One of the museum’s current special exhibitions proves more relevant by the day, despite the fact that the central piece dates back to the year 1469. The Caporali Missal: A Masterpiece of Renaissance Illumination revolves around a beautifully illuminated missal, a service book for the priest at the altar during Catholic mass. The historic resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and subsequent selection of the new Pope Francis I have put the Catholic Church front and center in recent months, providing a fortuitous opportunity to call attention to this exhibition.

Meghan Stockdale, Audience Research Associate, has been an admirer of the work of Fred Wilson for several years. She shares with us in this guest blog Q&A why she is so enthusiastic about his work and why you shouldn’t miss seeing Fred Wilson: Works 2004-2011 while it is in Cleveland.

No, there definitely weren’t any ninjas in ancient Pompeii. But starting in March, there will be Theater Ninjas in the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 destroyed, yet paradoxically preserved the ancient city of Pompeii, providing a vivid glimpse into the daily lives of ancient Romans. Since the rediscovery of the site in the 1700s, centuries of leading artists—from Piranesi, Ingres, and Alma-Tadema to Duchamp, Rothko, Warhol, and Gormley — have been inspired to re-imagine it in paintings, sculpture, photographs, performance and film.