Back to Now at the Met

Thomas P. Campbell, director, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The beginning of a new year is invariably a time of reflection as we contemplate past achievements and envision possibilities to come. And, standing at the threshold of my new role as the ninth director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, I greet this particular new year with keen anticipation.

First, let me say that I am deeply honored that the Museum's trustees have placed their faith in me to lead this most extraordinary cultural institution. It is a remarkable opportunity, one that I welcome with a profound sense of gratitude to my predecessor, Philippe de Montebello, who has charted the Museum's course with consummate intelligence, imagination, and foresight for more than three decades.

Here, visitors have discovered treasures from the Vatican, the Kremlin, the Holy Land, San Marco, Byzantium, Mexico, imperial China, ancient Egypt, Mughal India, Africa, classical Greece—masterpieces in every medium, spanning five thousand years of artistic endeavor from across the globe. The ever-evolving permanent collections, recent art-historical scholarship, and changing public tastes have led to the complete renovation or reinstallation of almost every major curatorial area in the building, while the new, state-of-the-art Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education enables the Museum to offer a widening menu of public programs and publications. With these achievements firmly in place, a talented staff of the very highest caliber, and the guidance and support of the Museum's president, Emily Rafferty, I stand well poised to build on Philippe de Montebello's legacy and ensure the Metropolitan's preeminence in the pantheon of the world's museums.

I am also fortunate indeed to have inherited an outstanding exhibition roster for 2009 and beyond, including upcoming presentations devoted to the late interiors of Pierre Bonnard, superb bronzes of the French Renaissance, emotionally charged paintings by Francis Bacon, the arts of Korea under Confucian kings, treasures from ancient Afghanistan, samurai arms and armor, seminal photographs by Robert Frank, the furniture of Duncan Phyfe, and utopian depictions of music and theater by Watteau, to name but a few.

Although I am newly elected as director, I am no stranger to this institution. For those of you who don't yet know me, let me briefly introduce myself. A graduate of the University of Oxford and the Courtauld Institute of Art, I joined the Metropolitan Museum in 1995 and, until my most recent appointment, served as a curator in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts and as supervising curator of the Antonio Ratti Textile Center. Many of you have perhaps seen the exhibitions that I most recently organized—"Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence" (2002) and "Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor" (2007). While my specialization has been in this particular field of scholarship, my passion and respect for the encyclopedic collections of this unique institution are strong. As director, I shall continue where Philippe de Montebello has so brilliantly left off: with an unequivocal commitment to maintaining the integrity of the Museum's mission as reflected in the quality of its collections, exhibitions, conservation, research, publications, education programs, and libraries, and to finding fresh, relevant ways to welcome, challenge, and inspire our diverse audiences.

In the meantime, I hope you will all join me in expressing our heartfelt thanks and good wishes to Philippe de Montebello, whose lifelong work is embodied in the magnificence of the Metropolitan Museum, and in ushering in what promises to be a very exciting new year for us all.