Art in Bloom at the Met

Every year, millions of art lovers, tourists, and visitors worldwide stream into the Metropolitan Museum of Art, stopping at and often passing by incredible works of art. But there’s one particular creation, at once ephemeral and forever fresh, that they often pass, even if with a glance. It isn’t signed, but it is widely seen, if frequently overlooked, rather than appreciated as it should.

The floral arrangements in the Met’s Great Hall, with its arches, soaring ceilings, marble floor, and other museums and organizations, are likely some of the most beautiful examples of art in bloom that you’ll find in the world.

The Lila Acheson Wallace Fund (named for the co-founder of Reader’s Digest) set up a fund in 1967 for the floral arrangements at the Met, and it’s still paying for the freshly designed big bouquets that adorn the main hall, providing a warm welcome.

“An ephemeral addition to an otherwise timeless space, the florals change every Tuesday thanks to the generosity of a single donor, Lila Acheson Wallace, whose endowment in 1967 funded fresh flowers in perpetuity,” The New York Times reported about this fund that has kept flowers fresh at the Met for decades.

Christ Giftos designed the arrangements for about 30 years before Remco Van Vliet took the torch in 2003, and it’s been a tradition since. Van Vliet & Trap Event Design, founded by Remco and his brother Cas Trap in 1997, provides the massive floral bouquets that grace the Met’s Great Hall.

The brothers, who started by working for their father’s company in the Netherlands, bring a background in art and floral design. Remco studied art history and graphic design in the Netherlands before coming to New York in 1994 to work for his brother’s company, Duch Flower Line, and then for Giftos, who was in charge of the flowers at the Met and many other places and events.

Wallace reportedly wanted “starburst” arrangements to create a beautiful first impression, essentially greeting visitors with a visual equivalent: “We’re expecting you. Welcome.”

Flowers have done just that for decades, filling the Great Hall with ever-changing bursts of color that provide objects of beauty for those who pause long enough to see that some of the great art in this museum lives outside a frame.

Remco, described by his company as a third-generation Dutch Master Florist and creative director of Van Vliet & Trap Event Design, took over when Giftos ended his 30-year run as the man behind the Met’s flowers.

The Met showcases works by Dutch masters such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, and Pieter Bruegel the Elder. However, Van Vliet is also a Dutch master who has a constantly rotating collection of his works on display there.

Every week, he personally designs what his company calls “the stunning colossal urn arrangements and the bouquets” in the Great Hall at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was founded in 1870.

Van Vliet and Trap pride themselves “on designing stunning, jaw-dropping and awe-inspiring floral works of art on their website.”

While the company may not sign its work, its arrangements grace several museums, large companies, and nonprofits. The list of museums with their work includes MoMA, the American Museum of Natural History, the American Museum of the Moving Image, the Whitney Museum, and the Brooklyn Children’s Museum.

However, there is no need to go to a museum to see their masterpieces, which also grace performance spaces such as BAM, Carnegie Hall, Jazz at the Lincoln Center, New York City Ballet, The New York Historical, New York Horticultural Society, and the New York Philharmonic.

Other clients in this who’s who of large companies and luxury brands include Accenture, Amazon, BNY Mellon, Chanel, Christie’s, Citigroup, Conde Nast, Deloitte & Touche, Givenchy, Gucci, Harry Winston, Harvard, Joseph Abboud, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Moët Hennessy, Hermès, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sotheby’s, Tiffany & Company, and Yale Law School.

While the big names are the artists, such as Rembrandt, Degas, John Singer Sargent, Caravaggio, Gustave Courbet, Mary Cassatt, and Vincent van Gogh, the big donors also matter.

“In 1969, Lila used 100,000 shares of Readers Digest to start a fund at the Trust to support ‘the beautification of the Great Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,'” explained Courtney Biggs, Senior Manager of Public Relations at The New York Community Trust as she detailedLila’s enduring legacy at the Met. “Lila also established an additional fund (The Lila Acheson Wallace Fund for the Arts) which supports causes such as dance programs for older adults, providing subsidized, accessible studio space and services for disabled artists, and strengthening Latinx Theater groups in NYC.”

The Wallace Foundation reverberated Biggs’ sentiment by stating “The flowers at the Met are one of our staff’s favorite contributions Wallace’s founders made.”

Lila Acheson Wallace’s name is written on the museum walls at the entrance of the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing, which opened in 1987 and exhibits modern art. The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters together welcomed more than 5.5 million visitors in their 2024 fiscal year.

The wing bears her name in bold letters, but decades after her death in 1984, Lila Acheson Wallace lives on through her flowers in the Met, which welcome millions each year to one of the greatest museums in the world.