#CulturedPeachy @MetMuseum #OpenAccess The Met Announces Design Contest in Celebration of 150th Anniversary
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is launching a design contest on the occasion of the Museum's upcoming 150th anniversary in 2020. Starting today, The Met will invite the public to submit original designs that draw inspiration from Open Access images of works in the Museum's collection. Entries will be revealed on June 14, from which six winning designs will be selected through a combination of crowd voting and deliberations by a judging panel consisting of Chirlane McCray, poet, activist and First Lady of New York City; Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief of American Vogue and Artistic Director of Condé Nast; Zac Posen, fashion designer; Fred Wilson, conceptual artist; and Max Hollein, Director of The Met. The winning designs will be announced in September 2019, and will be adapted into a line of Met Store products to be sold starting April 13, 2020—the Museum's 150th birthday. All product sales will support projects of The Met. Winning designers will each receive a $1,000 cash prize.
"The Met has always been a source for inspiration, and the approaching 150th anniversary is a meaningful moment in which to invite everyone to utilize the vast resources of our Open Access images and to share their creative response with the Museum and fellow participants," said Max Hollein, Director of The Met. "We look forward to seeing the entries and the innovative and exciting ways our collection can be interpreted."
Through the contest, the Museum seeks to inspire both children and adults, and encourage a diverse range of perspectives on creativity and design. The contest is open to participants from the United States, and creatives as young as six years old will be eligible to submit original designs in any medium. The contest is accessible starting today at metmuseum.org/150/contest.
Learn more about the design contest through the website or during the following programs at The Met: Family Afternoon on May 12 from 1 to 4pm, Teens Take The Met! on May 31 from 5 to 8pm, or the Museum Mile Festival on June 11 from 6 to 9pm.
About Open Access
The Metropolitan Museum of Art established a policy called Open Access that makes images of artworks it believes to be in the public domain widely and freely available for unrestricted use, and at no cost, in accordance with the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) designation. It gives access to more than 406,000 images of artwork from The Met collection, and makes available data from the entire online collection—both works it believes to be in the public domain and those under copyright or other restrictions—including basic information such as title, artist, date, medium, and dimensions.
This policy change to Open Access made in February 2017 is an important statement about The Met's commitment to increasing access to the collection in a digital age. For more information, visit metmuseum.org/openaccess.
About The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Met presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy. The Museum lives in three iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer, and The Met Cloisters. Millions of people also take part in The Met experience online. Since it was founded in 1870, The Met has always aspired to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects. Every day, art comes alive in the Museum's galleries and through its exhibitions and events, revealing both new ideas and unexpected connections across time and across cultures.
In 2020, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will celebrate its 150th anniversary with exhibitions and events for New Yorkers and its global audience. Throughout the year, The Met will offer activities that will honor the generations of New Yorkers, visitors, and supporters that have built The Met, and invite individuals and communities to celebrate art together.
