MET TO TURN ON FOUNTAINS

By [Laura Shin] After years of dormancy, the fountains outside the entrance of the Metropolitan Museum of Art are under repair and will turn back on in early October, said Harold Holzer, senior vice president for external affairs at the Met. â??The idea is to bring them back to life while we plan a broader overhaul of the Fifth Avenue plaza, Holzer said. â??We couldn"t get them to work, but we finally found a contractor who can get them springing. Holzer said that the fountains will look the way they did before they were turned off. The museum plans a revamp of the entire plaza, including a redesign of the fountains, in a larger project that will take place over the next several years, he said. â??The Board of Trustees will interview landscape architects and design architects who have made preliminary proposals, and we will continue to narrow and select one in 2011, Holzer said. After that, the project will take at least five years to complete. Despite the recession, more than 5.2 million people visited the Met this past fiscal year, said Emily Rafferty, president of the Met, at a Sept. 15 Community Board 8 meeting. This is the highest number of visitors since before 9/11 and a jump from last year"s total of 4.7 million visitors, she said. Rafferty also discussed other changes at the Met, including major gallery renovations for the Islamic Art Galleries and the American Wing that are well underway. The Islamic Galleries is expected to be open in October of 2011, Rafferty said. The third and final phase of the American Wing renovation project is expected to be completed by January 2012.