Episode 1

Patrick Bringley comes to terms with the loss of his younger brother through becoming a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Here he finds solace by diving into the museum’s incredible treasures and observing millennia of artworks.

As one guard amongst thousands, he shares his unique insights about the secret workings of the museum. Over the ten years he spends observing the way museum life operates, he develops a deep appreciation for the people who work hard to continue the smooth running of the galleries.

Museum time is different. Bringley spends up to eight hours standing in one room, protecting the art and watching the public as they view and react to the experience of visiting a museum.

Exposed to paintings and objects from the Impressionists, ancient Greece, the Islamic world and Renaissance Italy, he offers us a lesson in how to observe and appreciate art and history in small ways, by shutting out the noise and chaos of everyday life to "see" afresh.

In this episode, as Bringley starts his job at the museum as a guard and experiences the magic of his first encounter with the beauty of art, he reflects on what brought him to this moment.

Read by Billy Howle
Abridged and Produced by Lisa Lipman and Jo Rowntree
Sound design by Jon Calver
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4