What to see at the Metropolitan Museum of Art this winter: with a collection of over two million works, it’s easy to see why the Metropolitan Museum of Art is always worth a trip. Visitors to the Met in winter 2015-2016 will be able to end and open the year on a cultural high note with an exciting slate of exhibitions and events, including new shows and the return of beloved holiday traditions.
This winter brings the opening of several new exhibitions to the Met. From December 15, the Gilded Age’s opulence will be celebrated in Artistic Furniture of the Gilded Age, a three-part exhibition celebrating the era’s interior design. The centerpiece of the exhibition is the Worsham-Rockefeller Dressing Room, a sumptuously decorated space commissioned for Angela Worsham that was later acquired by John D. Rockefeller. Opening a few days later on December 19 will be Encountering Vishnu: The Lion Avatar in Indian Temple Drama, an exhibition that, as part of the museum’s year-long Asian Art 100 celebration, showcases five rare wooden sculptural masks used during religious festivals in southern India.
Also on display this winter will be the exciting exhibitions that debuted at the Met this fall. The museum’s current major exhibition (through January 24, 2016) is Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom, an exploration of a transformational period in ancient Egyptian history. The exhibition features 230 works from both the Met’s permanent collection and museums around the world, and is the first comprehensive collection of items from this period. Other exhibitions not to miss include Fashion and Virtue: Textile Patterns and the Print Revolution, 1520-1620, which highlights textile patterns from the Renaissance, and Jacqueline de Ribes: The Art of Style, the Costume Institute’s celebration of noted style icon Countess Jacqueline de Ribes.
As an institution with so much going on, displays don’t stay up forever. Visitors should be sure to check out the exhibitions closing later this winter before it’s too late. January 18 is the last day for Grand Illusions: Staged Photography from the Met Collection, a fascinating installation featuring photographs from throughout history that use the camera to depict fiction instead of reality. Also closing in January is Arms and Armor: Notable Acquisitions 2003-2014, a collection of 30 pieces from around the world that illuminate suits of arms’ distinction as art forms in their own right.
Of course, with winter comes the holiday season, and the Met will be celebrating with a slate of events and traditions. The Met in winter is perhaps best known for its signature Christmas tree. Lavishly decorated, its accompanied by an elaborate 18th century Neapolitan nativity scene, creating an elegantly festive display that shouldn’t be missed. The Met will also be celebrating with its series of special Holiday Concerts. The series will include such festive events as A Charlie Brown Christmas, the Pulitzer Prize-winning choral parable The Little Match Girl Passion, and performances by Judy Collins, the American Boychoir, the a capella ensemble Anonymous 4, and more. It’s easy to fit a trip to the Met into busy holiday plans, with the museum remaining open seven days a week except for Christmas and New Year’s Day.
For more information about the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its offerings, visit the museum’s website here.
