Beginning May 1, in celebration of the 75th-anniversary year of The Cloisters museum and gardens, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will offer same-week admission to The Cloisters for members of the public who visit the Metropolitan Museum’s main building first. Same-week combined admission is an enhancement and expansion of the same-day admission policy that has been in effect between the buildings for decades. A visitor with an admissions receipt from the Metropolitan Museum’s main building will be entitled to one additional admissions button to The Cloisters for up to seven days. The Cloisters—the Metropolitan’s branch museum dedicated to the art and architecture of the Middle Ages—is located in Fort Tryon Park, in northern Manhattan.
Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum, commented: “The Cloisters is an extraordinary place, just a quick subway, bus, or taxi ride away from midtown Manhattan. But we recognize that visiting the Met’s main building and The Cloisters in one day is ambitious; now our millions of visitors can enjoy both experiences in the course of a week and join in the celebration of this important anniversary year.”
The Cloisters museum and gardens features renowned works from the Metropolitan Museum’s world-famous collection of medieval art, including the famed Unicorn Tapestries and hundreds of examples of exquisite stained glass, metalwork, enamels, ivories, and paintings, all in a magnificent architectural setting along the Hudson River that evokes the Middle Ages. An integral part of The Cloisters and among its major attractions when it opened in 1938 and today, the gardens are planted in reconstructed Romanesque and Gothic cloisters.
Special offerings will include the exhibitions Search for the Unicorn: An Exhibition in Honor of The Cloisters’ 75th Anniversary, a presentation of unicorn imagery in various media (on view May 15–August 18); Janet Cardiff: The Forty Part Motet, a sound installation of the Tudor composition Spem in alium by Thomas Tallis in The Cloisters’ Fuentidueña Chapel with its 12th-century apse (September 10–December 8); and Canterbury Stained Glass, a display of Romanesque stained-glass panels from England’s Canterbury Cathedral (February 25–May 18, 2014). Education programs include free regularly scheduled tours of the galleries and gardens, family programs on weekends, and a Garden Day in the summer. A highlight is the popular series of subscription concerts of medieval and Renaissance music in the spring and winter.
The Medieval Garden Enclosed, a regularly updated blog about the gardens at The Cloisters, has been featured on the website of the Metropolitan Museum since 2008 (http://blog.metmuseum.org/cloistersgardens/).
More information about The Cloisters and it 75-year history is available on the Museum’s website at www.metmuseum.org/cloisters.
Follow us on Facebook.com/metmuseum, Twitter.com/metmuseum, and Instagram.com/metmuseum to join the conversation about the anniversary. Use #Cloisters75 on Twitter and Instagram.
Credits:
Search for the Unicorn: Made possible by the Michel David-Weill Fund and the Quinque Foundation; Janet Cardiff: The Forty Part Motet: Organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art from the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Support provided in part by Sarah Peter. Education programs: Made possible by the Louis and Anne Abrons Foundation, Inc. and The Winston Foundation, Inc.
# # #
April 24, 2013
Press resources