Participate
This is your invitation.
For centuries, museums ran copyist programs. An artist would request permission, set up before a masterwork, and learn by drawing it directly. The tradition was bound by walls and the number of hours in a day. You could only copy what was on display, and only so many easels fit in a gallery.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Open Access collection removes those limits. More than 490,000 works are released for anyone to study and build upon, including the vast holdings that are catalogued but never displayed.
I draw one each day. To do this, I built a small tool that serves as single work at random from the collection. You're welcome to use it and begin your own daily practice.
Or browse the archive and draw alongside the works I've already made.
This is from a visit to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2025 when my daughter and I sat inside and drew for a few minutes.