I get hundreds of e-mails everyday: business letters, personal notes, notices of FB updates, newsletters, “opportunities”. Some I read immediately. Some go straight to the trash. Many I let slide until a someday that never quite comes. But every Wednesday since the first of the year I’ve jumped on the e-mail titled 82nd and Fifth.

The e-mails bring me two episodes in a charming year-long series produced by the Metropolitan Museum of Art: a curator talking about a work of art that changed the way she sees the world while a photographer interprets her vision. Last Wednesday the pieces were things I’m very familiar with: a painting by Eugène Delacroix* and a Persian miniature. Some weeks the episodes cover works I’ve never seen by artists I’ve never heard of. Each lasts only two minutes: a bright pop of pleasure in the day.

If you’re interested in the intersection of art, history and ideas,** it’s four minutes well spent. Here’s the link: http://82nd-and-fifth.metmuseum.org/about/

Enjoy.

* Don’t ask me about Delacroix and Orientalism unless you are very interested and have some time on your hands.

** And I assume you are since you’re reading this blog.