CUC Teens’ “Relapse” and a Call for Time Capsule Submissions
By Darius Steward, Master Teacher, CUC
Funded by the Cleveland Foundation, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Currently Under Curation program (CUC) gives participating teens from the Cleveland area access to CMA resources, creating an environment where object based learning and teamwork skills are sharpened as they work to create arts experiences for a wide variety of audiences. The CUC teens recently collaborated on the exhibition Laura Owens: Rerun with internationally known artist Laura Owens and CMA curator Emily Liebert. The exhibition is on view at Transformer Station through May 30.
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Come spring, the Fine Arts Garden at the south entrance of the Cleveland Museum of Art becomes a popular attraction. For many Greater Clevelanders, when the cherry blossoms appear around Wade Lagoon, it is a sign that spring has arrived.
Originating in Japan, cherry blossom trees called sakura (桜) commonly adorn Japanese textiles, decorative pieces, and other fine works of art. In Japan, cherry blossom season comes with a tradition dating to at least a thousand years ago called hanami, meaning “blossom viewing.” …
By Stephanie Foster, Lead Interpretive Planner and Rachel Arzuaga, Interpretive Planner
As an encyclopedic art museum, housing art objects from every culture, place, and period, the Cleveland Museum of Art has core values that embrace diversity and inclusion. The contemporary art collection is no exception. We are excited to welcome you back into the newly reinstalled, and reimagined, contemporary galleries reopening Tuesday, April 20.
Through this reinstallation project we are showcasing the global nature of this collection in order to prioritize and celebrate the work of diverse artists, particularly work by women and artists of color from around the world.
Typically, a featured exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art will be accompanied by a prix fixe menu in Provenance, the museum restaurant. Due to COVID safety measures, Provenance is temporarily closed.* However, Executive Chef Joe Perez has created a colorful dish inspired by an artwork on view in our current exhibition Stories from Storage.
Stories from Storage is a spellbinding exhibition featuring an anthology of 20 stories from our curators about 3,000 years of art. This unique exhibition reveals artwork kept in storage for various reasons: some are light sensitive, some have condition issues, some have contested attributions and…
Have you ever wondered how we select products for the museum store? This is a unique retail space is unlike any other shop or boutique. We put a lot of thought and care into making sure that the products we sell are related to and inspired by the art in the galleries. Think about how exhibitions are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Similarly, the museum store has a limited window of time to develop collections of products to complement our exhibitions. You can find pieces of art to take home that are created by local and international artisans, all in one place.
We are so happy you found our blog and can connect with art and the museum in this way, espeically during the pandemic. Thanks so much for sharing!
By Amanda Mikolic, Curatorial Assistant for the Department of Medieval Art
“In the age of COVID, the facemask is the most visible form of PPE, or personal protective equipment. But the art of PPE has a long history.” — The Art of PPE
Let’s take a look at another piece of protective equipment from the Medieval era, the helmet.
Helmets are among the earliest forms of Old World protective armor, the first examples are made of fabric, leather, and bone. During the European Bronze Age, 3200 to1200 BC, metal was added to offer greater rigidity and durability. The Greeks perfected…
By Andrea Vazquez de Arthur, Leigh and Mary Carter Director’s Research Fellow
If you have ever seen a mola, chances are it was displayed as a decorative panel, perhaps framed on a wall, or made into an ornamental pillow. These textiles are made from layers of colorful cotton fabric, hand cut and sewn into extravagant images and patterns that at times appear to visually vibrate. But before being repurposed as décor, mola panels are initially made in pairs and attached to separate fabric to form the front and back of a woman’s garment.
Photo: Hemis / Alamy.
By Jessica Ketz, Digital Communications Manager
Take an art-inspired journey through the CMA exhibition Gustave Baumann: Colorful Cuts.
Although COVID-19 has limited travel, the artworks in the exhibition, Gustave Baumann: Colorful Cuts allow us to journey to the American Southwest, where artist Gustave Baumann spent most of his life. Before we begin, the key to any trip is to prepare through research and planning. In this case, we’ll focus on the work of the artist who inspired this road trip.
Born in Magdeburg, Germany in 1881, Baumann immigrated to Chicago in 1891 with his family. Baumann returned to Germany in…
By Amaris Sturm, Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Conservation
Preparing objects for display requires collaborative efforts across the museum, from designing exhibitions, to interpreting artworks, and, in the case of this Central African mask, preparing objects for safe display. The treatment and installation of the Mwana Pwo mask, on view through Sunday, March 14 in the exhibition Second Careers: Two Tributaries in African Art, provides an excellent example of this collaboration.
Composed of carved wood, paint, and plant fibers, this beautiful Mwana Pwo mask from the Chokwe communities of southwestern Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo depicts a woman’s idealized…
