The MET

By Natalia Rosario

Over the weekend – on Friday to be exact-  while choosing what to do or where rather where to go for this writing assignment I felt as though I had hit a creative wall. Literally crossing things out of a list as to what to write about, like, I know class systems are real, it’s clearly a “thing” in today’s society but how can I find a place where its overwhelmingly present enough for me to be able to spew out words for. So, it would be wrong for me to say that going to Starbucks and simply people watching wasn’t a front runner on the list but I ultimately ended up going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Initially, I chose the MET because I thought I’d be able to observe the types of people attending the opening of a new exhibit ideally. But, when I went there was no new exhibit opening so I wasn’t going to see interesting people like explorers from Australia or England or wherever that I could write about or so I thought. It was a typical day at the museum at least from my prospective of what typical day at a museum consist of. But there were somethings that upon entrance hit me right away, 1. there were a lot more children than I expected and I got a moment to ring up some conservation with one the chaperons for these children. We got to talking and she told me she was a 6^th grade teacher for Bronx Early College academy a Public / Charter school and that her class was able to go to the museum for FREE. I thought that was incredible because I associate places like museums to before the “big spenders“and by that I mean these places that typically house a lot of priceless heirlooms and things of that nature are not typically free or open to the public. 2. In order to get into the museum as a regular person recommended fee is $15 for students but please notice that I wrote RECOMMENDED once you get in the museum you can pay literally any amount you want that is over 0.00 so if you pay 1 cent that’s absolutely fine.  

That small notion got me thinking because it’s almost as though the Museum itself or rather the people running the museum recognize that this place houses all kinds of items that are probably vital to a college students final research paper, or a trip to this establishment is vital in helping mold a young 6^th graders mind as to what else has gone on around the world that he/she is a part of. Be able to inspire or provide a different prospective as to what is art give visual to what art was then and the common themes coursing through each painting be it from the same era or not. So, for a place as a big and recommended for a well-rounded educated person to visit as a museum to be practically free to anyone who wants to go is almost like the class system placed in society to be used as a way to differentiate between people doesn’t exists to the museum. The museum only sees people that want to benefit from the experience of being inside.