Today, we go behind the scenes of the august Metropolitan Museum of Art. Patrick Bringley is the author of All the Beauty in the World: the Metropolitan Museum of Art & Me, a highly well-received new book about his 10 years as a museum guard – and more than that, about how he worked through his grief over the too-soon loss of his brother and the power art has to heal, educate, and excite us.
It’s a rich and beautiful story full of insights – some of them funny — born of his meditative standing and looking – with visitors and without – for hours at a time in the rooms of the Met and interacting with coworkers who, as he points out in our interview, are often described as “characters.” Were they characters before they came to work at the Met or did working there making them so? Probably a little of both, he says.
As for him, yes, his Met life, as it were, did change him. You’ll learn exactly how from our conversation which, if you’re like me, will make you even more eagerly look forward to your next visit to the Met.
But before I introduce Patrick Bringley, I’d like to take a moment to say WESU has launched its fall pledge drive. If this is the kind of unusual programming you enjoy, please support the station by making a donation. There are way-cool gifts. Jus’ sayin. Okay, without further ado: Patrick Bringley.
The Met, at 1000 Fifth Avenue, an ideal setting for profound, even religious, experiences!
Mentioned in our interview: The Cloisters, in Upper Manhattan’s Tryon Park, full of medieval art; a crucifixion by Bernardo Doddi, a favorite of Bringley’s; the poster for a magnificent Michelangelo exhibit; the famous Temple of Dendur; the poster for a show of unfinished work; and a book explaining early American art.
Open Studio 