NYC’s Met museum to observe 150th anniversary with new exhibits, programs

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in New York City on Tuesday unveiled the key exhibits and events to mark its 150th anniversary in 2020.

The centerpiece of the celebration will be Making The Met, 1870-2020, which will feature more than 250 works of art of nearly every type from The Met collection, including visitor favorites and fragile treasures that can only be displayed from time to time, according to a press preview held in the museum located on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.

To be on view March 30-August 2, 2020, the museum-wide collaboration will lead visitors on an immersive, thought-provoking journey through The Met’s history.

Other highlights of the year will include the opening of the newly renovated British Galleries, the display of new works of art gifted to the museum in honor of its 150th anniversary, the launch of cross-cultural installations and a robust schedule of programs and events.

“This anniversary is an exciting moment to celebrate what The Met means to its audience,” Daniel H. Weiss, the museum’s president and CEO, told the press. “It is also an opportunity to reflect on our history, to plan thoughtfully for our future, and to say thank you.”

Max Hollein, director of The Met, said that the museum “strives to be a seminal encyclopedic museum of the world, for the world and in the world.”

Founded in 1870 by a group of US businessmen, financiers, leading artists and thinkers, The Met is the largest art museum in the US and is among the top three most visited art museums in the world.