Kara Walker's Cotton Hoards in Southern Swamp, from the series "Harpers Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)," 2005.   (Photo: Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum)

7. “Kara Walker at the Met: After the Deluge”
The Metropolitan Museum is not meant to be hip, radical, or quick-off-the-mark. That’s why “Kara Walker at the Met: After the Deluge” was so surprising. The museum gave this contemporary African-American the freedom to roam through its collections and put together whatever show she wanted. She came up with a provocative exhibit about race that was sharp but not tendentious, juxtaposing her own work with images of storms, race, and the sea. Her perspective was open, incomplete, playful, and exploratory—values every museum should occasionally embrace. Even the Met.