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A large yellow dot at the center of a gray background with the words "Spotlight: One Met Icon, New Perspectives" written in black.

Spotlight

Listen to fresh takes on favorites from The Met collection.

About

Spotlight features new perspectives on a single work from The Met collection. Familiar and celebrated works serve as the focal point for dialogue—posing questions, building understanding, and conveying how the presence of the work in the Museum has altered, limited, or enhanced the work’s interpretation. The series explores different ways of knowing, and relates to themes beyond art and museums through the expertise and personal experience of invited guests.

Episodes

A small bronze sculpture of a seated boy pulling a thorn from the bottom of his foot appears within a display case at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; the figure hunches over looking intently at the bottom of his foot; the sculpture is set against the warm walls and limestone columns of the against gallery in the distance.
Audio
Spotlight: Facing Pain
A conversation on focus, mindfulness, and what art can teach us about experiencing pain.
Denise Allen and Jared O’Garro-Moore PhD
January 6, 2022
The Novelist Min Jin Lee peruses through an assortment of books atop a red-orange tabletop surface, set against a backdrop of book shelves in a New York Public Library study room.
Video
Spotlight: “Writers are reaching for our thorns; the thorns which define our entire being.”
Novelist Min Jin Lee reflects on Antico’s Spinario in relation to her creative pursuits.
January 6, 2022
Brown and beige fragment of a floor mosaic with a brown-skinned woman with curly brown hair, a headpiece, and earrings set against a bright yellow ovular spotlight shape in the background.
Audio
Spotlight: Rethinking Representation
Two scholars challenge assumptions about the origins of a Byzantine mosaic and the intent of its maker.
Andrea Myers Achi and Liz James
February 2, 2022
Honus Wagner, Pittsburgh, National League, from the White Border series (T206) for the American Tobacco Company
Audio
Spotlight: Tracing Economics through Ephemera
An angle on commerce and consumerism through the “holy grail” of baseball card collecting.
Allison Rudnick and Dave Jamieson
March 2, 2022
Thomas Cole's landscape painting "The Oxbow"
Audio
Spotlight: Reexamining the Wilderness Aesthetic
What’s missing from Cole’s environmentalism is the idea of justice.
Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser and Alan C. Braddock
April 6, 2022
Indigenous American climate justice activist Xiye Bastida shouts into a megaphone in front of a large-scale protest
Video
Spotlight: The Importance of Reciprocity
Climate justice activist Xiye Bastida’s perspectives are brought to bear on Thomas Cole’s iconic landscape painting The Oxbow.
April 6, 2022
Detail of an ancient Egyptian limestone statue of Hatshepsut
Audio
Spotlight: Challenging Power through Gender Representation
What does the androgynous depiction of Hatshepsut—and its subsequent destruction—tell us about the role of gender in Ancient Egypt?
Aude Semat and Mona Eltahawy
June 2, 2022
Marble portrait bust of the emperor Gaius, known as Caligula
Audio
Spotlight: Debunking the Myth of Whiteness
Two scholars discuss misconceptions about race and polychromy in the ancient world.
Sarah Lepinski and Dan-el Padilla Peralta
July 7, 2022
Archaeologist Ulrike Koch Brinkmann painting a copy of an ancient Greek sculpture
Video
Spotlight: The Modern Invention of Ancient White Marble
Archaeologists Vinzenz and Ulrike Koch Brinkmann reflect on how reconstructing the former color of an ancient Roman bust can help us better understand history.
July 7, 2022
Limestone Assyrian relief with a low-relief carving of two men bearing gifts
Audio
Spotlight: Keeping Culture Alive
Two scholars consider the displacement of Assyrian people and their art.
Sarah Graff and Sargon Donabed
August 3, 2022
Detail shot of the keys of the Cristofori Piano
Audio
Spotlight: Inventing the Piano
How Cristofori’s invention gave a new voice to the harpsichord.
Jayson Kerr Dobney and Anthony Roth Costanzo
September 7, 2022
Detail of the Conference of the Birds folio
Audio
Spotlight: Seeking Unity with the Divine
“It’s a world that’s designed to please the eye and please the soul.”
Maryam Ekhtiar and Leili Anvar
October 6, 2022
Artist Sholeh Wolpé seated in a garden wearing a black shirt and red scarf
Video
Spotlight: The Long Journey Home
Poet Sholeh Wolpé honors the enduring wisdom of a twelfth-century Sufi epic.
October 6, 2022
Georgia O'Keeffe's painting "From the Faraway, Nearby" with an imaginary mule deer skull and antlers levitating over a generalized desert landscape. A bright yellow ovular shape spotlights the painting from the background.
Audio
Spotlight: Revisiting “O’Keeffe Country”
Two Indigenous scholars discuss what—and who—the artist omits in her depiction of New Mexico.
Patricia Marroquin Norby and Matthew Martinez
November 3, 2022

Credits

Spotlight is produced by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and SandenWolff Productions.

At The Met:
Executive Producer: Sarah Wambold
Series Producer: Sarah Cowan
Associate Producer: Rachel Smith
Production Coordinator: Maria Kozanecka

At SandenWolff Productions:
Director/Producers: Jonathan Sanden, Rachel Wolff
Directors of Photography: Jonathan Sanden, Noah Therrien
Story Editor: Rachel Wolff
Editors: Hannah Kaylor, Stephen Parnigoni
Music: Austin Fisher

Product Design, Development, and Production: Lucia Perkins, Madhav Tankha, Skyla Choi, Spencer Kiser, Adam Plonski, David Seguin, Stephen Chiu, Anna Ninburg, Aurola Wedman Alfaro

Rights and Permissions: Julie Zeftel, Maria Kozanecka, Rachel Smith

Graphic Design and Editorial: Christopher DiPietro, Frank Mondragon, Jennifer Bantz

Marketing, Communications, and Social Media: Gretchen Scott, Claire Lanier, Victoria Martinez, Jonathan Lee

Executive Advisors: Max Hollein, Inka Drögemüller, Andrea Bayer, Douglas Hegley

Series Advisors: Andrea Achi, Emily Blumenthal, Marie Clapot, Erin Flannery, Sarah Graff, Ann Meisinger, Briana Parker, Tricia Robson, Allison Rudnick, Joseph Scheier-Dolberg, Lisa Silverman Meyers, Anna Zepp.

Special thanks: Sofie Andersen, Jared O’Garro-Moore, Min Jin Lee, Denise Allen, Sarah Lawrence, Liz James, Dave Jamieson, Alan C. Braddock, Elizabeth Kornhauser, Xiye Bastida, Mona Eltahawy, Aude Semat, Sarah Lepinski, Dan-el Padilla Peralta, Vinzenz Brinkmann, Ulrike Koch Brinkmann, Sarah Graff, Sargon Donabed, Jayson Kerr Dobney, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Patricia Marroquin Norby, and Matthew Martinez.

Spotlight is made possible by the Sherman Fairchild Foundation.

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