A lot goes down on the steps of The Met.
In “Gossip Girl,” it was where Blair Waldorf reigned supreme at the top of Upper East Side high school social hierarchy, eating small spoonfuls of yogurt at lunchtime while surrounded by her subordinate friends. Everybody knows Blair rules the steps. Blair’s got power, privilege. And the steps of The Met are the ultimate status symbol.
“They were filming it here,” said Calica, a 15-year-old “Gossip Girl” devotee who goes to school in Queens, “so it was my dream to see it.”
Calica was part of a group of girls on a school trip, all of them entering the museum quivering with excitement. They had never been to The Met before.
“I’ve always wanted to go,” Calica said.
Sketching.
More than 3,000 teenagers flooded the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Friday for "Teens Take The Met!," an annual free teen night.
Flocks of giggling girls roamed the marble hallways. Locks of pink hair stood out in the Great Hall among the regular, adult visitors who made for an overwhelming minority.
The night kicked off on the steps with a performance by the Bard High School Early College Panthers step group. They danced, stepped and clapped, starting the evening on a high.
In the crowd, Siera and Katelyn wore Bronx High School hoodies.
“I’m going to stand right where Beyoncé stood,” Sierra said, pointing to where, just last week, the red carpet of the Met Gala was rolled out. She, too, had never been to the Met before.
“I just want to go inside, see cool things,” she said.
While she was at it, she took a photo or two of some art.
“It’s really aesthetic.”
There were more than 75 activities spread across the entire museum, including a pop-up podcast in the Great Hall. Attendees could also make jewelry in the Asia Wing or try on underpinnings from the Costume Institute on the balcony.
There was a DJ, jazz performances and virtual reality. People could sketch Oceanian art, decorate tote bags or customize picture frames.
“It was a lot to take in,” said a 13-year-old taking off her VR-glasses.
But the real showstopper, the ultimate crowd pleaser, was the silent disco at the Temple of Dendur, the Egyptian temple built in 15 B.C. to honor the goddess Iris.
In rounds of 30 minutes, teens took to the floor of the temple with a pair of headphones to honor their own gods, Justin Bieber and Bad Bunny.
But this disco was actually not all that silent.
The sound of the group singing along to “Beauty and a Beat” could be heard from far outside the temple — perhaps even downtown at the Whitney Biennial.
The silent disco in the Temple of Dendur.
From just outside the temple, an Italian New Yorker named Federico was looking at the scene with a mix of amusement and amazement.
“This was a surprise,” he said.
His mother had recommended he go see the Raphael exhibition and considered Friday night as good a time as any.
“I usually like this area because it’s very quiet and peaceful,” Federico said. “But I think it’s amazing.”
He paused, looked at the teens, adding, "It’s so much safer than whatever I used to do at their age.”
The step dancers who opened the night were among those dancing, as were the girls from the Bronx High School.
Also in the crowd were Sophia and Aria, two 15-year-olds who go to school together on the Upper East Side. For them, the silent disco was the most fun activity on offer.
“We left to check out the exhibits and then we came back,” Sophia said. “We were like, 'Oh this is fun, let’s do it for another half an hour.'”
Those seeking a little more silence found another wing. Looking wistfully into a room of the Palais Paar in Vienna was 17-year-old Simone, whose friend Wyatt was somewhere roaming around another area.
“We’re teens, so this is cheaper than like the Met Gala, ‘cause not everybody is invited,” Simone said.
She was particularly amazed by the glass collection she saw.
“I love sea glass, that’s my crazy hobby,” she said. “I’m not an art person, you know what I mean? I’m not like Michelangelo or Da Vinci. I’m not one of those people.”
The sweeping staircase leading to the Great Hall lit up in every color of the rainbow. Girls were taking photos of one another on them. At the top of the stairs, teens could spin a wheel of artworks in the area to hunt down and write a caption for — not unlike an Instagram caption.
They returned to the stand with their caption written down, and after the event, Writopia sent all the captions to the teens in a digital zine.
The one-liners have been trickling in. One at the top of the pile read, "He just like me fr."
It’s giving art. Everywhere, there were teens dabbling in conservation in the presence of priceless artifacts. In the basement, the Uris Center for Education had been turned into a snack room.
Sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, were Jonella and Angel, who were munching on chocolate chip cookies. The two had been on a mission.
“We basically went around the whole building looking for the photo booth,” Jonella said.
They had plastic flowers in their hair and big spiky rings on their fingers, which they collected at one of the stands.
“We were talking about that mostly,” Jonella said.
Up next, they’ll probably make a tote bag, they said.
“I think I’m gonna write her initial,” Angel said, prompting Jonella to start scrolling on her phone, her cheeks blushing.
“We’ve been together for four months,” Angel said.
“Almost five,” Jonella chimed in. “That’s a long time for middle schoolers, you know?”
The night ended with the Susan E. Wagner High School Marching Band, playing Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” on the steps.
A crowd of wanderers gathered among the teens, dancing to the drums and trombones. The funk had filled Fifth Avenue with yellow taxis racing by and the street vendors selling hot dogs, sending the teenagers back home.
