The Metropolitan Museum of Art to Add More MetFriday Evenings This Summer

MetFridays: New York's Night Out is expanding this summer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art with the addition of thematic programming on June 24 and July 22 at The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters, and extended evening hours at The Met Cloisters through Labor Day.

"We're delighted to host MetFridays this summer at all three of our locations-The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Cloisters, and The Met Breuer," said Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Museum. "Come and enjoy our iconic settings, great exhibitions, and a fantastic range of programs. It is the perfect way to start a summer weekend."

On June 24, The Met will offer music, poetry readings, and discussion on the theme of MetFridays: Pride at the Fifth Avenue location, while the Cloisters location will host a French wine tasting with a master sommelier. On July 22, a concert will highlight MetFridays: Extreme Measures at The Met Fifth Avenue. That same evening at The Met Cloisters, the quartet Jazz and Honey will perform music from the 1930s, the decade in which The Cloisters was inaugurated.

Each of the three Met locations will have special MetFridays offerings this summer:

MetFridays at The Met Fifth Avenue

More than 5,000 years of art come alive at the Museum's landmark building, The Met Fifth Avenue. On MetFridays, when this location is open until 9 p.m. on Friday nights throughout the year, visitors can enjoy a drink, music, and conversation with friends, or immerse themselves in a range of exhibitions and programs.

On June 24, special programming along the theme MetFridays: Pride will feature performances by the New York City Gay Men's Chorus (6:30 and 8 p.m.); poetry readings by Janani Balasubramanian of DarkMatter (6:45 and 8:15 p.m.); a Love Heals! silent dance party with world-renowned DJs Steve Travolta, Danny Krivit, Olivia Dope, and DJ Rekha (5-9 p.m.); a panel conversation on the topic of Gender: Who We Are from the Inside Out (7:15 p.m.); Flowers and Fragrance, a dialogue between perfumer Alexis Karl and educator Deborah Goldberg that will explore depictions of flowers and their natural scents in a work of art (6:30 and 7:30 p.m.), and much more. Visitors are also invited to mix and mingle at a bar open specifically for the evening, located in the Carroll and Milton Petrie European Sculpture Court, with a menu featuring the specialty cocktail, Pride and Tonic.

A full list of MetFridays: Pride programming and activities at The Met Fifth Avenue is available on The Met website.

MetFridays: Extreme Measures, on July 22, invites visitors to discover the power of objects large and small through interactive gallery chats, art making, music, and more. A concert by Bansuri flutist Jay Gandhi will take place in connection with the exhibition Divine Pleasures: Painting from India's Rajput Courts-The Kronos Collections (June 14-September 12), and a special Drop-in Drawingsession will feature live models wearing garments inspired by the exhibition Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology (on view through August 14).

The Met Fifth Avenue offers food and drink specials every Friday evening as part of MetFridays. The Roof Garden Bar is presenting an artful cocktail menu inspired by The Roof Garden Commission: Cornelia Parker, Transitional Object (PsychoBarn) (on view through October 31, weather permitting), featuring one of their most popular offerings, the Red Barn Sangria. Throughout June, the Great Hall Balcony Bar will host a menu inspired by the exhibition Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World (on view through July 17), drawing on the cuisine of the ancient city of Pergamon (now known as Bergama, in present-day Turkey), and featuring light appetizers-perfect for sharing with friends while enjoying a drink.

Museum Members can enjoy priority service at the new Members Rooftop Bar located on the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, open every Friday and Saturday evening from 5 to 8 p.m., beginning June 10. The Members Rooftop Bar, open only to Museum members, will feature a selection of summer cocktails and offer unparalleled views of the New York City skyline.

Other MetFridays activities occurring at The Met Fifth Avenue on a more regular basis include concerts by string quartet ETHEL and Friends on the Balcony Bar, Museum Highlights tours, Drop-in Drawing sessions, and The Observant Eye, in which visitors spend time investigating and discussing a particular work of art.

Full schedule of public hours at The Met Fifth Avenue

MetFridays at The Met Cloisters

Visitors can experience the wonders of medieval European art, architecture, and gardens at The Met Cloisters until 7:30 p.m. on Fridays through Labor Day. The Met Cloisters overlooks the majestic Hudson River in northern Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park and derives its name from the portions of five medieval cloisters that have been incorporated into its overall structure.

On Friday, June 24, at 6 p.m., The Met Cloisters will host a tasting of French white wines of the Loire, a tradition in the region that can be traced to the Middle Ages, with Master Sommelier Pascaline Lepeltier, beverage director and partner at the soon-to-be-open Rouge Tomate Chelsea in New York. A tasting on Friday, August 26, at 6 p.m. will feature German white wines of the Mosel with importer Stephen Bitterolf, founder of vom Boden Fine Wines.

Jazz and Honey at The Met Cloisters will take place at 6 p.m. during the July 29 MetFridays. Trumpeter Alex Nguyen and his quartet will perform music from the 1930s, the decade when this jewel on the Hudson was designed, built, and opened to the public. Visitors will be able to taste the flavors of the summer season with a sampling of local honey and learn about the ancient practice of beekeeping.

The Trie Café at The Met Cloisters offers a thoughtful selection of wine and beer, chosen to complement the gardens and inspired by the Saint-Guilhem cloister. The heritage of all of the wine and beer selections can be traced to the medieval era.

Extended Summer Hours at The Met Cloisters are made possible by The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation.

Full schedule of public hours at The Met Cloisters

MetFridays at The Met Breuer

The Met Breuer extends The Metropolitan Museum of Art's modern and contemporary art program to the iconic building designed by Marcel Breuer on Madison Avenue at 75th Street in Manhattan. On every Friday throughout the year, The Met Breuer is open until 9 p.m.

Nasreen Mohamedi, one of the exhibitions that inaugurated The Met Breuer when it opened to the public on March 18, will remain on view only through Sunday, June 5. Visitors to The Met Breuer on Friday, June 3, will be able to take part in a special tour of the exhibition at 6:30 p.m. Space is limited to 25; first come, first served.

Exhibitions also on view at The Met Breuer this summer are: Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible(through September 4) and diane arbus: in the beginning (July 12-November 27, 2016).

For more information on these exhibitions, including sponsorship credits, please visit metmuseum.org/exhibitions.

Full schedule of public hours at The Met Breuer

About MetFridays

MetFridays programming is taking place at all three of the Museum's locations-The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Cloisters, and The Met Breuer-this summer. A listing of what's happening at The Met each Friday evening is available on the MetFridays webpage on the Museum website at www.metmuseum.org/metfridays.

MetFridays programming is also featured on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter via the hashtag #MetFridays.

About The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy. The Museum lives in three iconic sites in New York City-The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer, and The Met Cloisters. Millions of people also take part in The Met experience online.

Since it was founded in 1870, The Met has always aspired to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects. Every day, art comes alive in the Museum's galleries and through its exhibitions and events, revealing both new ideas and unexpected connections across time and across cultures.