Every two years, Met employees can see their own art on the walls of the prestigious museum

Few artists can place their work in leading museums like New York Metropolitan Art Museum. But the Met has been organizing special exhibitions for years with an unexpected group of artists: its own staff.

Titled “Artwork: Artists working at the Met”, this year’s show features more than 600 pieces – including paintings, etchings, ceramics, embroidery and digital art – created by 640 Met staff, according to Hyperallergic‘s Maya Pontone. The exhibition features work by staffers in a variety of roles, including security guards, technicians, librarians, designers and volunteers.

Christopher Faheya storage specialist who helps handle and install works of art and artefacts, says the New York Postby Raquel Laneri that hanging work by fellow staffers has been a highlight of his work.

“It’s a beautiful thing,” he says. ‘We all get a lot out of working here, but [the Met is] I also get a lot from artists who work here.”

Fahey is a poet and mixed media artist from Queens, in addition to his day job New York Post. For the show, Fahey displays an intricate sculpture made from a piece of redwood found in the trash. He worked on the piece for two years.

The Met has been organizing staff art exhibitions since 1935, and these usually take place every two years. “The exhibition is designed, hung, presented and monitored by the same staff – some of the best in the world – who also design, hang, present and monitor the 1.5 million works in the entire collection,” the exhibition said. Financial times‘Lila Raptopoulos.

Historically, these shows were not open to the public. But in 2022, the museum allowed all interested art lovers to see it for the first time. This year is only the second time in history that ‘Art Work’ is open to all museum visitors.

Daniel Kershawan exhibition design manager, says Hyperallergic that the number of staff artworks on display this year has almost doubled compared to previous years.

“Because of the amount of press it got last time and the opportunity for the public to see it, everyone decided they wanted to put something in it,” he says. “It’s just a lot of fun.” Kershaw has an architectural model for a future exhibition on display in the show.

Amanda Rothschildwho works in the museum’s technology department, echoes this sentiment, saying that many Met employees find connection through their art.

“There is definitely a community around art in the museum that is different from other places,” she says Hyperallergic. The exhibition features a painting by Rothschild: a retro image of a sink she noticed in a coffee shop in Greenpoint, surrounded by cool blue tiles.

Some of the staff pieces are inspired by artifacts in the museum. Armia Malak Khalila high-ranking security officer, created a small sculpture inspired by Ushabtiancient Egyptian statues that were placed at funerals to help the deceased in the afterlife.

Khalil, originally from Egypt, immigrated to the United States in 2006. He also has a wooden bust on display in another exhibition at the Met: “Flight to Egypt.”

“It’s the first time that one of us guards has taken part in a major exhibition,” he says New York Post. “They are all so proud of me.”

“Artwork: Artists working at the Met‘ is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York until December 1.