Embodying the Museum: The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Connections and 82nd & Fifth

Teresa Lai, USA , Christopher Noey, USA

Published paper: Embodying the Museum: The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Connections and 82nd & Fifth

Two recent collection-focused online initiatives from The Metropolitan Museum of Art use the digital space to redefine the Met's culture and voice for a global audience: Connections and 82nd & Fifth. Both features were in-house productions, creative experiments limited to a single calendar year. Not only did they offer new intellectual bridges to the collections for the Met’s audiences, but the process of making them also saw an internal transformation of the institution itself. Connections and 82nd & Fifth's series producer and director propose to discuss the philosophical thinking and practical processes behind these two projects that have broader implications for other museums navigating the digital space.