“Unlike the rich colors of the galleries, the palette of these nonpublic areas is a rigorous gray and white, a dusty Kansas to the galleries’ Oz. The overall effect is one of suspended time. That guard you just passed, proudly uniformed and polite: He could be from 1910. The one who looks like a racetrack bookie, all stuffed pockets, darting eyes and razor stubble: He’s still padding around from the ’60s. That dumbwaiter set into the wall: It could be servicing the museum’s 50th anniversary party — held in 1920. Backstage, we ignore time and departments, decades and divisions of labor, allowing the museum’s 2,200 staff members to walk among giants.”
-Christine Coulson, “Behind The Scenes At The Met,” T Magazine, April 2016
