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(New York, January 18, 2005)–The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced two special programs in its weekly series for Spanish-speaking families, El Primer Contacto con el Arte. Classes in the series – which focuses on a different theme and area of the Museum each month – meet on Saturdays, 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and feature discussion and sketching activities for ages six through 12.
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(New York, January 10, 2005)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced that three of its senior executives would assume new and expanded administrative responsibilities this month. The announcements were made by Philippe de Montebello, Director of the Museum, and Senior Vice President Emily K. Rafferty, who takes office as the Museum's new President on January 18.
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(New York, November 10, 2004)—In what Metropolitan Museum of Art Director Philippe de Montebello described as "one of the great single acquisitions of the last half century," the Museum announced today the purchase of a rare and uniquely important early Renaissance masterpiece by the 14th-century Italian painter Duccio di Buoninsegna (active by 1278; died 1319). The painting, in tempera and gold on wood, shows the Madonna and Child behind a parapet. The work—the last known Duccio still in private hands—is known as the Stroganoff Madonna, after its first recorded owner, Count Grigorii Stroganoff, who died in Rome in 1910.
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(New York, November 9, 2004)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced that it will officially name its Asian art galleries the Florence and Herbert Irving Asian Wing in recognition of the couple's exceptionally generous new promised gift to the Museum—which, together with their previous support, constitutes one of the largest gifts ever made to advance the field of Asian art in any American museum.
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(New York, November 9, 2004)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today the promotion of two new officers: Nina Diefenbach to the post of Vice President for Development and Membership, and Jeffrey Russian as Vice President for Finance and Planning. They were both elected at today's meeting of the Museum's Board of Trustees.
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(New York, November 9, 2004)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today the promotion of Nina Diefenbach to the post of Vice President for Development and Membership. She was elected at today's meeting of the Museum's Board of Trustees.
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(New York, November 5, 2004)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today the acquisition of a group of three exceptional Cycladic terracotta vases dating to circa 2000 B.C. Purchased through a gift from The Annenberg Foundation, the group consists of a container for offerings known as a kernos, a tall jar, and a jug.
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(NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 3)—Children and their families are invited to travel back in time to 18th -century France during The Metropolitan Museum of Art's special Adventures in French Art! weekend, Friday evening, November 19, through Sunday afternoon, November 21. With the Museum's European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Galleries as a focal point, each drop-in program throughout the weekend will illuminate the grand lifestyle of the period through an examination of the richly decorated furnishings on view. Many of the programs, which are free of charge for children with accompanying adults, will be enhanced by storytellers, demonstrations, or live performances of music and dance that 18th -century French audiences might have seen and heard.
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From November 5, 2004, through March 6, 2005, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present Few Are Chosen: Street Photography and the Book, 1936-1966. Drawn from the collections of the Metropolitan and the Gilman Paper Company, the exhibition spotlights 35 photographs related to six influential 20th-century publications by the photographers Bill Brandt, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, William Klein, and Helen Levitt. Few Are Chosen also includes copies of each book, sometimes represented in multiple editions to show how the meaning of images changed with their presentation.
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(New York, October 1, 2004) – Visitors to The Metropolitan Museum of Art during its next "Holiday Monday" – Columbus Day, October 11 – will enjoy a special opportunity to view the landmark exhibition China: Dawn of A Golden Age, 200-750 AD on the day before it officially opens to the public. The exhibition brings together more than 300 works of extreme rarity and cultural importance, most of them recently excavated, and many never seen outside China.
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(New York, September 14, 2004)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced that Emily Kernan Rafferty, an accomplished senior executive at the Museum, will become its next President, effective with the previously announced retirement of David E. McKinney on January 15, 2005. Ms. Rafferty was formally elected to the presidency today at the regular meeting of the Metropolitan's Board of Trustees. The decision was announced by James R. Houghton, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and Philippe de Montebello, the Museum's Director and Chief Executive Officer.
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(New York, August 4, 2004) – The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced its schedule of weekend and weekday programs for children and their families for the period October 2004 through January 2005. In addition to an extensive range of age-specific art programs, the Metropolitan's amenities for families include special greeters on weekends and on Holiday Mondays, family Audio Guide tours, free printed guides for independent activities within the Museum, family-friendly dining – including a special children's menu in the cafeteria – a MetKids catalogue, Children's Shop, and "MuseumKids" Web page.
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(New York, August 3, 2004) -- The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that, in response to enthusiastic public support of the "Holiday Mondays" program inaugurated in 2003, it will continue to offer these special viewing days – which take place on the Mondays of major holiday weekends – for a second year. The Metropolitan Museum's main building will be open to the public on the following Monday holidays: September 6 (Labor Day), October 11 (Columbus Day), December 27, 2004 (the Monday between Christmas and New Year's Day), January 17 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day), February 21 (Presidents' Day), and May 30, 2005 (Memorial Day). The Museum had previously been closed to the public on Mondays for some 30 years.
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art launches its second half-century of presenting concerts in the 2004-2005 season with a diverse selection of world-renowned artists and young talent, upholding the Concerts & Lectures 50-year tradition.
"The success of the Museum's 50th anniversary concert season has renewed our dedication to excellence, continuity, and innovation in programming," said the Metropolitan's Director, Philippe de Montebello. "That these qualities are carried forward is evidenced by the dynamic combination of hand-picked artists and programs in our 51st season. The year's pianists, following the 50th anniversary's impressive piano roster, range from a festival of young competition winners to The Art of André Watts, while notable early-music events are complemented by a series devoted to contemporary composer Steve Reich."
Highlights of the 62 concerts comprising the 2004-2005 season, the 36th programmed by Hilde Limondjian, Concerts & Lectures General Manager since 1969, include two spring festivals – Celebrating Jordi Savall, three concerts in April presenting the viola da gamba artist and early music leader with his three acclaimed ensembles, and A Festival of International Competition Winners, also in April, of six young pianists, first-prize winners of major competitions, many in their U.S. debuts. The U.S. premiere of Steve Reich's 2003 work Dance Patterns highlights The Music of Steve Reich, a three-concert series performed by Steve Reich and Musicians. Continuing an initiative from the 50th anniversary season celebrating the multifaceted artistry of one musician, The Art of André Watts showcases the pianist in a recital, a chamber program, and an illustrated talk. Three major ensembles – Orpheus, New York Collegium, and Chanticleer – offer early-music programs in gallery spaces, and two singers make their Metropolitan Museum debuts at The Temple of Dendur in The Sackler Wing: soprano Olga Borodina and tenor Rolando Villazón, whose performance will also be his U.S. recital debut.
The Beaux Arts Trio, which celebrates its own 50th anniversary in 2004-2005, will begin a three-year Beethoven project that will present all of the composer's piano trios, sonatas for violin and piano, and sonatas for cello and piano. Complementing this is a series of six concerts, Surrounding Beethoven, of music that anticipated, mirrored, or followed this core repertoire, performed by a diverse roster of artists: Frederic Chiu and Windscape, Jonathan Biss and Miriam Fried, the Juilliard String Quartet with Heinz Holliger, the Prague Symphony Orchestra with Navah Perlman, the Borromeo String Quartet, and the Salzburger Kammerphilharmonie with Kate Dillingham. The chamber music of Dvorák is the anchor for the Guarneri String Quartet's five concerts, which feature eminent guest artists including Peter Serkin, Ida Kavafian, Anton Kuerti, and former member David Soyer. Paula Robison continues her exploration of The Great Vivaldi with two programs. And the artist roster of the season's Musicians from Marlboro series includes Kim Kashkashian and Samuel Rhodes.
In addition to the Festival of International Competition Winners, two series showcase some of today's finest young talent. The Accolades young artist series features four violinists: Stefan Jackiw, Giora Schmidt, Corey Cerovsek, and Jennifer Koh. Also, in its second season, the newest of the Museum's resident ensembles and the first to bear its name, Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, presents three programs of classic repertoire mirroring the new, which will be broadcast live on 96.3 FM WQXR.
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(NEW YORK, JUNE 15, 2004)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced a major restructuring and redefinition of curatorial responsibilities at the Museum with the creation of a new and expanded department: Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art, embracing European paintings from 1800 to the present, as well as international 20th-century sculpture, drawings, prints, decorative arts, and design. The integrated and broadened new department will enjoy the mandate—and, within several years, additional new gallery space as well—to bring to the public the full and dynamic story of modern art, in all media, from its beginnings to the present day.
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(New York-June 4, 2004)—Due to the exceptional public response to The Metropolitan Museum of Art's acclaimed international loan exhibition Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557), the Museum announced today that it will extend the run of the show through Monday, July 5, which is a special "Holiday Monday" viewing day at the Museum. The exhibition was originally scheduled to close on Sunday, July 4.
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(New York, June 11, 2004)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced that the Museum's President, David E. McKinney, would retire in January 2005, soon after he reaches the age of 70.
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The following English- and Spanish-language weekday and weekend programs for children up to age 12 and their adult companions will be offered by The Metropolitan Museum of Art from Tuesday, July 6, through Sunday, August 8, 2004. These drop-in programs are free with Museum admission, and all materials are provided.
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that Malcolm Daniel, Acting Curator in Charge of the Department of Photographs for the past seven months, would assume the post of Curator in Charge, effective immediately. The appointment – ratified February 10 by the Executive Committee of the Museum's Board of Trustees – will allow Maria Morris Hambourg, founding curator of the department and its head for the past 12 years, to assume the post of Consulting Curator. In this new role, Ms. Hambourg will continue to work closely with the department on special projects, exhibitions, and acquisitions, free of day-to-day administrative duties.
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His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual head of the worldwide Orthodox Christian Church, will deliver the lecture "Byzantine Icons: A Legacy for Humanism" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Thursday, March 18. Presented in conjunction with the upcoming international loan exhibition Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557), the lecture will take place at 2 p.m. in the Museum's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. Reservations, which are required, may be obtained on a first-come, first-served basis by calling (212) 570-3792. The event is free to the public with Museum admission.