A Guarded Secret
met security personnel is a great untapped resource
Many assume that museum guards don’t know too much about the priceless artwork that surrounds them—that a substantive question may either bother or embarrass them, exposing their lack of knowledge. “I wouldn’t ask a museum guard a question about artwork,” Avi Allison, CC ’11, says.
But at the Metropolitan Museum of Art—to say nothing of other art establishments—that assumption is simply not true. Certainly, security guards almost always direct you to the correct floor, the correct gallery. But more often than not, guards’ knowledge of artwork extends far beyond the floor plan. The guards’ familiarity with the artists on view also has to do with the fact that many of them were extensively educated in visual art and art history before donning the Met uniform. Many even have bachelor’s degrees in these subjects.
If the Met’s employee art show last September, which featured artwork from an estimated 200 to 250 employees, is any indication, the Metropolitan is home to many more artists than those whose paintings grace its walls. “It’s quite impressive ... a lot of really wonderful artwork comes out of this place,” says Owen Weber, a guard and aspiring illustrator who has been working for the Met for almost two years. Weber reported that last year’s show was held in the spacious galleries currently occupied by the “Jasper Johns: Grey” exhibition.
Although the employee art show is not open to the public, museum employees are able to view the artwork produced by their coworkers every two years. “I would say most young guards are artists or are somehow involved in the arts,” says Natalie J. Williamson, a security guard who has worked at the Met for nine months and will be attending Teacher’s College to study art education in the fall.
Williamson is not the only Met employee to attend Columbia. The Met has a special partnership with Alma Mater. According to several guards and an information desk employee, the museum will pay the full Columbia tuition for any guard who earns acceptance to the university and has been working at the Met full time for a year or longer. The museum will also reimburse any employee for tuition for any class (at any educational establishment) in which he or she receives a grade above a B, the information desk employee says.
Williamson, who obtained an undergraduate degree in painting from New York School of Visual Arts and still receives “the occasional commission,” is herself attending Teacher’s College on the Met’s dime. The source of these funds remain unclear, however, as the Senior Coordinator for Administration says that the Met has a long-standing policy of not commenting on matters related to its Security Department or guards. Nonetheless, Williamson reported that several other currently employed security guards will be attending Columbia next fall.
Weber, the son of a drawing teacher, graduated from the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford with a BFA in illustration and a minor in art history. Like many guards, Weber’s interest in art came long before an interest in museum security. Weber explained that he and two other illustration majors wanted to move to New York after graduation. “As we were looking for apartments, we noticed that the Met was hiring. We applied and actually got the job before we got an apartment,” Weber says. Did they have any guard experience? “Not officially ... It’s pretty laid back. It’s easy to pick up.”
Weber’s dream is to become a book illustrator, and his artwork does indeed look as if it belongs on the cover of a science fiction novel. Creamy oil paint compositions depict an alien sending electric shocks straight into the roots of a tree and a hunchbacked giant walking through a barren landscape with the whole of New York springing from his back. More realistic paintings are characterized by delicate light effects reminiscent of artwork from a much older era—the soft, sepia lighting of Renaissance paintings illuminates many of Weber’s compositions.
Although they have to answer some inane questions—“Everybody’s asking for the Mona Lisa, a lot of people ask for the dinosaurs,” Weber says—Met employees are able to spend their days in a pantheon of artistic genius. Weber explains that working in one of the world’s premier museums and spending his days among the work of the Met’s Renaissance masters has had a large effect on his work. “I’m constantly around all this magnificent art,” he says. “I’m constantly inspired.”