to think about museums more casually and with less awe than the newcomer or even the casual art major. I only say this because it seems that despite the enormous amount of time and energy spent maintaining the collection, the public can never really understand all that goes on behind closed doors.
Our speakers for the day made a great point of discussing their own areas of work which, while not what the public expects, constitutes a great amount of essential work. Our first speaker was a social media manager responsible for overseeing the social media content calendar. To our minds that sounds simple, but not for one of the worlds most prestigious art museums which has to run 30 different Instagram accounts for each of its departments. For any other museum a goof or two might brush off, but for The Met should they make a mistake it might very well end up in the New York Times.
Our second speaker worked in the digital department. This might not be much to think about in 2018, but it should be remembered that museums are not tech companies that have everything figured out. When it comes to digital tech, innovation is happening all the time and users must keep pace. Museums have the added hindrance of being bound to mission statements that are tied to its institutions and collections. Taking all that together, the simple maintenance of a collection and allowing online users to see and interact with objects is a never ending task that isn’t fully understood from the outside.
Today’s visit may have proved that many a task in the field of museums is thankless no matter the size of the workload. However, the work that professionals do does matter even if no one ever sees it. We might be a little oblivious for the work that goes into certain projects. After today I was far more appreciative of even the little things that institutions do for us, because somewhere down the line it took a lot of love and hard work to make everything about my visit seem easy.
Benjamin Norman. The American Wing Court, The Metropolitan Museum Of Art. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/guides/culture/guide-to-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art
