The Metropolitan Museum of Art's American Wing—including The Charles Engelhard Court and the American period rooms—reopens on May 19, 2009. After more than two years of construction and renovation, the unparalleled collections of American furniture, sculpture, stained glass, architectural elements, ceramics, glass, silver, pewter, and jewelry will again be accessible to the public. Twelve of the Met's historic interiors have been renovated, reinterpreted, and now feature interactive computer touch screens offering information about the rooms and their furnishings. The opening of the galleries marks the completion of the second of three parts of a project to reconfigure, renovate, and upgrade every section of The American Wing by 2011.

Exploring the reciprocal relationship between high fashion and evolving ideals of beauty, "The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion" focuses on iconic models of the twentieth century and their roles in projecting, and sometimes inspiring, the fashion of their respective eras.

On view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art May 6 through August 9, 2009.

To celebrate Philippe de Montebellos years as director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museums Forum of Curators, Conservators, and Scientists organized an exhibition of approximately three hundred works of art—from a total of more than eighty-four thousand—that were acquired during his tenure.

The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions, was on view at the Met October 24, 2008 - February 1, 2009