A rare glimpse at how one of the world’s top museums does its restoration work on art and artifacts.
Jen on the Context Travel tour of the Met
On the Thursday before the TBEX travel blogging conference, I joined a small group of travel bloggers on a special tour with Context Travel. Context offers walking tours in a few cities around the world – mostly in European centres such as Paris and Rome, but also in New York, Boston and Philadelphia. The company’s unique shtick is that its tour guides are professionals in their fields – archaeologists, art historians and so on. Usually there is a maximum of six people on each tour so it’s a far cry from walking around in a herd following the umbrella! Context tours cost around $65 or €65 a person – this one was free but I am under no obligation to write a post.
Our tour was a behind-the-scenes look at restoration work in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, aka the Met, led by Beth Edelstein, assistant conservator in the Department of Objects Conservation. We started with some completed restoration work – including a stained-glass window from an old church in New York and the Pacific Islands and Asian rooms. To me, one of the most interesting objects was a Sumatran mourning puppet. Researchers only realised its purpose after restoration when they found that it had moss inside so that it would cry mechanically. It would be used when a dead person did not have enough relatives to carry out the necessary mourning rites.
Johnny Jet makes a spectacle with conservator's glasses
Then we moved into the uncompleted restoration work, actually going behind the construction zone to see the half-completed work in the Islamic galleries, which Beth is currently focusing on in her day job. She did a good job of explaining thought processes behind restoration decisions and the frustrations when things don’t work out exactly as planned or one exhibit interferes with another (which can incur the wrath of donors). We weren’t really allowed to take photos once we had moved beyond the public areas of the museum but she made an exception for Johnny Jet to pose with special conservator’s glasses!
It was extremely interesting and also great fun to meet some of the other bloggers ahead of the schedule – including Kim and Maren from Galavanting and TBEX, Jennifer from The Vacation Gals, Stephanie from Twenty-Something Travel, Gary from Everything Everywhere, Chris from the Amateur Traveler, Jodi from Legal Nomads, Matt from Nomadic Matt and the aforementioned Johnny Jet. (Sorry if I’m missing people out).
I’ve done a Context Travel tour once before back in 2007. Also in New York, the tour was of specialist chocolate shops in Manhattan. That was a lot of fun – especially the samples! But really the company is best known for its art and history tours. The special thing about this Met tour is that it is not on their regular schedule – it was put on especially for us travel bloggers. I’m sorry to say that members of the public cannot book a tour that will go behind the scenes to look at restoration work in progress. On the other hand, Context offers a number of other tours at the Met and other art galleries and in New York more generally.
Steph and Jodi in the Pacific gallery
Kim looking at artwork hanging from the ceiling of the Pacific Gallery
A group of travel bloggers on the Context Travel tour of the Met
Beth shows how the stained-glass window looked before restoration
The stained-glass window after restoration
Beth explains the restoration of the Sumatran mourning puppet
Gary and Chris at the glass exhibit
Johnny Jet with Mickey Mouse ears
Jodi looking up at the ceiling in the Pacific room
Note: These images are copyright but I will permit other travel bloggers to use them, as long as they credit me and provide a follow link to Roaming Tales (either the home page or this post). For all photos see the Flickr set.
[...] was already in love with the museum even before I had the unique opportunity of a backstage, after hours tour of the Met by Beth Edelstein, assistant conservator in the Department of Objects Conservation. [...]