# art [Health: Active]

**Category:** 🎨 Art & Culture  
**Repository:** https://github.com/pipeworx-io/mcp-art  
**GitHub Stars:** 1  
**npm Downloads (last month):** 442  
**Views:** 1  
**Installs:** 0  
**Upvotes:** 0  
**Directory Page:** https://allmcps.com/mcp/art

## Description
Art MCP — Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection API (free, no auth)

## Tools
Capabilities this server exposes over MCP:

- **search_artworks** — Search the Met's collection by subject, artist or keyword (e.g., "sunflowers", "monet", "ancient egypt"). Artworks whose TITLE matches come first, then ones whose ARTIST or culture matches, then general full-text matches; each result says which via `matched_on`. Returns title, artist, date, medium…
- **get_artwork** — Get full details for a specific artwork. Provide the object ID from search results. Returns title, artist, date, medium, department, and high-resolution image URL.
- **get_departments** — Return the full list of Metropolitan Museum of Art curatorial departments (e.g., 'Egyptian Art', 'Modern and Contemporary Art'), each with its numeric department ID.

## Claude Desktop Quick Installation
Install path detected from listing signals. Uses `npx` (confidence: high):

```json
"mcpServers": {
  "art": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["-y","@pipeworx/mcp-art"]
  }
}
```

## Documentation

## What the art MCP server does

The art MCP server gives an AI agent access to collection data from The Metropolitan Museum of Art through three focused tools. It can search for works using a subject, artist, or general keyword; retrieve a single record when given the Met object ID; and return the museum's curatorial departments with their numeric identifiers.

Search results prioritize title matches, followed by matches involving the artist or culture, and then broader full-text matches. Each result identifies the matching field through `matched_on` and includes core metadata such as title, artist, date, medium, and an image URL. Detailed artwork results add the department and a high-resolution image URL.

This listing belongs to the 🎨 Art & Culture category and is intended for collection research, artwork lookup, and agent workflows that need structured museum data.

## How it works

The art MCP server is available in two forms. A hosted MCP endpoint is provided through the Pipeworx gateway at `https://gateway.pipeworx.io/art/mcp`. The gateway connection also exposes shared Pipeworx meta-tools, so its tool list is larger than the three collection-specific tools. Those shared tools can route questions to other catalog sources through `ask_pipeworx`.

A local package is also available through npm. It communicates over standard input and output and exposes only the art collection tools. The same hosted service can be called directly over HTTP with a tool-specific endpoint such as `/v1/tools/art_search_artworks`.

## Setup and configuration

For a hosted connection, add the gateway URL to an MCP client's server configuration. The README names Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Windsurf as compatible connection options. No account is needed for the first hosted calls, and the collection API requires no authentication.

To run locally, configure the server with the `npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-art` command and no environment variables. Running that command directly starts the stdio MCP process. A separate full-gateway URL, `https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp`, exposes all Pipeworx packs directly rather than listing only the art pack's tools.

## Tools and capabilities

- `search_artworks`: Finds collection items by subject, artist, or keyword and returns ranked matches with identifying metadata.
- `get_artwork`: Retrieves full information for an artwork using the object ID returned by search.
- `get_departments`: Lists all Metropolitan Museum of Art curatorial departments and their numeric IDs.

The search and detail responses can include image URLs, making the server suitable for agents that need to reference or display collection imagery alongside text metadata.

## Limitations and notes

The art MCP server is an independent, unofficial integration. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Artwork detail lookup depends on having the correct object ID, normally obtained from `search_artworks`.

The hosted pack endpoint includes shared gateway tools that cannot currently be removed from that connection. If an agent needs only the three collection tools, the local stdio package avoids those additional schemas and does not provide cross-catalog `ask_pipeworx` routing. The available tool scope and shared-tool list can change on the gateway; the MCP `initialize` response is authoritative for a specific connection.

_Full upstream README: https://allmcps.com/mcp/art/readme_