Metropolitan+Museum

This page will guide you through a collaborative online project based on the Metropolitan Museum/The Cloisters in the Big Apple.

**Introduction**

 * The following activity is based on some exploratory activities created by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The complete list of activities is here: http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/index.asp All these exhibitions are current at the Met.
 * As you play the part of a student by following the activity directions below, no doubt you will be thinking how this type of activity could be modified for your own students.
 * You can make this research activity as //simple// or as //broad// as you like, depending upon the age or the students. This is done //**jigsaw**// style to encourage collaboration. That is, different students are assigned different tasks to report on.
 * After research is completed, all the students share their work and information, and then each student gathers the information he/she needs to compile his/her own //guided tour// or guidebook or research paper for the Metropolitan Museum.
 * The tour of the Met could be presented jigsaw style.
 * Some students can present their piece using a //PowerPoint// presentation. (All students participate by adding words, drawings, reading and using the clicker to present.)

**Exploration: The Unicorn Tapestries at The Cloisters**
The Cloisters, which is located in Washington Heights, is the branch of the Metropolitan Museum featuring the art and architecture of medieval Europe. It overlooks the Hudson River in northern Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park. The building incorporates elements from five medieval French cloisters into New York's own medieval monastery. The cloisters quadrangles are enclosed by a roofed or vaulted passageway, or arcade imported from monastic sites in southern France.

The Cloisters houses gardens planted according to horticultural information found in medieval treatises and poetry, garden documents and herbals, and medieval works of art, such as tapestries, stained-glass windows, and column capitals. Exhibitions comprise approximately five thousand works of art from medieval Europe, dating from about A.D. 800 with particular emphasis on the twelfth through fifteenth century. While there is a large collection of medieval art at the Metropolitan on Fifth Avenue, the focus at The Cloisters is on the Romanesque and Gothic periods.

Some of the most memorable works of art at The Cloisters are seven individual hangings known as "The Unicorn Tapestries." These are among the most beautiful and complex works of art from the late Middle Ages that survive today. Luxuriously woven in fine wool and silk with silver and gilded threads, the tapestries vividly depict scenes associated with a hunt for the elusive, magical unicorn.


 * Step 1**: Get to know more about the Unicorn Tapestries by starting at this page, http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Unicorn/unicorn_splash.htm, entering, and exploring the links.

[[image:2004-03-03-argent-unicorn.jpg width="163" height="135" align="left" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn"]]
The unicorn is one of the most famous symbols in medieval literature and art. Click on the image on the left to explore the "unicorn" entry in wikipedia ([|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn).] For more background, you can also visit Google to do a search to find out more about the unicorn and what this mysterious creature represented.


 * Step 2**: We have just been hired as part of a team of writers for The Cloisters. We have to prepare a script for a recorded tour guide focusing on symbolism in the Unicorn Tapestries. We have to be sure to include a brief description of The Unicorn Tapestries and the significance of the unicorn in medieval Europe. In our Unicorn Symbolism wiki page is an outline of the sections to cover in our script, (plus some question prompts in parentheses to help get started). Based on your explorations of the Metropolitan Museum website, please add some copy (text) to the outline on that page. If you see a section is blank, it might be particularly helpful to fill that part in. If you want to add or modify sections that have already been written, please feel free to do so. You can also insert additional images if you think it appropriate.