The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced last Friday, September 8, that Abraham Thomas will be the inaugural Daniel Brodsky Curator of Modern Architecture, Design, and Decorative Arts.

Thomas has been a curator at the Smithsonian Institution for the past four years, and before that, he was the director of Sir John Soane’s Museum and a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, United Kingdom.

Thomas’s position at the Met is new. As part of the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, Thomas will be involved with a variety of modern design at a range of scales. The position is named for Daniel Brodsky, an American real estate developer and art collector who is also the chairman of the board of the Met (and CEO of the eponymous Brodsky Organization).

The Met, which celebrated its 150th anniversary this year, has had a rough few months, like many other art institutions. The coronavirus pandemic has forced many to temporarily close, which has decimated ticket revenue. The Met reopened this summer, and Hector Zamora’s Lattice Detour installation is now on view on the museum’s roof.

Just this year, the museum’s Breuer-housed offshoot on Madison Avenue closed permanently. The institution has also been trying to address its Eurocentric approach with installations on its facade and exhibitions aimed at highlighting intercultural connections.