GAME CHANGERS OF THE MET GALA

Thomas Hoving, Eleanor Lambert, Diana Vreeland... you recognize them? It all glamorous started when Thomas Hoving was the Met's director. Well... The appointment of Hoving as the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is shown as the most obvious example of the transition to the audience-centered museum. Hoving's view of the museum as a place of mass entertainment made The Met one of the most arrogant and commercial museums of its time during his tenure between 1967 and 1977. He has often stated that instead of thinking about the exhibitions he has chosen, he focuses on the sensation and interest they will bring as a result. The important thing for him was to be flamboyant, to be remarkable and to create a bombshell. That's what happened. It was quite important to him that the display of works of art was a show, as he wanted to exhibit them in galleries with bright fabrics, bright colors (turquoises, reds, purples...) and giant banners with gold inscriptions also was applied in his first major exhibition project, "In The Presence of King". 
Cover Photograph: metmuseum.org

Hoving made a suitable move because he was not like a museum director but a store manager or a fashion magazine editor-in-chief, this move is perhaps one of the most important breaking points that affected the fate of The Met: the appointment of Diana Vreeland to The Met. Moreover, right after she left her position as editor-in-chief for Vogue. In 1971 she left Vogue and signed on at the Met and in 1972 Diana Vreeland joined the team as the special consultant at the Met for the Costume Institute. As it can be understood from here, she was the legendary editor of American Vogue and Harper's Bazaar magazines at that time. Thomas Hoving succeeded in making The Met an element of populism by throwing all academic and educational purposes into the background. According to him, as long as The Met was the richest, most iconic museum in the world, other issues (some issues involving the name of the museum, such as dubious divestitures, collection acquisitions, smuggling ...) did not matter, and he remained silent about the allegations. 

So what did Hoving's "Vreeland Appointment" show to the art metropolis?
*He was carrying Culture-Art-Fashion-Design Lobbying in one hand.*
Photograph: Thomas Hoving & Diana Vreeland

This appointment was also a symbol of his success in establishing the Met Gala as a place open to their shows and glitz, among Manhattan high society, famous designers, actors, models, business people and more. We can say that he rewrote the rules of the game in Museology, taking the power of the press and the fashion world behind him. However, The Met Gala existed before Vreeland, and was one of many other fundraisers held at venues "outside the museum". In 1948, The Met Gala was established by fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert as a fundraiser for the newly founded Costume Institute. The first gala was a dinner and tickets were fifty dollars each. From 1948 to 1971, the event was held at venues including the Waldorf Astoria, Central Park, and the Rainbow Room. During the Vreeland era, the event was held for the first time in the museum. In fact, even this situation underlines many details. The Thomas Hoving era at The Met was viewed by prominent museologists and scholars as "a case of violating curatorial principles for the sake of personal gain." As museologists, of course, when evaluating a situation, we do not only focus on the visible or the number of followers by reputation. Sorry not sorry. 

Debora Silverman wonderfully describes this system of values ​​in her book: "Opulent objects offered for cultural consumption through an appeal to snobbery, with cool disregard for historical meanings." (Must read: Debora Silverman, Selling Culture: Bloomingdale's, Diana Vreeland, and the New Aristocracy of Taste in Reagan's America, 1986)

The language of Thomas Hoving's autobiography was widely criticized because he does not apologize for any results he has done or created, and because his high ego is reflected in his language. (Making the Mummies Dance: Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994, by Thomas Hoving)
He considered Diane Vreeland appointment "the best curator Metropolitan has ever had". Since then, the focus has been on finding a middle ground between curatorial approaches, education and entertainment. Although Thomas Hoving is seen as the initiator of this series, he will not be the first nor the last museum director to lobbying art and culture.

We would like to give a short anecdote at this point. Although the issue of partnerships of New York museums was frequently brought up, the idea of ​​exchange or exchange failed to yield results due to strong expectations and desire for ownership. An agreement was signed in 1948 between the three major museums of New York, MoMA, Whitney Museum and The Met. According to this agreement, the three museums were on their way to acquiring some works, including key pieces in their museum collections, in order not to cause repetitions among themselves, but the agreement was shelved without ever being implemented. The main reason for this was the "power-trip paranoia" in the art market rather than professional ethics due to the reciprocal promises and expectations. 

Those who are curious about the details on this subject, please read:

-Alfred H. Barr, Jr. : Missionary for the modern, 1989, by Alice Goldfarb Marquis.

-The Curator's Egg: The Evolution of the Museum Concept from the French Revolution to the Present Day, 2009, Karsten Schubert.

What has changed now?

Or has anything changed? When we think about the functioning and mentality of the museum... What do you think? 

(Photograph: L7-Librairie 7 (IG: @librairie7l)
Anyway, the Met Gala's 2023 theme has been revealed: "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty." Fashion and design surveys have already started, such as "Which Karl Lagerfeld design would you prefer at The Met Gala?" 

How to Do PR: IG 101
And this one did not escape our attention: On September 30, The Met Gala theme was announced, the bookshop known as Librairie 7L, founded by Karl Lagerfeld in 1999, and the Instagram (IG) account of Librairie 7L was opened and activated on September 25. We are sure that we will see a growth in parallel with the exhibition and the theme, since the Met Museum has followed the IG account, which has few followers at the moment. Karl Lagerfeld described L7 this way: "I love this place so much that it is part of me." The official page of the bookstore also reveals that it adopts a parallel perspective with the Met Museum: "The 7L Bookshop, founded in 1999 by Karl Lagerfeld, is dedicated to novelties in the field of visual arts (photography, architecture, design, fashion)."  Let's not overlook the importance of its strategic location: "The 7L library stand for 7, rue de Lille, in the 7th arrondissement of Paris not far from Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the Louvre museum, the Orsay museum."

As for the details of the exhibition, “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” the exhibition will showcase about 150 outfits, most accompanied by sketches. His designs for Balmain, Patou, Chloé, Fendi, Chanel and his eponymous label will be represented. The display will take over the museum’s Tisch Gallery from May 5 through July 16, 2023, with the Met Gala to celebrate its fashion exhibition, scheduled for May 1.

Influencers are the new celebrities
You know, the trend is not for celebrities to appear on the red carpet anymore. But inviting influencers and being seen there. Let's remember... Lena Situations was invited to the Met Gala in 2022, and she tried to explain to her audience what the Met Gala is in her vlog. To her almost 3 million subscribers on Youtube, so... The period of advertising in the magazine under Thomas Hoving is over. Although some museums have a hard time accepting this...

Photographs via Lena Situations' vlog "MET GALA" 

As they say, "the result is important, not the process."
(But as museologists... not for us.)