The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has announced it will reopen the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing on 31 May 2025.
The wing, which has been closed and under renovation since 2021, will offer refurbished galleries for the museum’s collection of objects from Africa, the Ancient Americas and Oceania. These are displayed in three distinct spaces, rather than grouped together.
Max Hollein, director and CEO of the Met, said this reimagined presentation “allows us to further advance the appreciation and contextualization of many of the world’s most significant cultures”.
The “thoughtful and innovative reimagining reflects our ambition to continually expand and even complexifying narratives”, he added.
The $70 million renovation of the wing, which encompasses more than 40,000 square feet of gallery space, was designed by WHY Architects in collaboration with Beyer Blinder Belle.
Kulapat Yantrasast, founder and creative director of WHY Architects, said: “Through our design with the Met, we hope to highlight the diversity and distinction within these rich collections while providing a welcoming and memorable sense of place.
“Natural light and visual connections to Central Park are essential to the reimagined wing, and moments of discovery are so crucial when we design art spaces.”
Across the new galleries, the visitor experience has been improved, and innovative technologies incorporated to enable the museum to display items in new ways.
Reimagined galleries in new wing
Once complete, the wing will feature more than 1,800 works spanning five continents and hundreds of cultures. There will be objects on view for the first time across the Africa, Ancient Americas and Oceania collections.
Alisa LaGamma, curator in charge of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, said: “The primary goal of this considerable institutional project is to deepen appreciation for the greatness of the art displayed within.”
Jhaelen Hernandez-Eli, vice president of capital projects at the Met, said the renovation addresses “the most critical issues of our time, from carbon footprint reduction to the emphasis on local materials and artisanship”.
Images courtesy of the Met
