New York City

This March, the newly installed Annie Laurie Aitken Galleries and Josephine Mercy Heathcote Gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art will open with 11,000 square feet devoted to British decorative arts, design, and sculpture created between 1500 and 1900.

The reimagined suite of 10 galleries (including three remarkable 18^th-century historic interiors) will provide a fresh perspective on the period, focusing on its bold, entrepreneurial spirit and complex history. During this period, the growth of the British Empire and global trade fueled innovation, exploitation, and industry.

Works on view, including a large number of new acquisitions purchased for this project, will demonstrate the emergence of a new middle class, which inspired an age of exceptional creativity and invention during a time of harsh colonialism.

Associate Curator Wolf Burchard will guide Royal Oak members through the new installation and examine some of the almost 700 works of art on display, including a wide array of furniture, ceramics, silver, tapestries, and other textiles from the Tudor, Stuart, Georgian, and Victorian eras.