The Evolution of Live Arts (Brochures) at the Met

Brochure cover for the 1954–55 season of "Subscription Events for Members"

«When the Met launched its first subscription concert series, in 1954, it opened with a performance by the celebrated violinist Isaac Stern. The concert was part of a ticketed series of thirteen concerts for Members, and included an evening of folk song and three poetry readings. Series subscriptions were available as well as tickets to single events, which cost between $2.50 and $5.50 per event. The Met had already hosted over ten years of wildly popular free concerts in the Great Hall, led by conductor David Mannes until his retirement in 1948, so this new concert series was the next iteration of Museum performances, one that continues to evolve today as Met Museum Presents reinvents live arts at the Met.»

With a little visual evidence, thanks to Museum Archives, one can see exactly how much has transformed in the Concerts & Lectures series throughout the decades—both in terms of the design of the brochures as well as the programming. The season brochures have always played with shape and color in an innovative fashion, and there are some eye-catching examples that have broken the mold of traditional Museum materials. However, it is the name of the series itself that has changed the most over the years. From the utilitarian "Subscription Events for Members," to "Concerts," and then to "Concerts & Lectures," which remained the steadfast title for over fifty years. When the series became Met Museum Presents for the 2012–13 season, the font itself even reflected a new, bold, and modern direction.

You can see a bit of the evolution of design styles right here, but what's inside (the actual performances and talks) tell an incredible history.

Brochure cover for the 1971–72 season of Concerts & Lectures, featuring figures from an etching of Jean-François Millet's The Gleaners

Looking at the 1971–72 season, concerts began to make their way into the Medieval Sculpture Hall and Veléz Blanco Patio, still two of the most beloved locations for performances today. There was also an "Operas for Children" series of three works in 1971 and early 1972—La Bohème, Cinderella, and Carmen—which were selected "with special appeal for young people" and featured performances by guest singers and narration by opera impresario Boris Goldovsky. Young audiences still flock to the Met to take in a concert, and Met Museum Presents offers Bring the Kids tickets for $1 to almost every performance. This past season, the Bring the Kids saw a 109 percent increase in participation, so attracting the next generation of concert-goers is still going strong!

Brochure cover for the 1989–90 season of Concerts & Lectures, featuring Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's The Box with the Gilded Mask

In the 1989–90 season of Concerts & Lectures, audiences were invited to "Hear Great Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art" with a season of 51 concerts and 153 lectures—an exponential expansion from the series' beginnings. The season also packed musical stars like Yo-Yo Ma and special concert series with Billy Taylor and the Billy Taylor Trio, the Guarneri String Quartet (well in the process of establishing a celebrated run of annual concerts at the Met), and the Emerson String Quartet. The 1989–90 season is also a fun graphic stand-out in the stack of brochures, with its fold-out design measuring at nine inches wide by eleven inches in height. The cover even features The Box with the Gilded Mask by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in a bright salmon hue.

Left: Brochure cover for the inaugural season of Met Museum Presents programming, featuring Andy Warhol's Nine Jackies

Fast-forward through a few more decades, and you'll see that the spring 2012 brochure cover read "Met Museum Presents" for the first time, and for the 2012–13 season there was the introduction of an Artist in Residence (DJ Spooky collaborated on eight events throughout the year), a magnificent staging of Peony Pavilion in The Astor Chinese Garden Court, which is still regarded as one of the most stunning operatic performances ever held at the Met. This new series initiated a new direction for in-gallery and site-specific performances across the Museum's spaces, and the ratio of concerts to talks also leveled that season, giving audiences a more robust offering of events composed of music, dance, opera, and discussions led by both Met curators as well as guest lecturers. After that first full season of Met Museum Presents, once again the brochures began to stand out, featuring performance artists on the cover—rather than visual art from the collection—encouraging audiences to reconsider the dynamic live arts series at the Met.

Additional research for this post was conducted by Kongkong Jiang.

Related Links
Now at the Met: "Bring the Kids Celebrates Another Successful Season" (July 3, 2014)
Of Note: "Emanuel Winternitz and the Museum's Member Concerts" (July 27, 2015)