Jonathan Conlin
University of Southampton

Writing The Met: A History of A Museum and Its People (2024)
How can we write an institutional biography that offers more than a roll-call of magnanimous donors and heroic directors? Can we critique a museum for the way in which it has interpreted its mission to celebrate shared human creativity without abandoning that mission, as either unfeasible or as a deliberate obfuscation of realities those in power would rather we did not see clearly? Rather than being organized by directoral “reigns”, The Met is structured around stakeholder communities. It seeks to reassess the institution’s founders, not as roguish “robber barons” in stick-on beards, but as oligarchs, and relate the foundation of the American Wing to 1920s debates on the limits of “Americanization”. It offers the first history of museum education in the United States, a reconsideration of the much-reconsidered 1969 exhibition Harlem on My Mind, as well as presenting a first draft of the Met’s recent history under Tom Campbell and Max Hollein, including the former’s defenestration and 2020 demands for radical change in its governance. After introducing the book the author looks forward to discussing some of the issues raised with those present.

Thursday, October 17, 12:15 pm
38 West 86th Street, Lecture Hall

Refreshments will be served starting at noon.