I recently saw “The First Monday in May”, a documentary about the creation of both the Metropolitan Museum’s spring 2015 costume exhibit , “China: Through The Looking Glass,” and the gala, held on the first Monday in May, that celebrated its opening.
The film opens with a shot of a woman in a white lab coat (who I assume to be a member of the Costume Institute’s conservation department) rolling a cart piled with costume storage boxes down the back corridors of the museum. There are many shots of conservation staff removing pieces from boxes, dressing mannequins, and even repairing pieces.
Almost every museum department involved in the exhibit and the party is mentioned by name and its head interviewed. Among the missing: conservation. The women and men who prepared the objects for display are at least as important as the florists. Why don’t the film makers think that conservators count?