How can we explain such a success?
Everything begin with imagination...
1870, April 13: birth of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a national institution and gallery of art" to bring art and art education to the American people.
At this moment, the MET is no much more than an idea, since...
Buildings: Nothing
Art: Nothing
Staff: Nothing
Departments: Nothing
Starting from nothing, how the MET became one of the most influent art collector? To understand that, we'll see with you, the different steps of this recipe "made in US".
Ingredient number 1: And if we could find some great antiques...
No museum without paintings and others. Indeed, the MET acquire its first piece of Art in 1870, November : a roman sarcophage, dated from 300 A.JC
As you could see below, to become a museum with serious collections in Egyptian or Greek Art, the MET developped these huge departments.
Ingredient number 2: More square feet!
After a temporary begining at 681 5th Avenue and 128 West 14th Street, the MET installed itsel at 1000 5th Avenue. To present his luxurious collection, directors proceeded to numerous extensions. To see, the evolution, look at the chronology.
Ingredient number 3: Something new? Humm... Photography, Costume, both?!
To open new horizons, and always attract more and more visitors, the MET choose to develop new departements such as the Modern and Contemporary Art or the Costume Institute.
Ingredient number 4: A new exhibition? Come back visitors!
Other key element of its success, the MET choose to present always more special collections with exhibitions all over the year. A really good strategy since more than 21 expositions over the 60 brought more than 100,000 visitors!
Ingredient number 5: Finally, the most important things are gift and generosity!
If the museum have acquired this title of XXL collector, it's thanks to its numerous donators! Without them, the MET couldn't have acquire so many pieces of Art. To see your importance, look at the graph.