“The third and final phase of the nearly three-year project to renovate and reinterpret The Met’s André Mertens Galleries for Musical Instruments is now complete and the newest gallery opened to the public on February 15. The gallery includes over 250 musical instruments of various types-drums, strings, winds, keyboards, and more-dating from 200 B.C.E. to the present day, augmented by works from other Museum departments, including seven paintings, an imperial jade chime and scepter, and an Indonesian shadow puppet. The gallery also now includes an intimate concert space with a 7-by-25-foot stage and state-of-the-art recording and sound system that allows performances to be transmitted to the Museum’s main auditorium and beyond in the highest quality. Enhancing the gallery-viewing experience are two media kiosks featuring narratives on the Triangular Trade route and Silk Road (video footage available) as well as some 40 new Audio Guide stops.” — The Metropolitan Museum of Art

“Organized around the theme The Art of Music and punctuated with objects from across the Museum’s encyclopedic collection, the galleries present a new perspective on the interwoven world of music, art, innovation, and society,” said Bradley Strauchen-Scherer, Associate Curator of The Met’s Department of Musical Instruments, who oversaw the renovation project. “The reinterpretation of the galleries is a marked departure from typical displays of musical instruments that focus on typology and technical development.”

Photographs by Corrado Serra.