Romina Williams is living her dream. The New Yorker of Argentine origin is the first at the New York Metropolitan Museum to offer guided tours in Spanish, the only one when she started.
“I feel like it’s a totally different experience than what one studied or what one can read about seeing the colors of antiquity personally and seeing the shapes of antiquity personally,” Williams says.
She says she loves working with children.
“When a father brings his children to the museum, I think he is giving them a key that not everyone has. That key that opens your sight to something that is totally different and that makes you, as little ones, want to have other opportunities in the future”, adds this art historian and Guide, Metropolitan Museum of New York.
We followed her closely as she opened the doors of the museum to a group of students from Malaga, Spain.
“Very interesting!” exclaims a student.
Spanish students visiting the MET
For decades and even after the pandemic, Williams identified a void for Spanish-speaking visitors to one of the city’s most iconic cultural institutions. This is how Romina Williams explains it to us
“They had nothing inside the museum: they had no maps, there were no audio guides and I felt that this was my opportunity to help others discover what I love about the MET.”
The expert assures that New York families who have not visited the museum miss out on a unique opportunity to explore the world and their own roots.
“It is a way of traversing civilizations through time. There are art collections that are current, that are contemporary; So, they generate something in the heart, how to say: my country or my nationality are also present in this museum, which is one of the three best in the world”, he says.
Though familiar with the 2.2 million square feet and more than 2 million works in the museum’s permanent collection alone, Williams says there’s always something new to discover at the MET.
“The MET never bores me. When I have a moment to relax, I go to a gallery and see how the tones pass and change according to the time, if the sun goes down or the sun rises”, she maintains.
Romina Williams at the Met
The experience of the collections of masterpieces in Spanish is invaluable, shared by visitors like the group that traveled from Malaga.
“It is greatly enriched if we have a possibility that there is an expert person who will tell you all kinds of curiosities,” says Professor Patricia Santos Campos.
Williams recommends wearing comfortable shoes to walk around the museum, drink water and come without a pre-established time limit, to let yourself be conquered by the magic of the MET.
