I am a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The mornings are always as quiet as death. Moreover, on days when I arrive at work with about 30 minutes left before the museum opens, there is no one who will talk to me and drag me down into the world. It's just me and Rembrandt, me and Botticelli, and illusions so strong that I almost believe they are actually living people. If the Met's Old Masters exhibition was a village, it would have nearly 9 residents. (Years later, when I went through each exhibition hall and counted them all, the number was 8496 to be exact. A number that was no longer valid after the exhibition hall was greatly expanded. (This includes the cherubs in the background, the audience in the bullring, and even the ant-sized gondolier. If you're wondering how I could have counted them all, it's because I didn't realize how much time I had.) . The residents live in 596 paintings, which coincidentally were created with a brush almost as many years ago.
_From ‘The Comfort of Perfect Silence’

I no longer felt like going back to the office in the skyscraper where I had a promising job that I was lucky enough to get. I couldn't do the kind of work that required struggling, scraping, pushing, and clinging to move forward in the world. I lost someone. I didn't want to move any further from there. In a way, I didn't want to move at all. (omitted) Then a thought began to take shape in my head. For a long time I have been keeping an eye on the people who work at the great art museums in New York. These are not curators working in an invisible office, but security guards standing vigilantly at every corner. What would it be like to be one of them?
_From ‘Sometimes a great painting looks like a huge rock’

Bob is one of the very few people who knows the names of all 500-plus security guards. When we enter the office, he finds a tile with his name and his district affiliation and places it on a column on the bulletin board representing one of the museum's many administrative areas. Each area has a quota of people he wants to fill, but depending on how many special shifts are needed that day, he increases or decreases the number of people assigned to each area and closes some showrooms. “Bringley, Area A (Medieval)!” He soon shouts. Or “R (modern)!”, “K1 (Greece/Roman)!”, “F (Asia)!”, “I (19th century)!”, “G (America)!” Or he calls out another era, culture, or region. This morning is “Bring Lee H, Zone!”
_From ‘With Luxurious Detachment’

The Met employs more than 2 people, and it seems like many of them have found their feet today. Curators stand in the middle of the exhibition room and discuss which artifacts should be placed where. Technicians push carts loaded with artwork around without fear of bumping into anyone. Workers spend hours planning how to lift the statue with ropes and pulleys, under the supervision of conservators who look comfortable and confident in their skills. Everywhere you hear the beep, beep, beep of electric lifts driven by electricians, air conditioning technicians and painters (who use rollers rather than fine brushes). Some employees show up even on holidays to take advantage of the privilege of bringing a guest or two. While curators guide big donors and VIPs through the museum, security guards and cleaners give parents luxurious tours.
_From ‘A rare moment when each particle has meaning’

Although there is no set way for visitors to view an art museum, there are several representative types. As with all things, the more you watch people, the better. Determined to master this 'art', I learned how to pick out typical characters from the thousands of people I see every day. The first is the ‘tourist’ type. They are usually fathers who wear windbreakers from their local high school, have cameras around their necks, and are always looking for the most famous works. Although they have no special interest in art, they are not without an eye for seeing. In fact, I sometimes say this out loud while viewing the skills of the old masters exhibition hall. “Well, just by looking at the picture frame!”
_From ‘Artists Will Get Lost at the Met, Too’

“Hey Troy, how did you get into this?”
“I worked at an insurance company for 20 years.” he answers. “But one day, my boss asked me to take a job aptitude test. A test or something that shows which job suits each person best. Don't ask me why he did that. I thought about this while looking at the test results. The only thing I ever wanted to be was a rich person who personally supported the arts. this." He says as he pulls and straightens the lapels of the blue work uniform he is wearing. “It’s the closest to that dream.”
_From ‘Secret selves under the blue uniform’

Too many visitors think of the Met as an art history museum, trying to learn about art rather than learning from art. Also, too many people assume that there are experts who know all the answers, and that this is not a place for ordinary people to delve into the work and find meaning at their discretion. The more time I spend at the Met, the more I become convinced that its primary role is not as an art history museum. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's area of ​​interest touches on almost every aspect of what it feels like and what it means to live in the world between the sky-high and the worm-crawling tombs below. There can be no experts on such things. I believe that we only take art seriously when we try to understand closely what it reveals.
_Excerpted from ‘When trying to understand what art reveals’

How can a picture drawn by someone who was so dissatisfied be so beautiful? On the one hand, it is an inspired painting, but on the other hand, it is the product of infinite diligence. (omitted) Nothing is just drawn on paper. Every stroke is imbued with energy, ambition, and dedication to accomplish a difficult mission. It is clear that Michelangelo was the kind of person who would forget all his worries and devote all his energy to completing a given task, all he needed was a blank piece of paper, and would only complain bitterly after the work was finished. Is there a better way to accomplish a difficult task?
_From ‘Drawing the shape of a rainbow several times’

But it was not only the body of Jesus that Brother Angelico depicted. He imagined a crowd of onlookers gathered at the foot of the cross. A surprising variety of reactions and emotions appear on the faces of quite a few onlookers, including well-dressed people and people on horseback. (omitted) I think the part where people are crowded together properly expresses the chaos of everyday life. A daily life full of details, contradictory, sometimes boring and sometimes breathtakingly beautiful. No matter how important the moment is, no matter how sublime the underlying mystery, the complex world continues to turn without stopping. We have to live life, and life doesn't leave us alone.
_From ‘Life doesn’t leave us alone’