At the 92nd St Y

I’m excited to be teaching a class on the history of the Met Museum at Roundtable, starting in January 2026. Roundtable is an initiative of the famed 92nd St Y, and provides lifelong learners in New York City and far beyond with courses on all manner of topics. Entitled “The Met: A History of Our Museum”, my four-part course will develop a number of the themes and case studies I touched on in my 2024 history of the Met. I will be taking a sharper look at the oligarchs (i.e. robber barons) who founded the Met, as well as at the evolution of the Costume Institute’s “Party of the Year” into today’s Met Gala. Tom Hoving’s transformation of the Met during his tenure as director (1967-1977) will also be tackled: alongside the familiar (“King Tut” and “Harlem on My Mind”) I will be teasing out how Hoving’s interest in “techtronic” media of mass communication fits into the broader story of the Met’s use of the latest technology to reach “out-of-towners”. That story begins with the postage stamp “Met Miniatures” of the 1950s and continues today with the Met’s website, Heilbrunn Timeline and other digital initiatives.