«Met Blogs grew dramatically this year, with hundreds of new posts published across twelve different blogs. As my colleagues and I look forward to bringing you even more content in the year ahead, it seems appropriate to take a moment to reflect on some of the highlights of 2014, and to point out a few posts that you may have missed.
What follows is a snapshot of what we've published—just enough to show that it's been a fantastic year thanks primarily to our willing and generous authors (as of this post we are up to 313 contributors!), a tireless editorial team (Website Managing Editor Anne Dunleavy and Website Editor Michael Cirigliano II), and, especially, to our readers.»
Now at the Met
Michael Gallagher removes discolored varnish from the face of Jabach's daughter Anna Maria. This image originally appeared in the post "The Conservation Continues: Revealing Jabach's Daughter Anna Maria" (August 27, 2014).
We published 139 articles via our main Museum blog, Now at the Met, with posts representing the activities of thirty-three different Museum departments and highlighting current exhibitions, events, research, new publications, and more. One particular series caught our readers' attention: the excellent behind-the-scenes look at the acquisition and conservation of the Jabach portrait, written by Keith Christiansen and Michael Gallagher. Each of the twelve posts in the series generated multiple comments, for a total of 104 comments in all. The Jabach posts offer a great example of our efforts to show the less visible aspects of all that goes on here at the Museum. As reader Tricia V. commented on Michael Gallagher's post "'Please Lie Down: This Won't Hurt a Bit': The Jabach Conservation Continues" (October 22, 2014): "It is fascinating to follow this restoration. Thank you for the behind-the-scenes view."
Digital Underground
This was the first full year of our Digital Media departmental blog, Digital Underground, and I'm happy to note that my colleagues generated thirty-one posts on a range of topics, including 3D printing, digital archives, social media, accessibility, and more.
Tag cloud from Digital Underground (as of December 30, 2014)
A look at the tag cloud above reveals that our most frequent posts were contributed by the Media Lab, which is managed by Don Undeen. It's difficult to pick just one of Don's posts to highlight—they're all so fascinating—so instead I'll recommend a series that he co-wrote with Rebecca McGinnis of our Education Department about the Met + Parsons Museum Accessibility Collaboration Workshop. Together these four posts represent the Museum's cross-departmental approach as well as our partnership with another institution—in this case, Parsons The New School for Design.
The Teen Blog and Travel with the Met
The Teen Blog, written by the Metropolitan Museum's Teen Advisory Group (TAG) and guest authors, had a stellar year, publishing forty-nine posts between January 14 and December 19 (and another new post just yesterday). This blog is unique in that it is written by teens, for teens, and provides a different perspective on the Museum's collection and activities. See for example, the teens' insightful series of posts related to the Garry Winogrand exhibition on view June 27 through September 21.
Meanwhile, contributors to our Travel with the Met blog continued to offer fantastic snapshots of Met Adventures travel programs, with behind-the-scenes views of trips to Cuba, Turkey, Nepal, and more.
Interior of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul. Photograph by Jeffrey Blair. This image originally appeared in the post "The Sights and Tastes of Istanbul" (April 23, 2014).
New & Updated Blogs
Our first new blog of 2014, Of Note, launched on January 13, and it has maintained a consistent publication schedule every week since. Dedicated to the activities of the Department of Musical Instruments, Of Note features curators and guests writing about the department's collection, its storied history, public activities, and audio and video recordings. Perhaps the most unusual post (and, not surprisingly, one of the most popular), was Ken Moore's "Instruments of Macabre Origin" (July 7, 2014).
Following the tremendous success of the The Medieval Garden Enclosed, which was active from July 1, 2008, through December 18, 2013, we launched a new blog for The Cloisters museum and gardens called In Season. This blog continues to feature garden-related posts, as well as articles on the collection, exhibitions, programs, and other Cloisters-related content, including a very special view of The Cloisters by Deputy Director for Collections and Administration Carrie Rebora Barratt in her post "A Swim to The Cloisters" (October 23, 2014).
Swimmers making their way up the Hudson River. Photograph by Carrie Rebora Barratt. This image originally appeared in the post "A Swim to The Cloisters" (October 23, 2014).
A collaboration with the staff of the Museum Libraries allowed us to bring their excellent content, which had previously been published via a separate portal, into a new blog called In Circulation. By bringing this content into the metmuseum.org site, we're now able to feature the Libraries' posts on our home page as well as on our Met Blogs page.
In the fall, we launched the Met Museum Presents blog, which focuses on the Met's performance and conversation series. As Limor Tomer wrote in her introductory post in mid-September: "There's nothing New Yorkers love more than to discuss, and argue about, culture; so, in this blog we'll overshare, discuss, and argue about contemporary culture and performance within the Museum's galleries, as well as New York City and around the world."
Exhibition Blogs
Secretary of State John Kerry viewing the exhibition Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age with Joan Aruz, Curator in Charge of the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. This image originally appeared in the post "Assyria to Iberia: Reflections" (December 30, 2014).
After The American West in Bronze blog wrapped up in April 2014, we launched three more exhibition blogs later in the year: Grand Design, an in-depth look at the remarkable exhibition of Pieter Coecke van Aelst's tapestries; Assyria to Iberia, which found connections between the ancient world and today (this may be the only time we get to refer to the movies The Exorcist and The Matrix in a single exhibition blog); and, just this month, the Winchester Bible blog, which has already answered one of my own burning questions: "What is a Giant Bible?" (December 23, 2014).