The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, housing the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Ancient Americas, opened its doors on May 31, 2025 after a 5-year, $70 million renovation. The new galleries feature over forty maps by Landscape Archive, including three animations made in collaboration with Motion Principles, five large static displays, and dozens of locator maps that add context and reference to the artifacts on display.

The Reimagined Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

“…the Met’s gloriously revamped Rockefeller Wing demonstrates that to most humans all over the world, art is an indispensable part of being alive.”

- Financial Times

“Go for the pure visual pleasure of the work there — believe me, it’ll have your eyes spinning — and go for the still unfolding histories it tells.”

- The New York Times

“The Met’s renovated Rockefeller Wing is a masterpiece.” - Art News

Animated Maps

Made in collaboration with Motion Principles

“In the days before the gallery’s reopening, [curator Laura Filloy Nadal] walked with EL PAÍS through the 43,000-square-foot area, filled with morning light. She and curator Joanne Pillsbury have been responsible for ensuring that the discoveries, data and knowledge fit into a coherent story and accurate map.

The direction of the journey is important. Flipping the map 180 degrees — which has been done on the gallery’s main screen — is necessary. The Americas are lying down. The map is so powerful that it’s necessary to point it out and ask why such a choice has been made. “It’s part of the narrative: you can see the world from any position you want to see it… and that’s precisely what allows us to understand it,” Filloy Nadal replies.

The animated map represents the movement of the first settlers. On the screen, the arrows don’t go from north to south, but from left to right, transforming according to the social and political systems — borders, kingdoms, countries — that have been agreed upon in the history of human decisions, almost all mediated by force and tragedy.”

-El País

Featuring “Spherical Oceania” by Sean W. Connelly