Immaterial: Stone

Today, Frame of Mind is featuring an episode from another podcast from The Met, Immaterial. Each episode tells the stories of artists' materials to explore how and why people make art.  In this episode, we cover stone. Throughout art museums around the world, you’ll find ancient stone statues of r…

Art and Medicine

Have you heard people say visiting a museum is good for you? Why is that? Grace Calame-Mars, a Nursing Professional Development Specialist, and Carolyn Halpin-Healy, an Art Educator at The Met, know the first-hand benefit of art in museums as a tool to help our well-being. Hear about the art therap…

Art Rooted in the Earth

Can art save your life? According to Virgil Ortiz, an artist from the Cochiti Pueblo in New Mexico, it can. For Virgil, making pottery with traditional materials and methods is a kind of therapy, a fundamental expression of his culture across generations. Virgil describes how the process itself bri…

Composing New Harmonies

Can the art of music bridge differences that separate us? For Reena Esmail, working as a composer is about more than music: It’s about building what she calls “equitable musical spaces” for the performers and the audience. Born to Indian immigrants, she feels passionately that cultural difference c…

Seeing Art Through a Pandemic Lens

How does the pandemic change our interpretation of art? Since lockdown, staff members at The Met have discovered that familiar artworks now appear different in profound and personal ways. For Alison Hokanson, assistant curator in the Department of European Paintings, a painting by Edvard Munch spea…

Art, Haircuts, and Community

How can a physical space be designed to support well-being? While museum galleries might seem a world away from barbershops, to Josh Livingston, both are places for people to gather and connect. Josh is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the American Studies Department at Bard College, and he’s spen…

Art Closer to Home

Does it make any difference where we see art? For one multidisciplinary artist and feminist, it’s crucial—not just because of who sees it, but what stories get told. Meet Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya. Born to Thai and Indonesian immigrants, she studied neuroscience at Columbia and worked at an Alzheime…

Access to Inspiration

When spaces are inaccessible, they aren’t inclusive, literally and figuratively, which affects us all. Meet Lakshmee Lachhman-Persad, a digital marketer, and her sister Annie Lachhman, an artist born with cerebral palsy who uses a wheelchair. Originally from Guyana, they often seek out New York Cit…

Seeding Change

Does your life ever feel out of control? For Yvette Weaver, a horticulturist, gardens offer respite, and working in them continues a family legacy of connection to nature. She previously worked in the gardens at The Met Cloisters, where the design and plantings are directly inspired by the collecti…

Mending Hope

Can working with your hands improve your mood? For Kisook Suh, a textile conservator at The Met, there’s deep satisfaction and purpose in caring for tapestries that are hundreds of years old. But her artistry doesn’t stop there: once home, she relaxes by mending holes in her young son’s blue jeans …