The Metropolitan Museum of Art home page, February 2, 2015
«When I joined the Met as Website Editor in 2006, the Artwork of the Day feature—which appeared on our old website's "splash page"—was limited to a small set of preselected, curatorially approved works of art. I felt we had a great opportunity to change the process. Why be limited to a small number of works when the Museum's collection is so vast? And why not tie the picks to actual events, either current or historic? That first year, I even included special birthday picks for my friends and family. These days, I select works that relate more broadly to historic and current events, holidays, artists' birthdays, Museum milestones, and even the weather forecast.»
A few years into this new process, the Museum achieved a major milestone in The Collection Online, publishing all works of art on view in the galleries. Soon after that, we published all accessioned objects (this includes works that are not on view). As of this morning, there are 404,176 records available in The Collection Online, of which 265,305 records include at least one image. (The work of adding more records and images is ongoing.) The growth of The Collection Online has made it a great resource for visitors, researchers, teachers, and our global audience, and it's also made my task of choosing an Artwork of the Day that much more interesting.
The Featured Artwork of the Day on the Met's Facebook page, February 2, 2015
Turn your phone sideways to see the Artwork of the Day within The Met App.
The New Year got me thinking that it might be time once again to revisit the process. I occasionally receive suggestions from staff and visitors for what to feature on a certain day, so I'd like to open it up completely for the month of March. Tell me through the comments below or on our Facebook page what you'd pick and why. If your pick is featured, we'll include your name and explanation when we share the work on Facebook. Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind:
- Select a date (or dates) between March 1 and March 31. Pick as many as you like.
- Include the relevant URL of your chosen object(s) from The Collection Online and a brief (one- or two-sentence) explanation of your pick for each date. Please only select works that have images.
- Submit all suggestions by February 20.
Here's an example:
Submitted by Taylor Newby
March 15: www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/192717
Reason: Beware the Ides of March!
One last note: certain works have copyright restrictions that prevent us from sharing them on social media, so we'll weed those out from the list. Any work that has the logo has no restrictions.
I hope you enjoy browsing The Collection Online and finding just the right work for every day.