The Met is open until 9:00 pm on Friday and Saturday nights – although the guards do tend to get a bit antsy about 8:45.
One time there was a cloud burst at closing so visitors were
hanging out in the lobby waiting for it to end, when the supervisor told the
guards that they could all leave.
There’s a great book about being a guard at the Met –
available here…
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JPKNG9X?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback
Friday and Saturday nights are a great time to visit the most
popular exhibits because it does tend to be a bit quieter.
Hence, I was actually photographing the Raphael exhibit
before it closed, when I decided to check out the Giacometti exhibit which had
just opened before I called it a night.
I am so glad that I did.
I lucked out and was gifted with a beautiful sunset,
which made the temple glow.
So beautiful.
The exhibit runs through September 8th, so there’s
still time to check it out – preferably at dusk. 😉
When I decided to get back into art in 2001, I began by going
to the Met every Friday night and sketching the Temple from various
angles. Here’s a blog about it…
https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2017/04/drawings-temple-of-dendur-metropolitan.html
Cheers!
PJ
© 2026 PJ Lehrer
