Metropolitan Museum of Art opens Tiffany show on 22 October

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City will open Designing the Gilded Age: Drawings from the Studios of Louis C. Tiffany on 22 October 2026. The exhibition is at the museum's Fifth Avenue site, where the drawings reveal how designs for stained glass, lamps, mosaics and interiors developed from initial studies.

Designing the Gilded Age opens at the Fifth Avenue museum

The exhibition runs from 22 October 2026 to 7 February 2027 in Galleries 691-693. The museum says it brings together nearly 120 watercolor drawings from its collection, alongside stained-glass windows, mosaics, enamelwork and examples of studio lamps.

The works relate to commissions made from the mid-1880s through the 1920s in the United States and internationally. They include designs for grand houses, civic buildings, sacred spaces and other interiors. The exhibition page describes the drawings as the first stage in a collaborative process involving artists working in Louis Comfort Tiffany's studios.

The exhibition dates and galleries are set out in the museum's exhibition details. A separate museum announcement says the show examines the creative process behind Tiffany Studios' decorative works.

Tiffany drawings connect studio work with finished objects

The drawings are presented beside selected finished works, making the relationship between planning and production part of the exhibition's structure. Several studies document projects that were later lost, damaged or destroyed, while others show proposals that were never realised.

This focus places a particular part of the museum's collection at the centre of the October opening. The museum was founded in 1870 and presents more than 5,000 years of art across its sites in New York City. Within that wider setting, the Tiffany exhibition concentrates on a modern American design workshop and the people who contributed to its output.

The exhibition also follows a conservation effort lasting several decades. The museum says the drawings have not previously been studied in depth, so the opening brings together both the objects and research into the artists' methods and sources of inspiration.

November drawing session adds a practical programme item

The exhibition page lists Drop-in Drawing - Tiffany Windows for 6 November 2026 at 6pm at the Fifth Avenue site. The session links a public activity to the same stained-glass subject that runs through the exhibition.

Members have an additional access arrangement from Sunday, 25 October 2026. They can view the exhibition from 9am to 10am on selected Sunday mornings before the museum opens to the public.

Visiting Metropolitan Museum of Art: what travellers from Western Europe should know

• Designing the Gilded Age runs from 22 October 2026 to 7 February 2027 in Galleries 691-693 at the Fifth Avenue site.
• The exhibition is part of the museum visit, and the public programme lists Drop-in Drawing - Tiffany Windows at 6pm on 6 November 2026.
• The Fifth Avenue address is 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028. The museum also operates The Met Cloisters at 99 Margaret Corbin Drive, but the Tiffany exhibition is at Fifth Avenue.
• Visitors will encounter drawings, stained glass, mosaics, enamelwork and lamps, with the drawings explaining the development of designs for interiors and buildings.
• Entry requirements depend on your nationality; UK travellers can check the FCDO travel advice at gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice, Irish travellers the Department of Foreign Affairs at ireland.ie.

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Frequently asked questions about Metropolitan Museum of Art

When does Designing the Gilded Age take place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art?

The exhibition opens on 22 October 2026 and runs until 7 February 2027 at the Fifth Avenue site.

What is Designing the Gilded Age at the Metropolitan Museum of Art?

It is an exhibition of nearly 120 drawings connected with Louis Comfort Tiffany's studios, displayed with selected finished decorative works.

Where is the Metropolitan Museum of Art and how do you get there?

The exhibition is at 1000 Fifth Avenue in New York, NY 10028, at the museum's Fifth Avenue site.