With a permanent collection containing more than two million cultural treasures from six continents, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is widely considered one of the world’s leading museums. Also known as The Met, this museum contains an extensive collection of permanent exhibits and several changing showrooms. Museum visitors from around the world comment that of all the museums in New York City, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is by far the largest and most comprehensive. Visitors advise that you allow a full day to explore this New York museum or decide in advance which exhibits you’ll see and which you want to save for another day. Divided into nineteen separate sections ranging from ancient to contemporary art from a wide variety of cultures around the world, you’re sure to find something to interest you here. At over one hundred and forty years old, this is one of the oldest museums in New York that is still in operation. In addition to viewing its extensive art collection, visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art can have lunch in the Roof Garden, where a new sculpture exhibition by a single artist is held each year.
Located on the eastern edge of Central Park in Manhattan on the Upper East Side, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of many New York City museums on the famous “Museum Mile” along Fifth Avenue. At the intersection of 82nd Street and Fifth Avenue, the mile between 82nd and 104th along Fifth Avenue begins, one of the densest displays of culture in the world. For example, the Goethe Institute and the German Cultural Center are located right next door, and just a few blocks down is the Neue Galerie New York, one of the most prominent displays of early 20th-century German and Austrian art in the world. . Visitors wishing to see these many museums in New York City should take public transportation or hail a cab to the Met. At least three metro stations are within walking distance of the museum, and as many as seven different bus lines drop you close enough to walk.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art houses works of art whose creation spans millennia and the globe. From ancient Egyptian, Greco-Roman, Asian and Oceanic art, to the art of the old masters of Europe, from American herding to modern photography and everything in between, a variety of masterpieces are permanently installed here. An entire room is devoted to weapons and armor, and another display section contains just books, including bound artwork by masters like Durer and Athanasius Kircher. Jacques-Louis David’s The Death of Socrates, Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat and Vermeer’s Young Woman with a Water Pitcher are just a few of the many masterpieces on display at this New York museum. Modern and contemporary art is represented in both the Rooftop Garden and the museum’s 60,000-square-foot Modern Art section. With masterpieces like Max Beckmann’s The Beginning, Jasper Johns’s White Flag, and Picasso’s Portrait of Gertrude Stein, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is clearly a treasure for eternity.
If you want to get your cultural fix in other ways, visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art can attend a variety of on-site events, talks, lectures and performances. This New York museum offers additional educational programs for everyone, whether you like to watch movies, prefer to attend a lecture by a well-known artist with a question-and-answer session, or want to enroll your child in an art program at a day long as you peruse the museum’s exhibits. Also part of the Met’s collection is housed in an off-site location, the Cloisters, which is a museum focused on the Middle Ages located in Upper Manhattan. Special events and talks are also held here weekly. You can find detailed information about the special events taking place at both locations of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on their official website.
After visiting The Met or any nearby museum in New York City, let us know what you thought! You can upload your photos, videos, and reviews to our site and share your experience with other NYC Museums visitors. Your content helps our community grow and improve it for everyone. Due to the wide variety of exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, we’re sure you’ll find something worth sharing. Whether you want to talk about an exciting new exhibit, express your opinion in a talk, or review a piece of art that moved you, we welcome anything you’d like to share.
