DECEMBER EXHIBITIONS AND EVENT LISTINGS FOR THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART

Events

MIX: Beat Street
Friday, December 1, 2023, 6:00–10:00 p.m.
Ticket required

Immerse yourself in the sights and sounds of hip-hop. This year marks 50 years since the birth of hip-hop, and the 1984 film Beat Street helped highlight and introduce the roles of the DJ, breakdancing, and graffiti in hip-hop culture to the masses. This evening features breakdancers and a stacked lineup of DJs, including Kristyles, Eso, Chicago, Jack Da Rippa, Chevi Red, Corey Grand, and Lily Jade, spinning hip-hop classics as well as contemporary favorites. Food and drink items, including street art–inspired baked goods, cocktails, beer, and wine, are available to purchase from Bon Appétit.

To take a break from dancing, stop by the CMA’s two current special exhibitions, China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta and Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism.

We can’t wait to see you at this Friday night extravaganza. MIX is a 21+ event.

CMA! Play Day
Saturday, December 9, 2023, 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.
Ames Family Atrium
FREE

The lantern festival joins CMA! Play Day in the Ames Family Atrium. This family-friendly event of art making, games, and more takes you on a captivating journey to explore the mesmerizing beauty of light, the warmth of lanterns, and the twinkle of imagination. It promises to be an illuminating experience that ignites creativity for all ages.

Holiday Performances

Chamber Music in the Atrium
Wednesdays, December 6 and 13, 2023, 12:00–1:00 p.m.
Ames Family Atrium
FREE

The museum’s collaboration with the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) continues with our popular Chamber Music in the Atrium lunchtime concert series.

Featuring outstanding young conservatory musicians from CIM, these concerts present mixed repertoire ranging from the standards to unknown gems. Enjoy hot holiday beverages from Provenance Café and join us at the tables in the atrium.

• Wednesday, December 6 
• Wednesday, December 13–Holiday Brass with Gabrieli’s Horns

Chamber Music in the Galleries: French Impressionism
Wednesday, December 6, 2023, 6:00 p.m.
Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Gallery | Gallery 222
FREE

We are thrilled to continue our popular Chamber Music in the Galleries concert series featuring young artists and faculty from Case Western Reserve University’s historical performance program, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the Music Settlement. Each concert is inspired by the art on view in the gallery in which the performance occurs. This evening’s program features faculty from the Music Settlement performing works of classical Impressionism in front of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies (Agapanthus).

Accent
Friday, December 8, 2023, 7:30 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
Ticket required

In the increasingly popular world of a cappella singing groups, Accent has carved out its own niche. Since forming in 2011, the group has released five albums; performed at the London A Cappella Festival; played dates across Europe, North America, and Asia; and was featured in two sold-out Christmas shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Accent’s singular blend and arrangements have been acclaimed by a cappella devotees and fellow musicians alike, including Cedric Dent of TAKE 6 and Clark Burroughs of the Hi-Lo’s. The ensemble’s lush sound is embellished by its deep and innate musicality. As Alan Paul of the Manhattan Transfer said, “You guys carry on the vocal group legacy.”

Accent is composed of six singers from five countries forming one vocal supergroup. This evening’s performance features selections from the Accent discography, including holiday favorites from the ensemble’s latest release, Christmas All the Way.

Tickets
$33–$45, CMA members $30–$40

Apollo’s Fire Presents: Wassail!
Sundays, December 10 and 17, 2023, 4:30 p.m.  
Gartner Auditorium
Ticket required

Cleveland’s own internationally acclaimed, Grammy-winning ensemble Apollo’s Fire brings to life the music of the past for audiences of today. Join us for this special occasion in which the group presents their program “Wassail! An Irish Appalachian Christmas,” created and directed by Jeannette Sorrell.

Holidays at the CMA: The Settlement Singers
Sunday, December 10, 2023, 2:00–3:00 p.m.
Ames Family Atrium
FREE

Holidays at the CMA includes a special free performance featuring the Settlement Singers. Listen to holiday music, grab hot holiday beverages and baked goods from Provenance Café, and shop for fun holiday gifts in the museum store.

The Settlement Singers were formed in the fall of 2018 to promote arts instruction to those age 55 and over with the goal of inspiring lifelong learning and providing a community of like-minded peers. More information about the group can be found on the Music Settlement’s website.

Night Out 

Tasting Notes: Date Night with Degas
Fridays, December 8 and 22, 2023, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Reservations required

Inspired by the museum’s special exhibition Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism, Tasting Notes: Date Night with Degas is an immersion in French food, cocktails, and music in a supper club environment. Occurring on the second and fourth Fridays of the month through January, these events invite guests to indulge in Provenance’s curated Taste the Art menu, a collaboration between Chef Doug Katz and Bon Appétit, while enjoying a live band performing a mix of French music and jazz.  

While these events are free and open to the public, reservations are strongly encouraged and can be made on Provenance’s website. 

Schedule: 

December 8: Brent Hamker and Brad Wagner 
December 22: Thorne Musica with Anthony Taddeo

Guests can join a docent-led tour of Degas and the Laundress at 6:00 p.m. Tickets for these tours can be reserved by members or purchased by nonmembers on the museum’s website. The museum’s permanent collection galleries are open until 9:00 p.m. every Friday. 

New this month!

To the River’s South in Japanese Painting
Friday, December 15, 2023, through Sunday, June 2, 2024
The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Japanese Art Galleries | Gallery 235A
FREE

The Chinese words jiang, or “river,” and nan, or “south,” together form the region name Jiangnan, or “river’s south.” The river is the Yangzi River, or “Long River,” that flows from west to east across China, emptying into the sea near the city of Shanghai. The “south” is a constellation of cities, mountain ranges, lakes, and rivers reaching as far west as Mount Lu, about eight hours from Shanghai by car (684 kilometers, or 425 miles). Core episodes in Chinese history and literature were set in or inspired by these sites. Transmitted through text and image, records and representations of Jiangnan occupied a significant position in the lives of creators and consumers of culture across East and Southeast Asia in the centuries leading up to the present. Some of the paintings and painted ceramics in this gallery show how Japanese artists of the past portrayed two landmarks in Jiangnan, Mount Lu and West Lake, and Xiao-Xiang, a place located physically west of Jiangnan but an important touch point in artistic productions from that region. 

Final days and weeks!

Ancient Andean Textiles
Through Sunday, December 3, 2023  
Jon A. Lindseth and Virginia M. Lindseth, PhD, Galleries of the Ancient Americas | Gallery 232
FREE 

The six textiles in the current installation from the permanent collection were made by weavers of the ancient Chimú civilization, which took root on Peru’s north coast in the year 1000. Over the next four centuries, the Chimú created an empire that lasted until the 1460s, when the Inka swept out of the Andes Mountains to incorporate it into their own imperial domain. The garments—fabricated from undyed, white cotton and surely worn by Chimú nobility—represent the major articles of ancient Andean menswear; several may have been part of a matched set. They embody important principles of the Chimú textile aesthetic, one being a love of combining different textures, some dense and sculptural and others so open and airy they are nearly invisible.

Native North American Textiles
Through Sunday, December 3, 2023  
Sarah P. and William R. Robertson Gallery | Gallery 231
FREE 

On display from the permanent collection are two Diné (Navajo) garments from the late 1800s—a woman’s dress and a rug woven for the collector’s market, modeled on the Diné shoulder blanket. Also on view is a watercolor from the 1920s by the Pueblo artist Ma Pe Wi (Velino Shije Herrera), who was key to a major development in Southwest Indigenous arts as Native people took control of representing their own cultures after centuries of marginalization.

Animals in Japanese Art
Through Tuesday, December 12, 2023
The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Japanese Art Galleries | Galleries 235A–B 
FREE

The relationship of people to animals is ever evolving as we continue to learn more about the other life-forms with which we share our planet. Each culture offers unique perspectives on our connection to animals. The history of representing the finned, furry, and feathered residents of the worlds of sea, land, and sky in Japan began with clay figurines of mammals—wild boars, for example—made around 2,500 to 900 years before the common era. These days, they include robotic animals made of metal, plastic, and synthetic fibers, such as dogs and seals. In the future, we may look upon them as art too. This installation features images of animals made in Japan for a variety of purposes over the past 1,500 years and explores the often overlapping decorative, functional, and symbolic roles they have served.

On-Site Activities

My Very First Art Class
Fridays, December 1 and 8, 2023, 10:00–11:00 a.m.
Classrooms B and C
Ticket required

Young children and their favorite grown-up are introduced to art, the museum, and verbal and visual literacy in this playful program. Each class features exploration in the classroom, a gallery visit, and art making. Wear your paint clothes! New topics each class.

Age group: Two to four years old, accompanied by a parent or guardian
Theme: Fairy Tales and Adventures

Fees and registration cost per session (four Fridays per session) for adult/child pair $100, CMA members $85

LUNCHTIME LECTURE

The Artistry You Don’t See: Creating Mounts for Challenging Objects
Tuesday, December 5, 2023, 12:00 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
FREE; ticket required

Speakers: Beth Edelstein, objects conservator, and Philip Brutz and Dante Rodriguez, mount makers 

Come to the CMA for a quick bite of art history. Every first Tuesday of each month, join curators, conservators, scholars, and other museum staff for 30-minute talks on objects currently on display in the museum galleries.

Have you ever wondered how works of art that may be hundreds or thousands of years old are prepared for display in our galleries? Join CMA objects conservator Beth Edelstein and mount makers Philip Brutz and Dante Rodriguez to learn how mount makers collaborate with curators, exhibition designers, conservators, and collections care staff to create innovative mounts for some of the most challenging objects in the collection. See how skills in engineering, fabrication, and machining are used in a museum setting. (Yes, math really does come in handy in an art museum!)

Art in the Afternoon
Wednesday, December 6, 2023, 1:00–2:15 p.m.
Select galleries 
FREE; registration required

In partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association, the CMA provides specialized gallery tours for those with memory loss (and one caregiver) designed to lift the spirit, engage the mind, and provide a relaxing and enjoyable social experience. Specially trained docents are sensitive to the interests and abilities of all visitors and encourage conversation, shared memories, and art enjoyment. 

To register, call the Alzheimer’s Association Cleveland Area Chapter at 216-273-4228.

Sensory-Friendly Saturdays at the CMA
Saturday, December 16, 2023, 9:00–10:00 a.m.
FREE     

Sensory-Friendly Saturdays offer adaptations to meet diverse sensory-processing needs on the third Saturday of each month. Guests on the autism spectrum, people experiencing dementia, and people of all ages who have intellectual or developmental disabilities are invited to participate in a calming museum experience with less stimulation before the museum opens to the public—reducing crowds, noise, and distractions. Guests can explore the galleries at their own pace, relax in the designated “quiet area,” and share this time and space with open-minded members of the community. 

Here are some things to know before planning your visit:  

• All guests must pass through metal detectors at the entrance of the museum. 
• Guests are encouraged to bring adaptive equipment, including wheelchairs, walkers, noise-reducing headphones, and technology. The Cleveland Museum of Art also offers a limited number of wheelchairs. 
• The Cleveland Museum of Art’s store will be open at 9:00 a.m.    
• Sensory-Friendly Saturdays are free. Parking in the garage is $14 for nonmembers, $7 for members.   
• Once guests enter on Saturdays, they are welcome to stay for the day. Museum doors open at 10:00 a.m. to the public. 

ARTIST IN THE ATRIUM

Painting Paradise
Saturday, December 16, 2023, 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
Ames Family Atrium
FREE

On the third Saturday of each month, stop by the Ames Family Atrium between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. to get a firsthand look at the art-making process. Each session provides the opportunity to engage and interact with a different Northeast Ohio maker during pop-up demonstrations and activities. See their work unfold and learn how artists create. Explore a related selection of authentic objects from the CMA’s education art collection in a pop-up Art Up Close session. See, think, and wonder.  

At this month’s event, explore the art form of traditional Chinese painting. Join artist Mitzi Lai as she demonstrates the process of painting florals and learn about the technique of mounting traditional Chinese paintings with conservator Ping-Chung Tseng. 

This event is organized in conjunction with the exhibition China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta.

MATERIAL MATTERS GALLERY TALK

Through the Trapdoor: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Museum Display Cases
Wednesday, December 20, 2023, 12:00 p.m.
Ames Family Atrium
Sold Out

Speaker: Laura Gaylord Resch, assistant preventive conservator 

Have you ever wondered how artworks in the CMA’s collection are cared for? Join CMA conservators and technicians for guided tours of the galleries. Investigate artists’ materials and processes and learn how the museum preserves artworks for the future.  

In this gallery talk, join CMA preventive conservator Laura Gaylord Resch to learn how the museum creates state-of-the-art displays and how conservators use principles of chemistry and physics to ensure safe environments for artworks. A view inside hidden drawers and secret compartments will illuminate the science behind the beautiful exhibits in the galleries.  

Continuing Exhibitions 

China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta
Through Sunday, January 7, 2024
The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall
Ticket required

China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta is the first exhibition in the West that focuses on the artistic production and cultural impact of a region located in the coastal area south of the Yangzi River.

Called Jiangnan, this region has throughout large parts of its history been one of the wealthiest, most populous, and most fertile lands. For millennia, it has been an area of rich agriculture, extensive trade, and influential artistic production. Art from Jiangnan—home to such great cities as Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Nanjing, as well as to hilly picturesque landscapes stretched along rivers and lakes—has defined the image of traditional China for the world. 

The exhibition features about 200 objects from Neolithic times to the 18th century, ranging from jade, silk, prints, and paintings to porcelain, lacquer, and bamboo carvings. Jiangnan’s lush, green scenery inspired artists to conceive it as heaven on earth. Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta explores how this region gained a leading role in China’s artistic production and how it succeeded in setting cultural standards. This international exhibition presents works of art from private and public collections and museums in the United States, Europe, China, and Japan.

Exhibition Tickets
Adults $15; seniors, students, and children ages 6 through 17 $12; adult groups (10 or more) $10; member guests $8; children 5 and under and CMA members FREE 

The CMA recommends reserving tickets through its online platform by visiting the exhibition’s page. Tickets can also be reserved by phone at 216-421-7350 or on-site at one of the ticket desks.  

Principal support is provided by June and Simon K. C. Li and the MCH Foundation. Major support is provided by the American Friends of the Shanghai Museum and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation. Generous support is provided by an anonymous supporter and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by the Blakemore Foundation, William and Terry Carey, the Gramercy Park Foundation, Carl M. Jenks, the Metropolitan Center for Far Eastern Art Studies, Xiling Group, and Zheng He Management Group. 

The exhibition catalogue for China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta was produced with the generous support of the MCH Foundation. 

Generous support of the exhibition symposium is provided by the Kingfisher Foundation.

Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism
Through Sunday, January 14, 2024
The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Gallery
Ticket required

This groundbreaking exhibition is the first to explore Impressionist artist Edgar Degas’s representations of Parisian laundresses. These working-class women were a visible presence in the city, washing and ironing in shops open to the street or carrying heavy baskets of clothing. Their job was among the most difficult and poorly paid at the time, forcing some laundresses to supplement their income through sex work. The industry fascinated Degas throughout his long career, beginning in the 1850s and continuing until his final decade of work. He created about 30 depictions of laundresses, united for the first time in this exhibition. The artworks from this series—revolutionary in their emphasis on women’s work, the strenuousness of such labor, and social class—were featured in Degas’s earliest and most significant exhibitions, where they were praised by critics as epitomizing modernity.

Degas and the Laundress contextualizes these works with paintings, drawings, and prints of the same subject by the artist’s contemporaries—including Gustave Caillebotte, Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec—as well as painters that he influenced and was influenced by, from Honoré Daumier to Pablo Picasso. It also presents ephemera, such as posters, photographs, and books, that reveal the widespread interest that Parisians of all social classes had in the topic of laundresses during the late 1800s.

The exhibition is accompanied by an interdisciplinary, richly illustrated publication featuring thematic essays by scholars of art history, literature, and history.

Exhibition Tickets
Adults $15; seniors, students, and children ages 6 through 17 $12; adult groups (10 or more) $10; member guests $8; children 5 and under and CMA members FREE 

Docent-Led Exhibition Tours
Exhibition tours are offered at 3:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, as well as at 7:00 p.m. Wednesdays, through December 21; ticket required. Select “Tour 3:30pm” or “Tour 7:00pm” and your ticket quantity when reserving your exhibition ticket(s) and participate in the tour.

Principal support is provided by Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP. Major support is provided by the John P. Murphy Foundation. Additional support is provided by Christie’s, the FRench American Museum Exchange (FRAME), Carl M. Jenks, Mr. and Mrs. Frank H. Porter Jr., and the Simon Family Foundation, a supporting foundation of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Egyptomania: Fashion’s Conflicted Obsession
Through Sunday, January 28, 2024
Arlene M. and Arthur S. Holden Textile Gallery | Gallery 234 | Gallery 107
FREE

Egyptian art has long served, and continues to serve, as a primary inspiration for fashion designers, solidifying the legacy of Egyptomania—the influence of the art of ancient Egypt. This exhibition, on view in the CMA’s textile and Egyptian galleries, brings together around 50 objects that explore the influence of Egyptomania in fashion by juxtaposing contemporary fashion and jewelry loaned from around the world with fine and decorative artworks from the CMA’s collection. Egyptomania: Fashion’s Conflicted Obsession examines designers’ interpretations of themes, such as Egyptian dress, funerary process, and religion, that shape our contemporary perceptions of ancient Egyptian culture.

The complex history of European imperialism in Egypt, which dates back to the ages of the Greeks and Romans, has made Egyptomania in European and American art controversial. After a lull in diplomatic European interactions with Egypt from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, the 1798 invasion of the country by the French army, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, reinvigorated European and American interest in ancient Egyptian art and culture.

European archaeological expeditions throughout the 19th and 20th centuries sent back massive amounts of Egyptian art to European and American museums, rousing a recurring interest in its forms in decorative arts, architecture, and fashion. After the 1922 discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb, fashion’s leading minds, from Paul Poiret to accessory enterprises like Cartier, fiercely embraced ancient Egyptian art as inspiration, making Egyptomania a staple design element. Since then, interest in ancient Egyptian culture has expanded rapidly across media, particularly platforms adjacent to the fashion industry. The exhibition also displays videos of runway shows that demonstrate fashion’s continued discourse with Egyptian art. 

Numerous questions raised by the intersection between Egyptomania and fashion in today’s social climate are also examined in the exhibition. Dialogues about cultural appropriation, ancient Egypt’s place in African history, and Black empowerment continue to bubble to the surface, critiquing fashion’s conflicted obsession with Egyptian art.

Generous support of Egyptomania: Fashion’s Conflicted Obsession is provided by Maison Yeya. Additional support is provided by the Textile Art Alliance.

Raja Deen Dayal: The King of Indian Photographers
Through Sunday, February 4, 2024
Mark Schwartz and Bettina Katz Photography Galleries | Gallery 230
FREE

In 2016, the museum acquired 37 photographs made by Raja Deen Dayal (1844–1905), hailed as the first great Indian photographer. This exhibition marks the Cleveland debut of these rare images, all of which come from a single album and were shot in 1886 and 1887, an important juncture in the artist’s life. On display alongside Dayal’s photographs are historical Indian paintings, textiles, clothing, and jewelry from the museum’s collection. These objects provide viewers with insight into the cultural context and help translate the objects in the photographs from monochrome into color.

Dayal was a surveyor working for the British government when he took up photography as a hobby in 1874. In 1885, he attempted to make it his career, and by 1887, he had cemented his stature as one of the country’s top photographers, British or Indian. This rare early album pictures both the maharajas of princely India and the British colonial elite. Dayal produced formal portraits but also more personal views of the Indian nobility. In a moving portrait of a 10-year-old maharaja, Dayal reveals the boy beneath the crown. Weighed down by necklaces and jewels, he occupies a chair that is too tall for him; his stockinged feet curl under so they touch the ground. 

Dayal’s talent also won him access to the highest levels of British society. He photographed government meetings and leisurely afternoons of badminton and picnics, costume parties, and even a private moment of communion between an Englishman and his bulldog. Dayal portrayed how the British brought England with them to India and, in some images, the Indian servants who supported that lifestyle. The photographer cultivated his relationship with the military by documenting troop maneuvers, several views of which are included.

Visually striking, seductively charming, and highly informative, these photographs and objects offer new insights into the early career of India’s most important 19th-century photographer and into British and Indian life at the height of the colonial “Raj.”

Raja Deen Dayal: The King of Indian Photographers is made possible with support from Raj and Karen Aggarwal and Anne T. and Donald F. Palmer. 

Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C Minor (Resurrection): Autograph Manuscript on Loan from the Cleveland Orchestra
Through Sunday, February 11, 2024
Monte and Usha Ahuja Founders Rotunda | Gallery 200
FREE

In 2020, the Cleveland Orchestra received an extraordinary, unique gift: the full, handwritten score of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 from the orchestra’s International Trustee Dr. Herbert G. Kloiber. One of the leading composers of late Romantic symphonic music, Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) was born in Bohemia (modern Czech Republic) and active in Germany and Austria. His monumental Second Symphony is considered the grandest of all symphonies from the 1800s. Requiring more than 100 instrumentalists, two soloists, and a full chorus, and at nearly 80 minutes, it surpassed its choral predecessors by Ludwig van Beethoven, Hector Berlioz, and Franz Liszt in range and conception.

Mahler wrote the dramatic score between 1888 and 1894 in his characteristically bold musical script, mainly in intense black ink, with some parts in brown or violet. It is a working manuscript with inserted leaves, corrections, deletions, and revisions. Additions to the orchestration are written in blue crayon in the first three movements, and in violet ink in the final movement. The complete manuscript is 232 pages, comprising 24- and 28-stave (musical staff) papers in unbound bifolios. This is the composer’s only handwritten manuscript of the complete symphony and includes the work’s finale, its crowning glory.

The Cleveland Orchestra acknowledges Dr. Herbert G. Kloiber with deep gratitude for his generous gift of the autograph manuscript of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. The Cleveland Orchestra thanks the Cleveland Museum of Art for its partnership in the manuscript’s care and temporary display.

Material and Immaterial in Korean Modern and Contemporary Art
Through Sunday, February 25, 2024
Korea Foundation Gallery | Gallery 236
FREE

This thematic display explores how artists have manipulated materials and techniques as affective modes of communication to voice their thoughts, beliefs, and emotions. Lee Bul, a leading contemporary artist, is known for exploring issues of gender, oppression, and inequity. In her recent work Perdu CX (2021), Lee challenges the binary categories of organic and artificial and free-style drawing and crafted texture through her manipulation of lacquer and synthetic acrylic. Yun Hyong Keun’s Umber-Black (1975), one of the museum’s most recent acquisitions, on the other hand, illuminates how materials and processes echo the energy and psychology underneath: here, suppressed anger and frustration about South Korea’s postwar dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s. Finally, Lee Ufan, known for his minimalist sculptures and paintings, poetically explores the interrelationships among materiality, abstract concepts, and processes in Dialogue (2016).

Nature Supernatural
Through Sunday, March 3, 2024
Gallery 242B
FREE

Trees and other plants endowed with supernatural qualities have a long history in the visual culture and literature of India. Throughout the South Asian subcontinent, many populations recognize the power of divinities who personify the life-giving forces of nature to confer gifts of abundance: food, wealth, and children. In art, an image of a woman or goddess of child-bearing age could visually signal the same ideal as depictions of trees or other types of vegetation bearing fruits and flowers. This ideal is auspiciousness, which refers to the success and good fortune brought by entities that give and support life. Filling spaces with vegetal imagery communicates plenitude and auspiciousness, which, in turn, are considered visually beautiful. 

In paintings, textiles, and jewelry, images of supernatural plants mark the presence of magic associated with the powers of nature. Individual flowers also connote specific concepts to the knowledgeable viewer. The lotus, a water flower, signals birth, creation, preservation, and transcendence. Narcissus, which blooms in early spring, references mystical renewal or rebirth. Roses are used in the context of love and fidelity.  

Talking trees, animal-bearing plants, and other supernatural aspects of nature feature in stories that circulated among travelers across land and sea routes connecting India with the greater Islamic world. The works in this gallery reveal how extraordinary vegetative imagery resonated internationally and across religious and social divides.

Colors of Kyoto: The Seifū Yohei Ceramic Studio
Through Sunday, March 10, 2024
Julia and Larry Pollock Focus Gallery | Gallery 010
FREE

Colors of Kyoto: The Seifū Yohei Ceramic Studio showcases works in porcelain and stoneware made by the Kyoto-based studio of Seifū Yohei from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. While the studio is known for the role of Seifū Yohei III (1851–1914) as an Imperial Household Artist (Teishitsu gigei’in), it has only recently received sustained scholarly attention. The exhibition is the first in North America to comprehensively examine the studio’s output from the time of its founder, Seifū Yohei I (1801–1861), through that of its fourth-generation head, Seifū Yohei IV (1871–1951). This fulsome presentation of their creations is made possible through a gift of more than 100 individual and sets of works from the James and Christine Heusinger Collection, an assemblage strategically acquired over the past three decades with the goal of representing the full range of forms and styles produced under the Seifū Yohei name. The show and its catalogue also use the collection as a lens through which to analyze aspects of the modernization of Japan and to consider the history of international trade. 

Just over 400 years ago, ceramists in Japan first successfully fired porcelain, and from the mid-1600s, Japan took advantage of a gap in the global porcelain trade left by the temporary exit of China from the market, following the demise of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and the maritime prohibitions of the early Qing dynasty (1644–1911), to secure orders for its porcelains in Europe. 

From the late 1800s, participation of Japanese ceramists in international expositions also became a forum for constructing national identity. While it has garnered less attention in exhibitions and publications outside Japan, there was a robust domestic market for Japanese porcelains as well, including vessels for use in sencha, or Chinese-style tea, gatherings. Colors of Kyoto features works by members of the Seifū family that reflect both the ceramics culture of Kyoto, an ancient city and former capital of Japan, and the artists’ engagement with Chinese forms and techniques as an alternative way to bring Japanese porcelain into the modern era at a time when Western cultures were leaving a major mark in Japan. 

Colors of Kyoto: The Seifū Yohei Ceramic Studio is funded in part with a generous award from the Japan Foundation 2023 Exhibitions Abroad Support Program.

Francis Alÿs: Paradox of Praxis 5
Through, Sunday March 17, 2024
Video Project Room | Gallery 224B
FREE

In Paradox of Praxis 5, Francis Alÿs is shown kicking a flaming soccer ball at night through the streets of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, until it finally extinguishes. Filmed over hours, this durational task becomes a performance of futile labor and exertion, as well as one of impending peril. The title of the work heightens the irony of the exercise, conjuring allusions to the piece as a metaphor for artistic practice in general. Alÿs is a Belgium-born artist who moved to Mexico City in 1986 and has lived and worked there ever since. His distinctly poetic and imaginative artworks are often centered on observations of, and engagements with, everyday life, which the artist describes as being “composed of episodes, metaphors, or parables.”  

Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner 

New Narratives: Contemporary Works on Paper
Through Sunday, April 14, 2024
James and Hanna Bartlett Prints and Drawings Gallery | Gallery 101
FREE

New Narratives: Contemporary Works on Paper explores the myriad ways in which contemporary artists use storytelling to engage the imagination, scrutinize the past, and envision the future. Consisting entirely of prints and drawings, the exhibition features many recent acquisitions to the CMA’s collection. Pervading the works on view is an interest in narrative, whether fiction or nonfiction, personal, cultural, or mythic. Artists in the exhibition utilize history, people, or events, biographies of known or often unknown people, and various media juxtapositions to layer the past and the present day.

The two galleries that make up the exhibition are anchored by large-scale, multipart works. Jacob Lawrence’s The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture (1986), a series of 15 screenprints, recounts aspects of the Haitian revolution (1791–1804), the successful insurrection by enslaved and free people of color against French colonial rule. Lawrence’s expressive style and tightly composed scenes narrate the revolution through the biography of one of its leaders, General Toussaint L’Ouverture (1743–1803). Also featured is Kara Walker’s The Means to an End: A Shadow Drama in Five Acts (1995). This monumental five-part etching employs the style of historical silhouettes popular in the antebellum South to suggest a provocative narrative about race, gender, and power. Also featured are new drawings by Kerry James Marshall and Shahzia Sikander and prints by Camille Billops, Enrique Chagoya, David Wojnarowicz, Michael Menchaca, Renee Stout, and others. 

The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

This exhibition was supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Six Dynasties of Chinese Painting
Through Monday, May 6, 2024
Clara T. Rankin Galleries of Chinese Art | Gallery 240A 
FREE 

Six Dynasties of Chinese Painting presents a selection of the museum’s most important paintings that cover six different dynasties, including the modern era. These paintings represent various subject matter, from figures, landscapes, animals, birds, and flowers to religious and historical themes; their dates of acquisition range from the museum’s founding years to the most recent additions, demonstrating a continuous commitment to Chinese painting, a field that has always been the strongest asset of the Chinese collection.

Liturgical Textiles from Late Medieval Germany
Through Sunday, August 4, 2024
Gallery 115
FREE

The Cleveland Museum of Art has a particularly rich selection of liturgical textiles (textiles used during religious ceremonies) from the Middle Ages (about 500–1500). In cathedrals, monasteries, and parish churches, they were used at many different points of church life. They covered the altar table, were used during mass, or served as vestments, or garments, for the clergy. They were usually richly decorated with pictorial programs, allowing insights into the thinking and piety of each time period.

They were often produced within monastic communities. Nuns, in particular, are believed to have made textiles. In the late Middle Ages (about 1200–1500), production increased sharply, and especially in Italy, textiles were also produced industrially on a large scale and delivered throughout Europe.

Textiles are particularly sensitive to light, and accordingly, they can only be exhibited for a limited period in order to preserve their colors and fabrics for later generations by keeping them in a dark, climate-controlled space.

On-Site Collection Tours

Guided Tours 
Tuesday through Friday, 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. 
Saturday and Sunday, 1:00 p.m.
FREE; ticket required

Join a public tour to learn new perspectives and enjoy great storytelling about works in the museum’s collection. Tours depart from the information desk in the Ames Family Atrium. Tickets may be reserved at cma.org or on-site at the ticket desk. Tours are limited to 15 participants per group. 

Transformer Station On-Site Activities
1460 West 29th Street, Cleveland, OH 44113

Tabaimo: Blow
Through Saturday, February 3, 2024
FREE

Fusing traditional Japanese art forms with contemporary digital animation, the Japanese artist Tabaimo’s 2009 artwork Blow is on view at Transformer Station for the first time since its 2012 acquisition by the Cleveland Museum of Art. A pioneering video artist, she created Blow as a four-channel, immersive video installation that blurs lines between fantasy and reality.

Upon entering the immersive exhibition, visitors are transported to a constructed world of the artist’s creation. Animated bubbles, fragmented body parts, and various plants float through space in a five-minute looped video. Using a kind of printmaking technique that recalls the artist’s inspiration from Japanese woodcut prints, she often layers different drawings to create her digital videos. For the human body parts seen throughout Blow, she drew the musculature, skeleton, veins, and skin separately, then scanned and combined them for a result that is realistic yet imperfect. The accompanying audio, which mimics the dripping and rushing of water, is an acoustic collage of digitally invented sounds. 

The open-ended, fragmentary nature of the piece is intentional, as the artist often draws from personal experiences and emotions, but she says, “I leave fifty percent up to the viewer. The core of my work is something to be thought through, experienced.” 

On view in the Crane Gallery is another work by Tabaimo, The Obscuring Moon (2016), which draws on the artist’s inspiration from traditional Japanese prints, taking them to animated, fantastical ends.

Learn more about Transformer Station, including hours of operation.

Blow is a presentation of the Cleveland Museum of Art at Transformer Station. All exhibitions organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions. 

CMA Community Arts Center On-Site Activities
2937 West 25th Street, Cleveland, OH 44113 
Free parking in the lot off Castle Avenue | Estacionamiento gratis en la Avenida Castle 

Comic Club | Club de Cómic
Saturday, December 2, 2023 | 11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. | Sábado, 2 de diciembre 2023

Learn to juggle words with images in unexpected ways with artist Juan Fernandez. Work in the company of others to create a page of comics, drawings, or poetry for a published zine to be released for free at the following workshop. Reserve your spot today!

Free. All ages. All experience levels. Supplies included. 

Aprende a jugar con palabras e imágenes de maneras inesperadas con artista Juan Fernandez (se habla español). Trabaja en compañía de otros para crear una página de cómics, dibujos o poesía para un zine publicado lanzado de forma gratuita en el próximo taller. ¡Reserva tu cupo ahorita!

Gratis. Todos edades. Todos los niveles de experiencia. Suministros incluidos. Reserva tu cupo y envíe un mensage a commartsinfo@clevelandart.org.

Glow Accessories | Accesorios Fluorescentes
Sunday, December 3, 2023 | 1:00–4:00 p.m. | Domingo, 3 de diciembre 2023

We invite you to the Community Arts Center for a Family FUNday collaboration with artist Susie Underwood! Create your own wearable, glowing accessory to illuminate your way during the upcoming winter! Guests are invited to return to the CAC on Friday, December 15, for a Glow Party experience. More event details coming soon.

Free. All ages. All experience levels. Supplies included. Drop in; no registration required.

¡Te invitamos al Centro de Artes Comunitarias para una colaboración con la artista Susie Underwood para el Día de Alegría Familiar! ¡Crea tu propio accesorio portátil y fluorescente para iluminar tu camino durante el próximo invierno! Se invita a regresar al CAC el viernes 15 de diciembre para disfrutar de una experiencia de Fiesta Fluorescente. Próximamente habrá más detalles sobre el evento.

Gratis. Todas las edades. Todos los niveles de experiencia. Suministros incluidos. Sin cita previa; no es necesario registrarse.

Glow Party for All Ages | Fiesta Fluorescente para Todas Edades
Friday, December 15, 2023 | 5:00–7:00 p.m. | Viernes, 15 de diciembre 2023
FREE

Get ready to glow at the Community Arts Center! Experience the gallery and studios in an entirely new light—bask in the glow of our costumes and lanterns lit up in the dark. Come in costume and add more to it when you get here. Work with artist Susie Underwood to create your own glow accessory or paint in the dark. Stop by our makeup station and add to our light box village. Witness our larger-than-life Lite Brite and join live DJ Himiko Gogo for an activity zone in the gallery. Let your creativity light the way!

Free. All ages. All experience levels. Supplies included. Drop in; no registration required. 

¡Prepárate para brillar en el Centro de Artes Comunitarias! Experimente la galería y los estudios bajo una luz completamente nueva: disfrute del resplandor de nuestros disfraces y linternas iluminados en la oscuridad. ¡Ven disfrazado y añada más cuando llegues aquí! ¡Trabaja con la artista Susie Underwood para crear tu propio accesorio fluorescente o pintar en la oscuridad! ¡Usa nuestra estación de maquillaje y añada a nuestra aldea de cajas de luz! ¡Sé testigo de nuestro Lite Brite más grande que la vida y únete al DJ en vivo Himiko Gogo para una zona de actividades en la galería! ¡Deja que tu creatividad ilumine el camino!

Gratis. Todas las edades. Todos los niveles de experiencia. Suministros incluidos. Sin cita previa; no es necesario registrarse.

Holiday Open Studio
Saturday, December 16, 2023 | 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. | Sábado, 16 de diciembre 2023
FREE

Explore 3-D collaging with Lake Erie Ink at the Community Arts Center. Mold simple sheets of paper into powerful expressions of imagination and ingenuity with creative arts teacher Vivian Vail. There’s no limit to what you can make when folds, cuts, and curves come together! 

Free. All ages. All experience levels. Supplies included. Drop in; no registration required. 

Explora el collage en 3D con Lake Erie Ink en el Centro de Artes Comunitarias. Moldea simples hojas de papel en poderosas expresiones de imaginación y ingenio con la maestra de artes creativas, Vivian Vail. ¡No hay límite para lo que puedes hacer cuando los pliegues, los cortes y las curvas se unen! 

Gratis. Todas las edades. Todos los niveles de experiencia. Suministros incluidos. Sin cita previa; no es necesario registrarse. 

Paper Arts
Wednesday, December 27, 2023 | Thursday, December 28, 2023 | Wednesday, January 3, 2024 | Thursday, January 4, 2024 | Miércoles, 27 de diciembre 2023 | Jueves, 28 de diciembre 2023 | Miércoles, 3 de enero 2024 | Jueves, 4 de enero 2024

Explore 3-D collaging with Lake Erie Ink at the Community Arts Center. Mold simple sheets of paper into powerful expressions of imagination and ingenuity with creative arts teacher Vivian Vail. There’s no limit to what you can make when folds, cuts, and curves come together! 

Free. All ages. All experience levels. Supplies included. Drop in; no registration required. 

Explora el collage en 3D con Lake Erie Ink en el Centro de Artes Comunitarias. Moldea simples hojas de papel en poderosas expresiones de imaginación y ingenio con la maestra de artes creativas, Vivian Vail. ¡No hay límite para lo que puedes hacer cuando los pliegues, los cortes y las curvas se unen! 

Gratis. Todas las edades. Todos los niveles de experiencia. Suministros incluidos. Sin cita previa; no es necesario registrarse. 

Family FUNdays | Día De Alegria Familiar
Every first Sunday of each month | 1:00–4:00 p.m. | Cada Primer Domingo del mes 

Enjoy free family fun and explore art celebrating community. This event features family-friendly games, movement-based activities, art making, and even a family parade! All activities are COVID-19 conscious and open to all ages and abilities.  

Únase a nosotros para divertirse con familia, mientras exploramos el arte celebrando comunidad. Gratis para participar. Juegos para toda la familia, actividades basadas en movimientos, creación de arte e incluso un desfile familiar. Todas las actividades son conscientes por el covid y abiertas a todos los edades y habilidades. 

Open Studio | Al Arte Libre 
Every Saturday | 1:00–4:00 p.m. | Cada Sabado

Enjoy free, drop-in art making for the whole family. A monthly theme connects community, art, and exploration.  

Disfrute actividades de arte gratuita para toda la familia. Un tema mensual conecta la comunidad, el arte y la exploración. 

Hours | Horario
Friday, 2:00–7:00 p.m. | Viernes, de 2:00 a 7:00 p.m. 
Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. | Sábado y Domingo, de 10:00 a.m. hasta las 5:00 p.m. 
Closed Monday to Thursday | Cerrados Lunes a Jueves  

Major annual support is provided by Brenda and Marshall Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Walter E. Fortney, Florence Kahane Goodman, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, and the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation. Generous annual support is provided by an anonymous supporter, the M. E. and F. J. Callahan Foundation, Char and Chuck Fowler, the Giant Eagle Foundation, the Lloyd D. Hunter Memorial Fund, Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Logsdon Family Fund for Education, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, Mandi Rickelman, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, the Sally and Larry Sears Fund for Education Endowment, Roy Smith, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Trilling Family Foundation, and the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art. 

The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

Education programs are supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.

All exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions. Principal annual support is provided by Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder, the John and Jeanette Walton Exhibition Fund, and the late Roy L. Williams. Generous annual support is provided by an anonymous supporter, the late Dick Blum and Harriet Warm, Gary and Katy Brahler, Cynthia and Dale Brogan, Dr. Ben and Julia Brouhard, Brenda and Marshall Brown, Richard and Dian Disantis, the Jeffery Wallace Ellis Trust in memory of Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., Leigh and Andy Fabens, the Frankino-Dodero Family Fund for Exhibitions Endowment, Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Carl T. Jagatich, Cathy Lincoln, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, William S. and Margaret F. Lipscomb, Bill and Joyce Litzler, Lu Anne and the late Carl Morrison, Jeffrey Mostade and Eric Nilson and Varun Shetty, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, Michael and Cindy Resch, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation, Paula and Eugene Stevens, Margaret and Loyal Wilson, the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Claudia Woods and David Osage.