The Metropolitan Museum of Art will reopen its Michael C. Rockefeller Wing on May 31, 2025, after a four-year renovation led by Kulapat Yantrasast and WHY Architecture. The redesigned wing houses the museum's collections of Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Ancient Americas in distinct galleries with improved sight-lines, filtered daylight, and a more navigable layout. A day-long public festival featuring a ribbon-cutting, live performances, workshops, artist talks, and food will celebrate the opening.
The reopening matters because it marks a major institutional rethinking of how to display non-Western art in a major encyclopedic museum. By separating the three regional collections while maintaining visual proximity, the design encourages visitors to appreciate both cultural differences and resonances. The public festival and inclusion of contemporary artists like Manny Vega, Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez, and Teokotā’i Paitai underscore the Met's effort to connect historical objects with living traditions and to make the wing more accessible and engaging for a broad audience.