| |  | | Birding Tour of The Met Cloisters and Fort Tryon Park | Saturday, April 11, 11 am–1 pm
Meet in Gallery 1, Romanesque Hall
The site of The Met Cloisters is one of the highest natural points in Manhattan and a vital habitat for varied species of birds. Inspired by the birds depicted in artworks at The Met Cloisters, join naturalist Gabriel Willow on a birding tour through scenic viewpoints within the Museum and through Fort Tryon Park.
Fee: $40. We encourage you to bring your own binoculars, but can provide upon request. Note: Space is limited; advance registration is required. Registration closes Thursday, April 9, 2026, 11:59 pm (ET), or when registration is full.
Register now → |  | | The Met Cloisters Plant Sale | Saturday, April 18, 10 am–3 pm
Cloisters Lawn
Meet The Met Cloisters gardeners who will help you select a medieval garden-inspired plant for your outdoor garden, lovingly cultivated on-site in The Met Cloisters greenhouse. Then, create garden art of your very own to take home.
Additional plants and seeds are available for purchase from our partners Hudson Valley Seed Company and Well-Sweep Herb Farm.
Free. Plants are available to purchase while supplies last.
Learn more → |  | | Earth Day Talk at The Met Cloisters—Where the Wild Folk Are: Imagining Nature in the Medieval World | Saturday, April 18, 2–3 pm
Gallery 2, Fuentidueña Chapel
Observe Earth Day with a talk about finding inspiration in the natural world. A magnificent tapestry depicting lush vegetation, fantastical animals, and a band of wild people serves as a point of departure for thinking about the relationship of nature and human imagination through art. Join MFA, Boston curator Elizabeth Dospěl Williams in conversation with Met curator Shirin Fozi to reflect on these enduring themes in the medieval world and today.
Presented in observance of Earth Day.
Free with Museum admission, though advance registration is recommended. Note: Space is limited; first come, first served.
Register now → |  | | Garden Tour | | GUIDED TOURS | Daily starting Saturday, April 11
11 am–12 pm | | |  | | | | | | | | | | |  |  | | Creatures of Myth and Imagination: Europe and the Americas | | UPCOMING | May 18–October 18, 2026
Gallery 001, Gallery 010, and Gallery 016, The Met Cloisters
For as long as humans have told stories, we've imagined creatures that transcend the natural world. Fantastical beings combining the features of animals, humans, and even plants appear across cultures, emerging in the most ancient myths and enduring in contemporary epics. The widespread presence of these supernatural beings, possessing the power to transform and be transformed, reflects a global impulse to make sense of both known and unknown worlds. Visual artists have given form to these imaginary creatures, resulting in some of the most fearsome, beloved, and extraordinary works of art ever made.
Set in the evocative atmosphere of The Met Cloisters, Creatures of Myth and Imagination: Europe and the Americas sheds light on a selection of works created on either side of the Atlantic Ocean between 500 and 1500 CE. The exhibition's exploration of hybrid creatures deepens our understanding of their apparent necessity among diverse peoples. In the Americas, a complex gold pendant by a Tairona artist of northern Colombia, depicting a confrontational figure with hands on hips, a crocodile-like head, and an enormous headdress, would have reflected and expressed the wearer's status and power. In Europe, ferocious dragons such as the one depicted on a monumental fresco from the monastery of San Pedro de Arlanza, Spain, took center stage to convey a multiplicity of meanings both sacred and profane.
With these and over 50 other objects, including sculpture, ceramics, ivories, textiles, paintings, and metalwork, Creatures of Myth and Imagination looks beyond a specific story, time, and place to explore larger questions about who we are and what connects us.
Learn more → | | | | Accessibility at The Met
The Met is committed to accessibility for all. For information about accessibility, programs, and services for people with disabilities at both Met sites, visit metmuseum.org/access. To request an access accommodation for virtual programs or online resources, email [email protected], or call 212-650-2010. For information about accessibility on our website, see our Website Accessibility Statement. | Events take place at The Met Cloisters unless otherwise noted.
Creatures of Myth and Imagination: Europe and the Americas is made possible by the Michel David-Weill Fund.
Public programs at The Met Cloisters are made possible in part by The Helen Clay Frick Foundation.
For Education program funders, visit metmuseum.org/educationfundingsupport.
Your support allows the Museum to collect, conserve, and present 5,000 years of world art. Donate now.
Images: Exterior view of The Met Cloisters from Fort Tryon Park © The Metropolitan Museum of Art | The Met Cloisters Plant Sale photo by Christina Westpheling | Tapestry: Wild Men and Moors. German (probably Strasbourg, Alsace), about 1440. Linen and wool slit tapestry. 100 x 490 cm (39 3/8 x 192 15/16 in.) Charles Potter Kling Fund, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 54.1431 | Lorenz Lechler, German, born ca. 1460–ca. 1538; Unidentified Central European artist, active first decade sixteenth century, Design for a Monumental Sacrament House. Pen and two types of ink (carbon black and iron gall) over blind ruling, 17th-century inscription in pen and ink, on parchment, 10 ft. 7 in. × 14 3/8 in. (322.6 × 36.5 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, The Cloisters Collection, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, and Harry G. Sperling Fund, 2022 (2022.256) | Tairona artist(s), Figure Pendant, Colombia, 900–1600 CE. Gold. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Jan Mitchell and Sons Collection, Gift of Jan Mitchell, 1991 (1991.419.31) | All other photos by Filip Wolak | | | |
