New York Magazine’s Alexandra Peers looks at the gala-circuit version of carpooling caused by the recessions:

“We’ll be having all the openings all close together,” he says. “It’s a response to the financial crises,” and to the costs of keeping the museum open in the evenings for the lush events. Five shows will open, for example, on September 22, mingling fans of the social-history photographs of Robert Frank with European-porcelain collectors and illuminated-manuscript buffs. In the past, under Philippe de Montebello’s reign as director, openings were more spread out.

And going forward, Campbell warns that “we may not be able to do quite as many of the very big loan shows.” A handful of the exhibitions at the museum this summer and fall focus on one masterpiece (a Vermeer, Milkmaid, will be on loan from the Netherlands), and two shows salute a single painting or sculpture attributed to Michelangelo (“We’re raining Michelangelos,” says Campbell, who just announced the museum’s schedule of about twenty shows through year-end).

Met Director: Smaller Art Shows, Fewer Parties, No More Biscuits (New York Magazine)