Earlier this month at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, an extraordinary showcase of craftsmanship and cross-cultural dialogue was brought to light. The three exceptionally talented artists chosen for the inaugural Artisan Residency Programme—a unique and ambitious collaboration between the world-renowned museum and the prestigious Swiss luxury watch company Vacheron Constantin—finally unveiled the physical embodiment of their months of intensive research, creation, and collaboration. The unveiling event marked a major milestone for the ongoing partnership, offering art lovers, horology enthusiasts, and cultural historians a rare glimpse into how contemporary makers interpret historical techniques through a modern lens.
The high-end Swiss watchmaker officially launched this immersive 18-month residency program alongside the Met in May 2025. This prestigious initiative represents the third major cultural partnership of its kind for the luxury brand, further cementing its deep-seated commitment to the preservation, education, and celebration of fine arts and heritage craftsmanship. Vacheron Constantin’s dedication to historical art forms is well-documented through its previously established partnerships, which include a landmark collaboration with the Louvre in Paris that began in 2019, as well as a significant cultural alliance with the Palace Museum in Beijing, which was officially established in 2024. Through these high-profile institutional relationships, the watchmaker continuously seeks to bridge the gap between centuries-old decorative arts and cutting-edge contemporary design.
The overarching mission of the Artisan Residency Programme is purposefully designed to pass on, preserve, and reinterpret traditional craft techniques that might otherwise fade from contemporary relevance. As part of this comprehensive program, the selected artists were given an unprecedented level of access, spending considerable time immersed in the vast archives and galleries of the Met in New York, followed by intensive residencies at the historic Vacheron Constantin Manufacture in Geneva, Switzerland. These dual experiences served as the primary launching points and conceptual foundations for the original works they would go on to produce. The three visionary artists selected for this pioneering cohort were Aspen Golann, Ibrahim Said, and Joy Harvey, each bringing a distinct medium, artistic background, and unique perspective to the table.
The Intersection of American Woodworking and Swiss Horology
For the residency, Aspen Golann produced a truly monumental wooden vessel adorned with delicate nature motifs carved in deep bas-relief. For this striking piece, Golann drew direct inspiration from a series of historic wooden chests dating from the 17th to the 19th century originating from Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Those historical works, alongside other similar objects housed within the Met’s permanent collection, exemplified a distinct neoclassical New England style that heavily informed the aesthetic and structural choices of her new creation, appropriately titled Vessel.
The creative journey for Golann was not confined to American furniture history alone. During her immersive time at the Vacheron Constantin Manufacture in Geneva, Golann worked closely alongside master craftspeople, engaging in hands-on collaborations that allowed her to explore fine enameling and intricate engraving techniques. This direct exposure to the meticulous world of high-end watchmaking fundamentally influenced how she approached surface decoration and precision on a grander, sculptural scale. The resulting work stands as a testament to the seamless dialogue that can occur when traditional woodworking meets the ultra-refined decorative arts of the Swiss watchmaking atelier.
Exploring Time, Form, and Ancient Traditions
Ibrahim Said approached the residency with a focus on monumental verticality and architectural rhythm. His newly unveiled piece, titled Shaping Time, is a striking three-tiered vertical sculpture. The sculpture is elaborately adorned by delicate relief carvings, precise structural piercings, and luminous glazed surfaces. To develop this complex visual language, Said drew deeply upon ancient Egyptian and Islamic objects carefully selected from the Met’s world-class collection. The historical echoes of ancient craftsmanship resonate strongly throughout the structure, creating a visual bridge between ancient civilizations and contemporary sculptural expression.
Much like her fellow resident, Said also spent dedicated time embedded within the Vacheron Constantin Manufacture. There, he collaborated directly with the brand’s resident artisans, expanding his technical repertoire by working extensively with enameling, intricate engraving, and traditional lacquer painting. These sophisticated surface treatments are clearly visible in Shaping Time, where the interplay of light, shadow, texture, and color reflects the rigorous technical standards of Swiss luxury craftsmanship combined with the rich heritage of Islamic and ancient Egyptian design principles. The resulting sculpture challenges viewers to rethink how time and history can be physically embodied in three-dimensional space.
Reinterpreting Ancient Jewelry Through Modern Metallurgy
Joy Harvey chose to explore the intimate world of ancient adornment, translating her research into a breathtaking piece of wearable art titled Ruined splendour. The resulting work is a complex bronze diadem composed of forged rhomboid bronze elements interlaced with delicate panels. The design of these panels was directly inspired by the fine filigree work seen on ancient Greek necklaces preserved in museum archives.
To achieve the evocative narrative of the piece, Harvey subjected the finished metalwork to a deliberate process of alteration, piercing it with structural rods in order to visually create its striking concept of "ruination." In developing Ruined splendour, Harvey drew upon a diverse array of ancient jewelry from the Met collection originating from Greece, India, and China, synthesizing these disparate cultural threads into a unified modern statement. Following her extensive research in New York, Harvey traveled to the Vacheron Constantin Manufacture in Geneva, where she immersed herself in learning guillochage—a highly specialized, traditional technique used for engraving intricate, repetitive geometric patterns, such as leaves and flowers, directly onto metal surfaces. The mastery of this technique allowed her to infuse the bronze diadem with a level of textural nuance and historical reverence that defines the very core of the residency program.
A Shared Commitment to Cultural Innovation
The successful culmination of the program and the subsequent unveiling of these three remarkable works drew praise from cultural leaders on both sides of the partnership. Max Hollein, the CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, addressed the significance of the collaboration in an official statement released around the exhibition. Hollein praised the initiative, calling the Artisan Residency Programme “a collaborative initiative that embodies our mutual commitment to supporting artistic innovation and cultural dialogue.”
By fostering an environment where contemporary artists can study centuries-old artifacts up close and subsequently learn time-honored industrial and decorative crafts from master watchmakers, the partnership between the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Vacheron Constantin continues to ensure that traditional techniques are not merely preserved behind glass, but are actively revitalized through new generations of creative expression. The works by Aspen Golann, Ibrahim Said, and Joy Harvey now stand as physical proof of the profound connections that link history, material culture, and modern artistic innovation, leaving an indelible mark on both institutions involved in this ongoing cultural journey.
