Met Stories: Essential

Angela Reynolds, Gretchen Rubin, and Hai-Hsin share their Met Stories.

Watch episode seven of Met Stories in which Met Assistant Buildings Manager Angela Reynolds tells the story of how her recovery from a recent accident relied on the compassion of her staff, The Met's essential workers; Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, reflects on how her new project to visit The Met every day in 2020 was upended by the Museum’s closure; and artist Hai-Hsin Huang looks back on her drawings of Met visitors as if they are postcards from a time before the pandemic. All interviews were filmed remotely, and all footage of the empty Met was collected from essential staff who generously filmed with their smartphones during their shifts.

Made for The Met's 150th anniversary, Met Stories is an award-winning video series and year-long social media initiative that shared unexpected and compelling stories gathered from the many people who visit The Met, whether artists, teachers, curators, actors, Museum staff, designers, thought-leaders, or public figures.

Do you have a Met Story? Share it with us.


Contributors

Angela Reynolds
Gretchen Rubin
Hai-Hsin Huang

Met visitor Linbania Jacobson sits on a gallery bench in The Met's nineteenth-century painting galleries. She is framed to either side by two paintings; the text "Met Stories" appears in the center of the image.
Video
Linbania Jacobson tells the story of how her husband's dementia diagnosis led them to a program at The Met.
Linbania Jacobson
September 17, 2020
Video
Tomás Vega, Sue Jeiven, and Ahmed Badr share their Met Stories.
Tomás Vega, Sue Jeiven, and Ahmed Badr
October 22, 2020
Video
Paul Konigsburg and Nikhil Chopra share their Met Stories.
Paul Konigsburg and Nikhil Chopra
November 19, 2020