The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Vacheron Constantin unveiled works created through their new Artisan Residency Programme. The Swiss luxury watchmaker launched the 18-month program with the Met in May 2025, marking its third such partnership after collaborations with the Louvre since 2019 and the Palace Museum in Beijing established in 2024.
The program aims to preserve and reinterpret traditional craft techniques. Three artists, Aspen Golann, Ibrahim Said, and Joy Harvey, spent time at both the Met and the Vacheron Constantin Manufacture in Geneva before creating their works.
Golann produced a wooden vessel titled Vessel adorned with bas relief nature motifs. She drew inspiration from 17th to 19th century wooden chests from Connecticut and Pennsylvania in the Met's collection and worked with Manufacture artisans on enameling and engraving techniques.
Said created Shaping Time, a three-tiered vertical sculpture with relief carvings, piercings, and glazed surfaces informed by ancient Egyptian and Islamic objects in the Met's collection. He studied enameling, engraving, and lacquer painting at the Manufacture.
Harvey's Ruined Splendour is a bronze diadem composed of forged rhomboid bronze interlaced with panels inspired by ancient Greek necklaces from the Met's collection. She learned guillochage, a technique for engraving intricate patterns onto metal, at the Manufacture.
Met CEO Max Hollein described the program as "a collaborative initiative that embodies our mutual commitment to supporting artistic innovation and cultural dialogue."