“Heavenly Bodies” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cloisters, New York: gallery view, Romanesque Hall (image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is famed internationally — tourists from around the world flock to the New York Institute to explore galleries of ancient and modern art. Over the years, the institution has grown to host three locations — The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Cloisters, and The Met Breuer. As 2019 begins, and institutions recount their past years, the Met has officially announced its monumental visitor records for 2018. Over 7.36 million visitors have passed through its exhibitions, largely drawn in by landmark exhibitions like Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination at The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters, and the tail ends of highly-publicized shows like Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer and David Hockney.
The Met says Heavenly Bodies attracted record-breaking numbers for an exhibition, with 1,659,647 visitors passing through the exhibition’s two locations between May 10 and October 8, 2018. The exhibition was dispersed throughout both of the museum venues.
The high attendance rates maintained despite the Museum’s controversial decision this year to institute a mandatory $25 admission fee for adults without identification as residents or students of New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut.
Locals cultivated their art museum intake this year with 32% of visitors coming from the five boroughs, and 13% from the New York tri-state area. This year, 34% of the Museum’s visitors were international tourists (14% of those tourists hailed from China).
“It’s inspiring to know that New Yorkers and visitors from around the world are engaging with the vast array of exhibitions, programs, and activities we have available, and it’s a wonderful tribute to the power of art in the world today,” said Daniel H. Weiss, President and CEO of the Met, in a January 4 press release. “The Met’s staff — curators, educators, scientists, conservators, and others — made remarkable contributions in 2018, and the team became even stronger this summer when we welcomed Max Hollein as our new director.”
Beyoncé and Jay-Z in a gallery at the Louvre (screenshot by Hyperallergic via the “Apeshit” by The Carters music video on Youtube)
Despite the Met’s impressive figures, this year the Louvre broke the world record for annual museum visits — likely with a little help from Beyoncé and Jay-Z and their epic, artful music video filmed in the museum. Over 10.2 million visitors passed through the Parisian museum this year — more than 25 percent more than the previous year. The Louvre surpassed its own record — 9.7 million visitors in 2012 — by half a million patrons.
The Latest
Remembering the Migrants Who Died in US Detention
Artist Jackie Amézquita will lead a caravan of trucks with the names of the deceased to LA sites representing systems of oppression and solidarity for immigrants.
Mark Thomas Gibson’s Cartoons See the US Going Nowhere
If Thomas Nast, who is considered the “Father of the American Cartoon,” has an heir, it is Gibson, who goes one step further and elevates caricature and commentary into art.
LSU School of Art Grants Highest MFA Stipends in the Southern US
With funded assistantships, full tuition waivers, and generous stipends, Louisiana State University helps students lay the groundwork for a successful lifelong art practice.
Kahori Kamiya Transmutes Grief Into Play
Through artworks that encourage viewers to explore varied vantages, Kamiya conveys her accrued wisdom and experiences without the weight of their pain.
Maya Deren in Vivid Focus
Maya Deren: Choreographed for Camera depicts how the artist’s life and ideas cemented her place as a champion and influencer of culture.
School of the Art Institute of Chicago Offers Summer Art and Design Courses Online and On-Campus
Emerging and established artists can choose from over 50 Adult Continuing Education courses at one of the most influential art and design schools in the US.
AI Image Generators Finally Figured Out Hands
Midjourney fixed its inability to render hands realistically, one of the telltale signs of an image being AI-generated.
Lorraine O’Grady, Emily Jacir Among American Academy of Arts’s 2023 Awardees
Artist Faith Ringgold and scholar Helen Hennessy Vendler received this year’s gold medals.
IDSVA Offers a Non-Studio PhD in Visual Arts: Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Art Theory
With no campus, the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts is a truly nomadic institution, existing everywhere our students and faculty are.
MTV’s The Exhibit Needs a Cutthroat Judge
In episode three, the artists created works about the pandemic and bonded with each other, which is cute but doesn’t really make for good TV.
Cauleen Smith’s Drylongso Depicts a Bygone Oakland
Smith’s 1998 film exudes the DIY charm of a low-budget, first-time feature while keenly depicting the complexities of both race- and gender-related inequalities.
Tyler School of Art and Architecture Opens 2023 MFA Thesis Exhibition Series
Students working in diverse disciplines explore temporality, connectedness in time and space, and global reckonings. On view in Philadelphia.
Take Ai Weiwei’s Middle Finger Anywhere in the World
A new collaboration between the artist and Avant Arte invites users to flip the bird anywhere and everywhere on Google Maps.
Required Reading
This week, gifted DeSantis a “fascist” snowflake, NASA’s Webb telescope captures a supernova, corporatizing London’s creativity, and much more.