Media Contact: Susan Cipollaro, scipollaro@fairfield.edu, 203-254-4000 x2726
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (February 25, 2020—The Open VISIONS Forum (OVF) Espresso Series continues on Tuesday, March 3, 2020 at 7:30 p.m., when Randall Griffey, associate curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) presents his lecture, “The Met at 150 – Looking Back/Looking Forward” at Fairfield University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts.
The Met has played an important role in the preservation and the promotion of global art and artifacts during its 150 years, sharing more than 50 centuries of works from around the word with visitors.
This year marks the Met's 150th anniversary, an occasion that will be commemorated with a wide range of activities throughout 2020. Curator Griffey will recount the museum’s rich history, and reveal how its exhibitions and events continue to celebrate both new ideas and unexpected connections across eras and cultures. This OVF Espresso event is made possible through the Quick Center’s collaboration with the Fairfield University Art Museum.
One of Griffey’s recently curated Met exhibitions was 2018’s History Refused to Die: Highlights From the Souls Grown Deep Foundation Gift. A New York Times Critics’ Pick, it took him two years to select the installation’s 29 pieces of African-American folk art. As the Times wrote in its review of the exhibit, “every thinking American understands the suffering these artists and their ancestors have endured .... History has indeed refused to die, and some of its greatest art is also very much alive.”
Key components of the Met’s 150th anniversary celebration in 2020 include major gifts of art from around the world; exhibitions and displays that will examine art, history, and culture through spectacular objects; and dynamic programs that will engage the Met’s local and global communities. Highlights of the year include the exhibition Making the Met, 1870 – 2020, the unveiling of the newly renovated British Galleries, the display of new works of art given to the museum in honor of its anniversary, the launch of cross-cultural installations, and a robust schedule of programs and events.
Moderated by Philip Eliasoph, PhD, art history professor at Fairfield University and founding director of the Open VISIONS Forum, OVF Espresso talks are designed to generate spirited community conversation in a smaller, more intimate environment.
This Open VISIONS Forum Espresso event with Randall Griffey on March 3 at 7:30 p.m. is generously sponsored by Cohen and Wolf P.C. Attorneys at Law and Moffly Media. Tickets are $20| $15 for Quick Members. For more information or to reserve your seat, visit www.quickcenter.com or call the Box Office at 203-254-4010, or toll free at 1-877-ARTS-396.
Posted On: February 25, 2020
Volume: 51 Number: 73
Fairfield University is a modern Jesuit Catholic university rooted in one of the world’s oldest intellectual and spiritual traditions. More than 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students from the U.S. and across the globe are pursuing degrees in the University’s five schools. Fairfield embraces a liberal humanistic approach to education, encouraging critical thinking, cultivating free and open inquiry, and fostering ethical and religious values.The University is located on a stunning 200-acre campus on the scenic Connecticut coast just an hour from New York City.