Jun12

exhibition comes into the light.

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At This Once-Secret Exhibition, the Met’s Security Guards and Staff Display Their Own Art

For the first time since 1935, the show is finally open to the public

A row of paintings leading to another gallery
More than 450 pieces made by Met staff members are on display in this year’s exhibition. Photo by Eileen Travell / Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Every two years, staff members at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art get the chance to display their own creations on the institution’s hallowed walls. Since the tradition started in 1935, the exhibition has been something of a secret, open only to employees and their guests, Hyperallergenic’s Elaine Velie reports. But now, for the first time, the show is open to the public.

“Art Work: Artists Working at the Met” features hundreds of pieces—including paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures and digital installations—made by guards, librarians, conservators, educators, registrars and others who work at the Manhattan museum. More than 450 of the Met’s 1,700 employees contributed to the exhibition, which is held in the space next to the museum’s ancient Greek sculpture hall, Hyperallergic notes. The show accepts all staff-made submissions, which are installed by Met staff members working extra hours.

Daniel Kershaw, a Met exhibition design manager who has overseen the show’s curation for more than two decades, says he identifies themes that unify the disparate submissions, grouping pieces that work well together (for example, landscapes go next to other landscapes). This year’s show includes a photograph of Cuba, an oil painting of a partially frozen pond, a series on Black life in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood, and jars and cans painted to look like tiny monsters, among other works.

Until this year, museum officials and employees were extremely furtive about the exhibition—so much so that the New York Times’ Corey Kilgannon struggled to find sources for a 2012 story on the show. When he visited the Met and asked guards about it, they told him they were forbidden to discuss it with the press.

After some more digging, Kilgannon found a few guards willing to talk, including Peter J. Hoffmeister, who expressed concerns about the secrecy around the event. “It’s complicated to have artists working for you who want their art on the walls—I understand that,” Hoffmeister told the Times. “But as an artist I think it should be public, because keeping it private defeats the purpose of having an art show.”

Some of the Met’s employees are artists who work at the museum to supplement their income, while others make art as a hobby, according to Hyperallergic. But everyone who submits to the show is balancing their art with their day jobs.

Back in 2012, one such individual was Christoper Boynton, a painter, photographer and museum guard. At the time, Boynton didn’t know why the show was closed to the public. “Maybe it’s because they would have to insure the art in the show,” he told the Times. “Maybe it’s that, if someone’s artwork is shown at the museum, people may think it’s being sanctioned by the museum.”

“Art Work: Artists Working at the Met” is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City through June 19.

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“exhibition-making is a process that involves collaboration with various participating artists.”

—yasumasa morimura

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credits: jane recker, smithsonian magazine

60 responses »

  5. I just tried to find the story of the Kansas City art museum guard who became a well-regarded artist some years ago, but couldn’t. Still, your story reminded me of his, and of all those hidden artists around us.

    Liked by 2 people

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  9. I’m really happy that the staff gets their display time, Beth! It reminds me that at the library where I work, we’re encouraged to participate in art activities for display. (I have had photos up on our walls.)

    Liked by 2 people

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  15. Just like your kinders, it’s not really about the quality of the art for these people. It is a chance to share themselves in a more vulnerable way, and that makes their art pieces unique and impressionable on all who see them. I don’t think of art as being a job someone does but of an expression of how someone sees whatever they see behind their eyes. I’d welcome the chance to explore it!

    Liked by 3 people

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  17. Love this! “The Kelly Clarkson Show” had a Museum Director on to discuss how she came up with the idea of having the security guards choose which art to display in a cool exhibit called “Guarding The Art!” (or something close to that!) Anyway, it was looking at art through the eyes of the people to protect it!

    Liked by 4 people

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  24. What a brilliant and unexpected idea. How GREAT is that?!
    Imagine all the reasons for those ppl working in such a ‘holy’ place, I often think how fab it wd be to breathe that special aura, the vibe and talent every day!
    Tks 4 a Monday treat I treasure!
    btw, I am just back from an ‘early risers concert’ in my town, from 7-7.40am. For your entry fee you also get a coffee and a croissant! Well worth that early shower and ‘beating’ the inner lazybody.

    Liked by 1 person

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