Every once and a while, I am found by the perfect book exactly when I need it. This time it was Danny Danzinger's Museum: Behind the Scenes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and it found me during our last few hours in NYC in February. We had just left the Met for our second visit in two days and I had a hard time leaving. At 11:30, I realized I had 30 minutes before I had to leave. I was standing outside the European Paintings Galleries staring at my map trying to decide which way to go. A gentle security guard approached me and asked if I needed directions. I said "I have thirty minutes before I have to leave for the airport and I'm trying to decide if I should spend it looking at work I already love or if I should try to find something new I might love." He smiled, looked around and said, "Well...I'm guessing you already have artists you love. And if you only have 30 minutes, I think you should pick the one you want to see most and then go see that. That's what I would do. Here, this is for you." He reached into his jacket pocket and handed me a detailed floor plan with all the European artists and their locations noted. It was exactly what I needed.
I thanked him and scanned the plan. It was a hard decision but I decided to pick based on where I would most like to be transported to on this grey, snowy, final day of a too short holiday. The warmth of Botticelli seemed exactly what I needed and so I went off to Gallery 4A, and wandered blissfully through sunny scenes of Italy until I found the lovely Botticelli. My 30 minutes was up before I knew it. I set out to find my security guard and thank him for what he'd given me but he was nowhere to be seen. Had I been able to find him, I sure he wouldn't have been surprised to hear that I left that gallery somehow transformed by what I had seen. I am sure it happens almost every minute at the Met. Soon after we left the Met, I picked up Danzinger's book at Posman Books in Grand Central. As the blurb describes:" In the fifty-two interviews in Museum, we meet some of the people who have given their lives to making the Met the success that it is. We are introduced to curators with endless knowledge who look after the collections; as well as cleaners; florists; police and security staff who maintain and secure the building; plus the philanthropists and millionaires who donate their money for new and wonderful art works"
Reading it has seemed like a decadent treat over the past few weeks. Every time I pick it up, it puts me back in the galleries and shows me something new. I have many favourite parts but this section from Harold Holzer, Senior VP for External Affairs, stands out: "The Museum's for the obvious things, education and illumination, but it's also about a part of life that's to do with creativity and not about strife and conflict. I think it's a way to leave the hurly-burly of the present and to be absolutely transported by visions of beauty or reverence on a scale that we don't experience anymore today, tragically, and to see how all that passion can be focused on something beautiful and extraordinary" (95). What I loved about this book is how many times people say "I can't believe how lucky I am to have this job" or "I can't believe they pay me to do this amazing job." The passion for the Met runs through every page and I now have a list of things I really want to see next time I'm there. And I still have my map tucked into the pages of this fantastic book.
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