Metropolitan Museum of (Modern & Contemporary) Art

The massive renovation that is taking place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York is not only a grand feat for the establishment but a huge moment of artistic growth for the museum.

True to New York’s ever adapting nature, the famous Met announced a large change to its establishment back in May 2014, director of the museum Thomas P. Campbell stated that “It seemed a logical moment to really step back and think about the needs of the museum in the next 30 years”. Of course the statement was led by the growing competition of the museum realm, namely from the Museum of Modern Art, known as the MoMa. At that time even the MoMa had announced a renovation, and keeping to a true competitive nature the Met declared to be doing a full upheaval of it’s Modern and Contemporary Art wing.

The expansion of the modern and contemporary art program will be including “a new series of exhibitions, performances, artist commissions, residencies, and educational initiatives” as stated by the museum on it’s official website. The expansion will be housed in the building designed by Marcel Breuer hence being called the Met Breuer, however this isn’t the full expansion but it will be where the contemporary art will be held momentarily. The Met Breuer is part of an eight-year lease plan made with the Whitney Museum of American Art. Campbell in 2014 estimated full construction being done around 2020, but until then the museum will still be seeing additions of modern art. The Met Breuer is set to be renovated to include all new features including a book bar, and all the changes are being handled by NY based architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle and this is the first renovation in the building since it opened in 1966.

Among all this the museum had also previously announced that it commissioned British architect Sir David Chipperfield to develop the design for the new wing in mind for the modern and contemporary art. Now Daniel Brodsky, chairman of the Met’s board and the real estate developer states that the new addition will take up 180,000 square feet. This new space is in addition to the museum’s more than 2 million square feet, and now the fully complete Koch Plaza. Due to the landmark status of many aspects of the Met, the New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission must approve any proposed changes.

These renovation feats are all to improve upon the weak nature of the museum’s modern art department. Providing beautiful homes to classical art, the Met is one of the largest museums housing thousands upon thousands of classical and historical art pieces, however many are conserved in storage and aren’t on display. This new step to showcase the talents of modern and contemporary artists is a big step and a large risk to the museum considering the establishment of successful competition. By doing so the Met takes a stance to show that sometimes tradition is meant to change as well.