i would kind of love to see the met organised in one big rainbow gradient

I get the feeling you have something against the plants.

There's this one art gallery in the Czech Republic, where the permanent exhibition is based on different emotions, which are grouped in pairs - either contradictory or complementary (like solitude-friendship, courage-fear, alienation-meditation). It is really refreshing compared to ‘encyclopaedic’ exhibitions you were talking about!

What a beautiful channel this is

One idea for a fun way of experiencing museums would be to go there with some piece of media in mind (music album, movie, tv show, etc) and try to find in the museum a work of art that best captures the feeling of said piece of media. Like, try to find in a museum a work that feels like Radiohead's Kid A (hard mode: do it in ancient Greek or roman sections), or something that reminds you of Lost in Translation, or your favorite movie, a childhood favorite, and so on. You really can go nuts with this idea, try to do it with a book, maybe a food even, who knows?

I can imagine something like this being done with VR in the future. Kind of like the search engine for the Met now, but translated into a virtual physical space. Ok, it's not the same as actually being there, but it would be easier and cheaper than actually emptying the Met.

The Met is my home museum. It's a place I go to repeatedly, and there is a definite delight in being able to visit certain pieces that I know will satisfy, like just taking some time to breathe in the Astor court, while the temporary exhibits add vital dynamism. The addition of the Breuer has really allowed them to display their collection in interesting and unexpected ways. I feel so blessed to be able to visit it so frequently.

How about taking all of the art out of the Met and filling it with refrigerators and hanging kids art on them. It could be the worlds biggest children's art museum.

This would be a cool VR idea. Appreciate the reorganized art without having to move the pieces.

8:10 Are you trying to rope me into a heist?

My thing is finding every dog (painting, statute, etc) in museums I visit.

That would be an amazing sight to see the met stripped out and only have its architecture!

*METaphor*

Speaking of emptying out the building - this is why I do the architectural tour at the AGO - where we almost exclusively focus on the building - from its classical 1800s original house, to its mid-20th century expansion, to the 1970s brutalist addition, to the contemporary Frank Gehry make over. The architectural history of the building is not only an art in itself, it also speaks to the nature of the collections that's housed in the institution. So I guess - if I were to remake the MET, I'd just empty it and conduct an architectural tour of it, lol.

I always thought it would be fun to take a big museum and put the whole thing in chronological order of when the art was created. I feel like, as art history students you memorize date after date with the idea (I guess????) that it lets you put things in some kind of mental order, but I certainly never consider how 615 bce in china compares to 615 bce in greece or whatever. (I also once took a mini seminar on decapitation and would love to organize some art by like, cause of death.)

I saw this in my in box and let off a squeee of excitement. Always entertaining, always enlightening.

My first museum experience as not-a-small-child happened as part of an architecture course I took one summer in high school, and although I didn't get into architecture, it's hugely informed the way I view museums. I visited the Met just over a year ago, and throughout this video seeing those images, I remembered much more about the architecture of the building, its structure, and the layout of exhibits than any individual piece of art within the museum. I am more interested in what it would be like if we kept the exhibits the way they are, but simply moved them into a location that is currently used for another exhibit - how they would fit or not fit in those spaces, and how strange it would look to regular museum-goers. That distortion of the familiar and the unexpected would be so interesting to experience, just standing in the middle of it all and feeling the off-kilter parts of the spaces.

I'm 18 and I always had 2 Goal museums to visit at least once in my life, The Louvre (which I did, and will do again in 3 weeks, Yay!) and the Met. Thank you so much for this amazing channel and videos!

I lived in NY for nine years, and have visited the city frequently for the past fifty years. Besides having read Calvin Tomkins Merchants and Masterpieces three times, I can say I was addicted to the Metropolitan, and knew my way around it better than anyone who didn't work there. For many years, I spent entire weekends there, including Friday evenings, and met my friends in the museum for lunch, and for art viewing. On Saturdays it was from 10AM to 8PM, invariably. I remember distinctively when I learned all the stairwells, meaning, I knew both floors by heart, plus the very tricky American Wing, but was unsure where a given stairwell would lead to on the other level, and when I mastered that I was incredibly proud of myself. Once, on a city bus, a woman turned to me and said -" where do I know you from"? Turns out she was a guard at the Met and worked weekends. Philippe de Montebello reffered to the Met as -"many mseums inside a museum", and this is very true. The Metropolitan does not have the greatest collection in the world of any particular genre per se, although it certainly has the greatest collection of period rooms of any museum in the world by far. What the Metropolitan Museum is, is the most fascinating place on Earth when we consider the vastness and richness of the many collections amassed under one (many actually) roof, and the brilliant ways they are displayed. It also has had the privilege of being a place where so many amazing minds dedicated their time and knowledge, and money, to create that magic world. Tip: At night, the Temple of Dendur can be seen from a totally different angle reflected on the glass; it can bee seen from above. And you can spend a while reading all the tourist geaffitti carved on its walls (lots of Americans from the 19th century... )

Bellas artes in mexico city has done an amazing job at curating exhibitions that find common ground between multiple art works, art forms and time periods. They did one on hybrids and how the mix human/animal has been represented from antiquity to films of guillermo del toro, or they did one on a red pigment and how it was manufactured from a mexican bug and then used by titian, picasso and to tint clothes in germany. I think museums should have at least a few empty rooms where they can pull items from permanent collections, mix them with guest art works and help us visualize those links between artists and cultures. Those are always the exhibitions I enjoy the most!

“We’d take out the plants too.” - Agreed. Nature’s creations would distract one’s contemplation of the space.

ALSO as a bostonian, I cant help but think about the gardner museum which has an organizing scheme of basically whatever, where ever. in theory I love it and think its a great way to see things in new ways. in practice I find it really overwhelming and mostly just go hang out by the gardens or read about the thefts.

I work at a museum designed to be constantly rearranged but sometimes it seems to settle on a very basic pattern only shaken up by renovations

I’ve never been to the MET (or the USA at all), but one thing I’ve noticed happening at the NGV in Australia is the inclusion of more historical work by women being shown in those collections. It’s mostly in the Australian Art building in Fed Square, because that’s where they’re more likely to have collected it through donations over time, but it’s finally happening in a noticeable way and it makes me happy. That’s what I’d do in every museum around the world: bring out the art that is in the collections somewhere, ignored because it’s not been previously considered historically important enough because it was made by a minority, and introduce it quietly, as if it’s always been there.

One recent example of a museum with a thematic approach was visiting the Musee des Confluences in Lyon, France. It contains natural history exhibits (stuffed animals), anthropological exhibits (cultural items), art and technology, but groups it cross culturally, cross-temporally by themes : the relationship to death, explanations of origins (both scientific and mythical), the other and the animal... I really loved that approach and how it drew for example parallels in how we create and look for meaning, in science, in art, in religion.

I’d love for you to visit MONA in Tasmania. It’s the collection of one man based around the themes of sex and death. When I went I enjoyed Ancient Egyptian artifacts alongside artwork featuring drug paraphernalia, a C19th Poet’s death portrait, and a Damien Hirst canvas consisting of thousands of dead flies stuck in resin. It truly is an amazing place. You travel there by ferry and descend into six levels of underground enjoyment and wonder.

i went to the met with my sister earlier this year and we decided to go our separate ways inside. thanks to this channel, I was distracted by modern and contemporary art all afternoon. my sister, on the other hand, was literally stepped on while trying to check out the michelangelo exhibit. needless to say, she was way less of a fan of the layout than me lol

Being from Boston, there are two museums I’ve really experienced and understand, The Museum of Fine Arts, encyclopedic, and the Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum, which was carefully designed to place art in the contexts contrived by one woman, making her as much a prescence as the artists and art spanning literally thousands of years. I don’t know which I prefer, but I adore the juxtaposition, particularly because these two museums are so near each other and wandering the Gardiner hunts at a hidden rivalry between the two styles, collections, etc.

I work in the education department at the Museum of the North in Fairbanks, Alaska. The museum mostly focuses on science, but also has art, history, and cultural collections. I think we do something similar to what you suggest in the video, looking at collections in different ways. Each month we choose a theme and organize our family programming around the theme; for example, we had a Butterflies month, and we did activities approaching butterflies from scientific, artistic, and historical perspectives. We've also done Rivers, Bones, Fashion, Bears, Fossils, Moose, Travel, and lots of other themes. Each month I get to walk around the museum and see the exhibits from a different angle. It's a fun challenge!

I love the ideas presented in this video!!! I’ve gone to so many museums in my life but I’ve never thought of approaching my viewing experience differently. You’ve given me a new and fresh perspective, not just on being a spectator of art, but as an observer of life. Thank you so much for the work that you guys put into every video!

Sometimes I watch Sarah and I think, "Ah, yes. This is the woman who asked John Green for some of his popcorn, took a single kernel, and it drove him crazy."

Philippe de Montebello once described the MET as "many museums inside a museum" and he was right. I was addicted to the Metropolitan for seven years of my life when I lived in NY, and visited the museum every friday evening, and all weekend long from opening to closing. I met with my friends there, ate there, and learned my way around the place like nobody I knew who didn't actually work there. I remember when I had both floors figured out in my mind, but did not know where each of the many stairs led to which room below or above. And I remember when I figured that out as well; it felt as if I owned the place. Once I was on a bus, and a woman asked me -" where do I know you from"? And after a few exchanges she turned out to be a MET guard who worked weekends. For anyone seriously interested in this amazing institution, reading Merchants and Masterpieces by Calvin Tomkins is a must.

Honestly, I feel like with giant museums like that you just need to go there for a week straight and really take your time. Because usually after a few hours, your feet start hurting, you get hungry and it's just not fun anymore. I also really love it when museums have a narrative going on instead of just grouping items by era or place of origin.

I love these videos that talk not about the art itself, but how we interact with it and the other structures art is placed within!

I think this almost felt like the intro to an art assignment where we have to take the works in an existing museum of art and redistribute the collection throughout their galleries to make a new exhibit or just new layout! I love this idea so much and it reminds me of when KAWS took over the Pennsylvania Academy of fine arts and how his work and the existing pieces mixed in an interesting way.

This is such a fascinating topic! When I was teaching, I loved talking to students about research as a way to "curate" information, especially because there is SO much information out there.

A tip for visiting the Met at night. The Temple of Dendur is more interesting in the evening than during the day, and you can see it "from above" in different angles reflected on the large glass window to the North. Also, the 18th and 19th century grafitti carvings inside its walls (many by American tourists) can be seen more clearly lit up at night.

This happened at the Detroit Institute of Arts shortly after I first moved to Michigan in 2004. They were doing major renovations and had to clear out 2/3's of the museum and so the central building became a "Greatest Hits" compilation of their huge collection (the 4th largest publicly held collection in the US!) and they arranged works by themes similar to some of the ones that Sarah describes: Spirituality, Individuality, Nature, etc. Also, I believe the DIA was free admission during that period as well, so it was all pretty rad. Then in 2007 or so, once the reno was complete, they put it all back the way it was. Sad face.

I once suggested to an American Wing curator putting finishing touches in a new period room that the museum should have a map guide for visiting all its many incredible period rooms. Not sure it was ever done, since I haven't been to the museum in almost four years, but here is a thing to do in one visit; trying to see all the period rooms in one day.

This channel always sends me on the best self study sessions of artists I've never heard of. I always come back an hour later like "oh yeah, I need to finish this video" Thanks, Sarah

I love this video! It reminds me of The Brain Scoop's video on taxonomy of candy; how both artworks and candies, (and natural history), are sorted into precise categories but that the categories are chosen entirely by us.

I think that rearranging the artworks of the Met thematically would be really fascinating. A “hall of busts” with busts from across history, from the Neolithic, to Egypt, to Rome, to the renaissance, to post-modernism. Galleries like that.

I love the way you think and make me reconsider things. Yesterday my husband and I attended the opening of the Bret Weston photography exhibit at Newfields. We were so impacted that when we came out of the gallery we immediately sat down to discuss it. By the way, something we noticed that was new (besides the giant snails) were chairs. These were placed in all the places we visited yesterday. One can move the chairs to the spot you need to contemplate a work of art! Something I have wanted for ages. My granddaughter and I like to sit and sketch when we visit Newfields. That has been limited by the placement of seating. Now we are set free! Thanks for always making me think.

This is such an interesting idea and I'm going to wonder for the next hours how I would organise *my* Met. Also, I wish I wouldn't live on the other side of the Atlantic because I really, really want to visit the Met now.

For a museum organised in an unusual way, check out the Pitt Rivers Anthropological Collection in Oxford, UK. It's a collection of colonial trophies taken from all over the world and grouped by usage, so in one display case there will be e.g. drums and percussion instruments, and the next one will be brooches and neck jewellery, and the one across from that will be baby clothes, and it's simply fascinating to compare how different cultures solved the same problem in their own unique ways.

I don't have words to explain how much I loved this. Thank you so much.

I go to the Met every time I go to NYC! I think I've been 3 times now. Still my favorite spot in the city and I truly do see something different every time.

Cloisters are my favorite. I got so excited last time looking at the architecture.

Ive always wanted a museum to be organized by light, and I think the met could do that wonderfully. Have the darkest paintings in the innermost rooms and gradually get lighter as you go out. I’ve also always liked the idea that paintings where light is coming from one direction should match with the windows so that the natural light bleeds into the created. Also, every room should have a piece created by an underrepresented minority that is thematically relevant (I think they’re doing that at the moma rn). ALSO! I’ve always thought there was wasted space in the sculpture galleries, let’s get some sort of sensory overload to overly focusing gradient where we go from rooms absolutely full like the artists mind to rooms with a single piece in them! So much to explore. The met is my favorite museum and their change in admission regulations is a devastation to the entire art community. (Wow I had thoughts on this one!)

The Columbia Museum of Art in South Carolina did this, took all the art and rearranged by theme instead of category. It's fascinating.

We should organize the met alphabetically

The Cleveland Museum of Art used to have an annual recent acquisitions exhibition that was memorable because it mixed and juxtaposed objects in unexpected ways. I guess that and the May Show are no more.

Really liked the ideas in this video, moving through art differently even when the art stays the same sounds like a fun exercise and I'll definitely do that the next time I go to a museum. I hope there will be a book/resources video soon. I spend so much time reading the titles in the videos. It'd be cool to find out how to learn more about art history in a deep way.

Your channel is so incredible. You are my hero!

I love The Art Assignment SO MUCH

This channel always seems to dance around architecture, I would love to see you tackle that art head on!

This is such an interesting idea! Never thought about museums in this kind of way. Makes me all happy, I’m currently travelling in Central Europe and I just went to a museum that was built in the 1700s and has archaeological artifacts since then! and it is not only a time piece within the pieces themselves - but how everything is laid out. Definitely going to check out Civilizations, and weirdly enough I want to maybe broach a ‘museum curating’ assignment of my own haha

I would love to see a world class museum which displays presents an historical perspective on human art

I went to visit the Met in Nyc and while it was enjoyable, i felt i didnt get as much out of it as i could because i was wandering. I’ll try to be more intentional next time with some of your ideas!

At some point in the video, I thought you were going to transition to saying, "now what if I told you this wasn't a thinking experiment? The met is emptying out for the next few months until...."

Reminds me of “Rendezvous with Rama,” where they enter a giant cylindrical spaceship and try to make sense of what is in it, and why things are organized as they are. Someone suggests they could be as simple as filed alphabetically in an alien language.

As more of the art museums are going into making their space VR. I happened to have a chance to visit Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh) through such a VR app. It is possible that with VR we can do that --- though it requires time and a lot of funding to map out a space as huge as Met, but however it can be done. It could also be a way of how we can integrate technology into art. It could be art curation with the help of technology to see what works the best for you. Imagine walking into Met in the confines of your home but art works being organized the way you like it --- or maybe very randomly. A rich experience every day -- all you need is a VR app. It is a very thought-provoking video.

Keep giving us the Architecture Assignment.

I'm so glad the Yeti came out of hiding! Wonderful and thoughtful and thought-provoking video - thank you!

I wish I could work in the Met or even in Lacma and be surrounded by awesome pieces of art and plan out where things go.

Sarah, you got a bit more like John there at the end with all that talk of metaphor and the human condition

An amazing divergent tour would be if we paired a random kid(s) with a random tour guide. Therefore, when the kid gets tired or distracted, the rule will be that the tour guide has to follow the child and talk about what they are looking at the moment--Attention span of a child museum tour!

Wonderful video!

Virtual tours may enable multiple thematic re-grouping of the 2million pieces of art possible. It would be fantastic.

This is such a cool idea. This is the kind of stuff I daydream about. I half way through another comment to come once the video is complete.

GREAT!!!!!!!!!!! VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is an art historian who is finishing up a book about indigenism. I would set up the Met according to the research of that book. The authors of this book have been researching for over 25 yrs (by top art scholars of the world) and have evidence that would turn the art world and art history on its head. That is why the exhibition would never be shown at places like the Met, MOMA, the Guggenheim, etc. After years of rejection for even a temporary exhibit, the book, that is near completion, is the only way for the world to see all these famous art pieces recontectualized; even, debunking many myths that were turned into presumed facts. I love this channel and hope that it will do a video on this book when it comes out. And hopefully the public will but some pressure on these museums to display the proposed exhibition, temporary or otherwise, that this book is based off.

At the Art Institute of Chicago (which is second to the Met in terms of size, I'm told), over the past thirty years I've seen the art migrate around. ("So THAT'S where the Van Vlaminck is now") and its kinda interesting.

Wow, I've never really thought about the MET's organization even though I've been a couple times. Granted I could spend all day every day there looking at each individual piece, but noticing the building that houses the art and its flow is equally as significant. I believe, that given the insanely impossible opportunity to remake the MET, I would love to see much the same categorization BUT with an equal number of more thematic or focused exhibitions, such as wide-ranging shows based on similar styles, ideas, and methods across art history Or one might keep the original placement, but add in notes/highlights into the sections that point out connections between different artworks. I recently visited the MET in January when the Michelangelo and Rodin exhibits were up and I found the Rodin one to be the most mixed and "balanced" version of what I would want for the museum. Of course, Rodin's work was everywhere, but pieced between them and in the background were paintings by other artists (typically from the same time-period) that helped support the work, process, and intentions of Auguste Rodin. That was a very engaging exhibition for me and one I remember.

I love the Met!! In an other PBS art video thread I commented on a desire for a museum to focus on practical means that humans have adapted over the ages - an emphasis on current climate issues as the main center piece. I moved to Oslo and a few of their major institutions are relocating to newer structures. There are no definitive plans for how the original structures/spaces will be used, as of publicly announced yet. Since they're climate controlled, clean structures I could envision at least one of them devoted to Urban Agriculture. There is quite a history and community supporting UA in this particular capital and I firmly believe it's something that ought to be appreciated on a academic and public level - not just left known to the niche group and t attracts like they've been doing thus far. Urban Ag is a concept that should be put on display and explained and admired by all visiting and living here as part of what much of us consider important to our livelihood as a means to cope with self sufficiency, climate change, personal health and community well-being. That's my two cents 😊

I love this channel.

I love the way you think!

I realize I'm coming to this video late. I've only recently began to go through everything here (until now, I'd just seen what is on the smarthistory website). Anyway, this video made me think of the Barnes Foundation museum in Philadelphia. It is organized the way Dr. Barnes put everything on his walls and floors of his mansion. He insisted that it had to stay that way. There is no explanation for why some disparate objects are together; he said he put together what he thought would look nice together. To get explanation of a piece, you must scan with your phone. Some people like this approach; others find it frustrating. If you want to wander and see what might catch your eye without knowing what categories you will next encounter, this is your place. There is some incredible art there, even if you don't know where it will show up.

Cool video. I'm going to try some of the tips on how to navigate a museum in an unconventional way at my local museum, which has started to get boring since I've been there 100 times.

Yes, excellent! Following up on the notion that context is, in so many ways, decisive, the context of the museum (and it's organization) will very much influence how we view the art -- and, since a museum (or a particular museum) is often our first encounter with "art" and "what art is", it will shape the foundation of how we relate to art and all of its intricacies and nuances. It'd be amazing if galleries could re-arrange their artworks periodically -- we'd get such the chance to see and compare things in a new light. Hmm. With the prevalence of smartphones now, maybe the Met could curate and create new guided tours: you'd arrive, select the tour, and your phone would guide you to go to this gallery to view this artwork, then traverse to view the next artwork four galleries over, and so on. It'd not be perfect (seeing other artworks as you pass them might diminish the effect) but it's much easier than re-arranging the actual items and more powerful than virtual/VR tours as you're actually there. If they created a new tour quarterly (or quicker, if they have the staff) in short order they'd have a great number of new ways to see the collection within new contexts. They could invite guest curators and artists and historians and the like to create the tours, opening up new ways to explore the collection that goes beyond what artists or traditional curators might come up with. Hmmm! The more I noodle on this, the more and more I think this could really work... :D

I would make 3-D images of everything the Met has, and have a virtual tour that allows you and everyone to witness the Met anyway we want. We might crowd source some great discovery about the interconnectedness of different things, or who knows what else. It could be paid for by a subscription service that would allow different levels of access depending upon donation level. Of course with people who are interested in doing serious studies of a particular artist, or culture receiving a discount.

Great post. When I went to the Louvre last year I looked for and took photos of how many ugly babies images I could find. Trust me I found a lot of them in paintings and sculptures. It was great fun.

I was interested in Lions in art & architecture and found over 5000 piece at the Met that would be something to get them altogether.

The quickest way to dull a colour is to mix it with everything else. At first, the whirling colors will excite as the spectrum dances before our eyes, creating and enhancing values. We are at that point in history. But keep mixing and you will end up with one big grey-brown blob.

so into what u said about moving old stuff to a newer building and vice versa and probably painting the walls black when all the art is white(washed) is what i would suggest as a relatively quick fix coz what we want probably won't happen. and i would be so into the clearing of the place for even a week, actually coz hello ootd backgrounds and just photography exercises coz architecture is so photogenic xoxo

I need to go there

YO this is really hecking something

I would put a noteworthy piece of art in each room/section and get people to respond to it, copy it, answer it, visually, with photography, in writing, etc and display these on the walls around it.,

I am so used to video sponsorship on KZfaq at this point that I thought I can sign up through a link in the description and get a 10% discount to the Met😂

I think there's potential in using 3D imaging technology to create high-accuracy digital models of the objects. A lot of it can be done non-destructively with laser or ultrasound, and can reveal some interesting things about the work (such as an underpainting, which could give insight on the artist's process, for example)

I'd make it like IKEA. Everything in chronological order by date, and you gotta walk through it that way.

I'd like to see part of it organized based on the development of craft and technique. When did various cultures first discover how to use perspective, or realize they didn't need to use sharp outlines to delineate different objects? Did these things cross borders, or were they discovered independently?

Well basically you saying they should follow the Louvre Abu Dhabi way, which is the first global museum in that way of combining arts & artifacts from various cultures & civilizations under one huge marvelous dome 😜🌚💙 Edit : this might be a good new video idea ! Could you please talk about the thriving art scene in Abu Dhabi, Dubai. Doha & Kuwait ? These cities got some super cool art projects yet your channel didn’t mention them / love your content & thanks for sharing the love of art ❤️

I would organize a night where every visitor gets a weed brownie and different forms of electronic/ambient music are piped in to different halls.

As an art sudent that goes to museums looking to immerse myself in art from specific cultures and time periods for reference... mixing it up like this sounds like a nightmare.

I always find it fascinating which frames are chosen for which paintings in all the art galleries I've been to. Some of them seem to suit the work perfectly, while others can cause tension by being a completely unexpected pairing. I always wonder if the frame was chosen by the person who donated it to the gallery, and they don't change it for fear of hurting the painting so some bad choices are baked in. Or maybe there's a huge room full of empty frames at each museum, sorted by size, style and colour, and the first thing employees do is select one. In that case, who decides? Do they put a lot of thought into it, or just grab the first 11x17 from the top of the pile? Who maintains the frames? Do they have to know about which glues and dyes were used in each era? How often do frames have to be thrown out, and what happens to them? What's the oldest frame in the museum?

What you could do is create an app for the Met that makes a scavenger hunt for themes and objects

It was my visit to the Met last year that made me notice the similarities between renderings of Jesus and the Buddha.

Bravo!

Your videos should be shown in school!