Earlier this year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art reopened The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, following the completion of a major renovation.
The wing includes the collections in the Arts of Africa, the Ancient Americas, and Oceania galleries, and features over 1,800 works spanning five continents and hundreds of cultures. These three major world traditions stand as independent entities in a wing that is in dialogue with neighboring gallery spaces. The galleries had been closed to the public and under renovation since 2021, but reopened to the public in May.
Designed by WHY Architecture in collaboration with Beyer, Blinder, Belle Architects LLP, and with The Met’s Design Department, the reimagined galleries have been designed to transform the visitor experience and incorporate innovative technologies that allow The Met to display objects in new ways. In galleries dedicated to each of the distinct collection areas, design elements reference and pay homage to the architectural vernaculars of each region.
The reinstallation of all three collection areas—in the Arts of Africa, the Ancient Americas, and Oceania galleries—reflects new scholarship, undertaken in collaboration with international experts and researchers. Digital features and new wall text allow for deeper contextualization of objects.
Highlights of the collections that are well known to long-time visitors to The Met are showcased in innovative ways with a completely new gallery design, which also incorporates filtered daylight through a custom-designed, state-of-the-art sloped glass wall on the south facade, adjacent to Central Park.
Additionally, across each collection, there are objects on view for the first time, including major new acquisitions of historic and contemporary art in the Arts of Africa galleries; a gallery dedicated to light-sensitive ancient Andean textiles, which are the first of its kind in the United States; and several new commissions for the Oceania galleries by Indigenous artists and a range of new digital features that present contemporary perspectives.
“The complete renovation of The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing reflects The Met’s profound commitment to—and deep expertise in—caring for and expanding understandings of the works in the Museum’s collection. Together with our collaborative and community-based approach to curating these collections, the transformation of these galleries allows us to further advance the appreciation and contextualization of many of the world’s most significant cultures,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer.
Alisa LaGamma, Ceil and Michael E. Pulitzer Curator of African Art and Curator in Charge of The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, said: “The primary goal of this considerable institutional project is to deepen appreciation for the greatness of the art displayed within. While the creation of the wing asserted the place of the arts of sub-Saharan Africa, the ancient Americas, and Oceania in the world’s leading museum, the new edition underscores their autonomy from one another and foregrounds the artists responsible for those achievements.
“The new galleries devoted to three major collections presented in The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing allow us to reintroduce them to the public enriched with a wealth of contextual detail. Those layers of information range from artist bios to interviews with experts in the region that relate the works presented to specific historical sites in the form of audio guide commentary and documentary films produced as an integral part of the experience.”
Learn many more details at metmuseum.org.
Photo courtesy of Bridgit Beyer, Courtesy of The Met.
