2020 marks the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s celebration of its 150th anniversary. Many of this year’s planned festivities have been unfortunately postponed or cancelled due to the global COVID-19 pandemic – but gamers can now celebrate by creating a mini-Met of their own in the vibrant tropical setting of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
The Met’s Open Access collection has made over 406,000 images available for viewing online. Now, due to a collaboration between the Met, the Getty, the Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM), and many art museums around the world, copying and importing these images into New Horizons is a simple process. With just a few clicks, you can create a gallery of classic pieces which will surely make Blathers the museum owl jealous.
First, browse the Museum’s online collection (or the collections of several other partner museums who have also participated in this project) to find the piece, or pieces, you wish to bring to your island. Then, look for the distinctive Animal Crossing leaf-shaped icon below the picture to access a QR code generator. From there, simply use the Nintendo Switch Online app to scan the code. It can be downloaded to your Animal Crossing island via the kiosk available in the Able Sisters clothing and design shop.
In addition, the code generator allows the image to be cropped to your desired size before importing it into Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This means that you can create anything from a small image to a giant mural which can cover an entire wall.
Celebrate five thousand years of classical art and 150 years of the Met with your very own island gallery today. Fill your living room with works by Van Gogh and Monet, tile your rooms with Greek- and Roman-inspired flooring, or decorate your garden with still life birds, flowers and more. The only limit is your own imagination!
Which classic pieces from the Met and other museums will you be adding to your Animal Crossing: New Horizons island? Let us know!
