Audio guide tours, a floor plan, and guided gallery tours are among the visitor amenities available to German speakers at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the largest and finest art museums in the world. Its vast holdings include more than two million works of art spanning 5,000 years of world culture, from prehistory to the present and from every part of the globe. Founded in 1870, it is located in New York City's Central Park, along Fifth Avenue (from 80th to 84th streets). The Metropolitan's two million square feet house what is, in fact, a museum of museums; several of its collections are among the best in the world and would be major independent museums almost anywhere else.
On Arrival
Visitors arriving at the Metropolitan Museum may pick up, at no charge, a floor plan of the galleries in German. These floor plans are available at the Information Desk in the Museum's Great Hall, which is located inside the main entrance at Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street. German speakers are also stationed at the Information Desk to provide additional assistance to visitors.
General information about the Museum is also offered in German on the Museum's website at http://www.metmuseum.org/visitor/vi_index_german.htm.
Audio Guide Tours
Audio Guide tours provide visitors with valuable insights into the Museum's collections and history. "The Director's Selections" program – highlighting 58 masterpieces chosen by Director Philippe de Montebello from across the Museum's encyclopedic collection – is available in German to visitors. It is narrated in German by Mr. de Montebello himself.
In addition to German, the "Director's Selections" Audio Guide is offered in English, Italian, French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin.
Additional audio programming in German is available about The Cloisters, the Met's branch museum that is dedicated to the art and architecture of the Middle Ages, and that is picturesquely located in Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan. The Cloisters Audio Guide tour – comprised of 75 stops featuring interviews with curators and music from the Middle Ages – enhances the experience of viewing the magnificent medieval art. The tour is offered in German as well as Spanish, English, and French. Admission to the Metropolitan Museum's main building includes admission to The Cloisters.
The audio tours are available on palm-sized, easy-to-operate MP3 players. The random-access programming allows visitors to design their own tours in terms of length and sequence. Players can be rented for up to an entire day for $7 ($6 for members, $5 for children under the age of 12) in the Great Hall of the Museum or in the Main Hall of The Cloisters.
The Audio Guides are produced in collaboration with Antenna Audio, the leading provider of audio programming for museums and historic sites around the world.
The Audio Guide programs at the Metropolitan Museum are sponsored by Bloomberg.
Guided Tours
Visitors can explore some of the highlights of the collection with a German-speaking guide Wednesdays and Thursdays at 11:15 a.m. These public tours last approximately one hour and are free with Museum admission. Visitors should confirm the tour schedules on the Museum's online calendar at www.metmuseum.org/calendar.
The Museum also offers customized tours in German to groups by appointment. More information about these private group tours is available from the Visitor Services Department at 212-650-3711 or online at www.metmuseum.org/visitors/groups.
For a complete and up-to-date listing of the Metropolitan Museum's exhibitions and programs, visit www.metmuseum.org.
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