Press Officer Meryl Cates welcomes Jazz & Colors back to the Met for another thrilling evening of jazz performances across ten of the Museum's iconic spaces.

For Europeans, access to newly discovered parts of the world produced a culture that marked the unfamiliar and foreign as signifiers of wealth and status.

The Met Around the World presents the Met's work via the global scope of its collections and as it extends across the nation and the world through a variety of domestic and international initiatives and programs, including exhibitions, excavations, fellowships, professional exchanges, conservation projects, and traveling works of art. The Met Around the World is designed and maintained by the Office of the Director. Traveling Exhibitions The Met organizes large and small exhibitions that travel beyond the Museum's walls, extending our scholarship to institutions across the world. See our international exhibition program from 2009 to the present. Traveling Works of Art The Met lends works of art to exhibitions and institutions worldwide to expose its collection to the broadest possible audience. See our current international loans program. Conservation Projects The preservation of works of art is a fundamental part of the Met's mission. Our work in this area includes treating works of art from other national and international collections. See our international conservation program from 2009 to the present. Excavations The Met has conducted excavations for over 100 years in direct partnership with source countries at some of the most important archaeological sites in the world. Today we continue this tradition in order to gain greater understanding of our ancient collections. See our international excavation program from the Met's founding to the present. Fellows The Met hosts international students, scholars, and museum professionals so that they can learn from our staff and pursue independent research in the context of the Met's exceptional resources and facilities. See the activities of our current national and international fellows. Exchanges & Collaborations The Met's international work takes many forms, from participation in exchange programs at partnering institutions and worldwide symposia to advising on a range of museum issues. These activities contribute to our commitment to advancing the work of the larger, global community of art museums. See our international exchange program and other collaborations from 2009 to the present.

The years 1978 and 1979 were auspicious ones for The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Philippe de Montebello became its Director and William D. Wixom its Chairman of the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters. By then, the Museum's two collections of medieval art jointly encompassed outstanding examples of metalwork, illuminated manuscripts, stained-glass panels, limestone and wood sculptures, textiles, and jewelry (both secular and religious), these items dating from the second century B.C. until well into the sixteenth century. During the ensuing years, under the keen eye and connoisseurship of the chairman and his curatorial staff, and supported enthusiastically by the new administration, the department's holdings grew considerably. Highlighted in these pages—and in an accompanying exhibition that allows the public to savor many of the works at first hand—are more than 300 purchases and gifts. Although a great majority of the objects have been on view and have figured in various Metropolitan Museum publications over the last two decades, many works have remained unpublished until now. Following a Foreword by the Director, the Introduction by William D. Wixom provides an overview of the enrichment of the collections under his stewardship. The reader then discovers how lacunae were filled, as highly significant examples of the art of the Middle Ages took their place among others with equally impressive provenances. The catalogue entries, which focus on more than 200 of the most important objects arranged chronologically by type and date, were written by present as well as former curators in the Department of Medieval Art, all recognized as experts in a particular period or field. Large color illustrations of the works, often shown in multiple views, accompany extensive documentation, including provenances, former collection and exhibition histories, notes, and bibliographic references. The book concludes with a Selected Bibliography and an Index. For those unaware of the richness and quality of the medieval treasures available for edification and enjoyment in New York's foremost museum, this volume offers an exciting introduction; for students and scholars of medieval art, it presents the opportunity to take an armchair tour of old favorites encountered on past visits to the Metropolitan's galleries and to become acquainted with the many splendid additions.

Workshops supported by rulers and members of their extended family produced copies of famous literary works, histories, and Qur’ans.

In A.D. 622, Islam, the world's last monotheistic religion, was born in Arabia. A century later, the Muslim world stretched from Spain across North Africa and into Persia, Mesopotamia, and part of India. Inspired by the holy word of God, as it was revealed by the Prophet Muhammad in the Koran, and drawing upon the traditions of the many disparate peoples who now commingled with adherents of the new faith, Muslims succeeded in creating their own distinctive art—often starkly simple and pious, but just as often opulent and sensual. A saying ascribed to the Prophet claims that "God is beautiful and loves beauty," therefore copying the Koran and the lavish decorating of mosques became revered tasks throughout Islam: calligraphy was raised to a level of perfection known in few other cultures, while complex arabesque and geometric patterning was employed to embellish mosques and to decorate smaller sacred and secular objects as well. Along with the tradition of elegant calligraphy and abstract patterning, Islamic art also possesses a rich body of narrative art and delightful depictions of rulers, heroes, and common men, as well as real and imagined beasts and sumptuous dwellings and gardens. Indeed, among a people whose religious birthplace was a stark and arid land, an ideal world of flowing water, lush plant life, and richly colored carpeting and tile was dramatically illustrated by painters and often actually constructed by architects and artisans, offering them and us tantalizing glimpses of an earthly paradise. In The Islamic World over 140 objects and pictures are reproduced, giving a sweeping view of the many styles and mediums in which Islamic artists worked, from Spain to India, over more than ten centuries. Pages from Korans, epic poems, poetic anthologies, and albums, as well as glasswork, jewelry, and stone- and woodcarving show the rich variety of Islamic art. A room from Damascus, created in the eighteenth century, reveals the exquisite craftsmanship for which Islamic architects, woodcarvers, and ceramists are justly famous. Examples of the various calligraphic styles are shown in pages of Korans copied throughout the Islamic world. Illustrations from such famous secular works as the Houghton Shah-nameh and the album created for Shah Jahan reveal the vivid imagination and consummate skill of Islamic artists and the important part played by local traditions in forming this unique aesthetic. Islamic glass and ceramics, beautiful in themselves and critically important in the development of these mediums in the West, are illustrated by examples drawn from every corner of the Muslim world, while carpets—probably the art form that in the West is most closely associated with Islamic craftsmanship—are profusely illustrated by examples from Mamluk Egypt, Safavid Iran, Ottoman Turkey, and Mughal India. Together, the paintings and objects reproduced here offer a richly rewarding aesthetic adventure and a revealing picture of the variety and brilliance of over ten centuries of artistic achievement.

Claire Moore introduces a new resource for teachers that focuses on the art of the Islamic world.

Press officer Egle Zygas invites readers to see 10 artworks and objects spanning more than 2,000 years of sports around the world.

With his talent for design and promotion, Charles Frederick Worth built his design house into a huge business during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.