Metropolitan Museum Announces Roster
of Presenters for TEDxMet Event to
Take Place Saturday, September 26,
at The Met Breuer

A broad range of stories will be told, in a variety of formats. Among the presenters are: a former death row prisoner recently exonerated after serving 39 years in prison; a 14-year-old musical prodigy; a transgender author and activist; a leader in diabetes patient care, research, and education; a New York City Ballet Principal Dancer; a community developer confronting issues of the environment, affordable housing, and education; a composer and a poet, both recent Pulitzer Prize winners; the author of a seminal article on growing up bi-racial; a performance group investigating contemporary issues theatrically; an art educator who galvanizes both traditional and non-traditional art-going audiences; visual artists and designers who examine the creative process; and curators with specialties at the two extremes of the art-historical timeline—the ancient world and today. 

Made possible by Adrienne Arsht. 

Additional support has been provided by Chipotle Mexican Grill.

The main stage of this year’s TEDxMet will be at The Met Breuer, the landmark building designed by Marcel Breuer on Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York. It is for now an “in-between” space: no longer the Whitney Museum, and not yet open to the public as The Met Breuer, where the Met’s first season of programming will begin in March 2016.

The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at the Met’s Main Building at Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street will be the second venue for TEDxMet, with a live high-definition video feed between the two locations. The Grace Rainey Rogers stage will host most of the live performances (music, dance, theater), along with a live feed of the talks from The Met Breuer. The Breuer audience will view The Grace Rainey Rogers performances via video feed. The entire program will also be livestreamed on the Met’s website. 

Mr. Campbell said, “It is exciting to host such a powerful roster of TEDxMet participants at this extraordinary building’s first program as The Met Breuer, while it is still in a raw, transitional state. It provides the perfect backdrop for this year’s celebration of gray areas and liminal spaces. Expect to be challenged by this diverse group of thought leaders, performers, and curators as they reflect on lives in flux and on the in-between spaces where artists create. We are also delighted that this ambitious September event is the stepping stone to the ongoing programming that will launch several months from now at The Met Breuer, where our visitors will engage with the art of the 20th and 21st centuries through the global and historical breadth of the Met’s unparalleled collection.”

The full list of this year’s TEDxMet presenters follows. A short biography of each is posted online.

Host: Thomas P. Campbell, Met Director and CEO

Ian Alteveer, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

Ken Applebaum, Met Staff Member and TEDxMet Open Call Winner

Bryan Bedford, 14-year-old Student and Musician

Kim Benzel, Curator of Ancient Near Eastern Art

Dawoud Bey, Artist

Jennifer Finney Boylan, Author 

The Civilians, Theater Company

Bruce Conner, Artist

Doug Eklund, Curator of Contemporary Photography and Video

Susan Fales-Hill, Author

Sandra Jackson-Dumont, Met’s Frederick P. and Sandra P. Rose Chairman’s of Education

Robin Goland, Co-Director, Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center

Ricky Jackson, Art Lover/Activist/Exoneree

Sharon Olds, Poet

Amar Ramasar, New York City Ballet Principal Dancer

Jonathan Rose, Real Estate Developer/Co-Founder, The Garrison Institute

Isabella Rossellini, Actress/Model/Filmmaker

Leanne Shapton, Artist and Author

Jerry Strauss, Met Staff Member and TEDxMet Open Call Winner 

Tanya Tagaq, Performer

Talujon Percussion Ensemble, House Band

Julia Wolfe, Composer

Tickets for the main stage at The Met Breuer are $100.

Tickets for the live high-definition video transmission in the Met’s Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, where most of the live performances—dance, music, theater—will take place, are $40.

All tickets also include admission to the Met’s galleries on the day of the event. Tickets for The Met Breuer include lunch.

Programming of TEDxMet was organized by Limor Tomer, the Met’s General Manager of Concerts and Lectures, Christine Coulson, Chief Advisor to the Director, and consulting producer Julie Burstein.

This independent TEDx event is operated under license from TED.

Information and the latest news about this year’s TEDxMet are available at www.metmuseum.org/tedxmet. 

This page now includes the list of presenters with biographical information, ticketing information, and a video preview trailer of the programming. Blog posts by TEDxMet speakers will be added. 

The full TEDxMet program will also be live streamed on September 26 on this page.

For live updates during TEDxMet, follow @metmuseum on Twitter and Instagram. Those attending the event or following along online can use #TEDxMet and tag @metmuseum to be part of the conversation.

Behind-the-scenes post-event interviews and messaging are also being planned. Details will be announced at a later date.

The Met, which presented its first TEDxMet program in October 2013 with the theme Icons, was the first art museum ever to receive a TEDx license.