Social Change

These articles highlight art’s role in addressing social change.

Painting by Phillip Guston with a hand holding a canvas with a sunset on it against a grey background.

Philip Guston at The Met

Musa Guston Mayer reflects on her father's art and its legacy.
The artist Lauren Halsey in colorful clothing sitting before her Roof Garden Commission, a giant Egyptian-inspired temple.

Go behind the scenes with artist Lauren Halsey, who discusses the inspiration and making of The Met’s 2023 Roof Garden Commission.

Artist Dia-Azzawi on Arabic Calligraphy and Literature as Inspiration, 1960s Baghdad and Beirut, and the US Invasion of Iraq

Composer Shawn Okpebholo and Duke University professor Dr. Tsitsi Ella Jaji bring individual stories to life through song.

Learn more about John Blanke, a trumpeter who performed at the coronation of Henry VIII, and other documented free Black residents of Tudor England.

James Van Der Zee, the world-renowned chronicler of Black life in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance and for decades thereafter, was a virtuoso portraitist and one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century.

Artist Miguel Luciano and a woman wearing red pants carrying the Zemí Cohoba stand through the streets of El Barrio

Celebrate Taíno culture, the legacy of the Young Lords, and the El Barrio community with Miguel Luciano

Iron map of The Death of Socrates

The Death of Socrates: New Discoveries

Technical examination of Jacques Louis David’s masterpiece reveals that the refinements seen in the artist’s preparatory drawings didn’t end when he began painting—rather, they continued through all stages of its execution.

Listen to Charmaine A. Nelson's Keynote at The Met.

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