NOVEMBER EXHIBITIONS AND EVENT LISTINGS FOR THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART

Events
Omara Portuondo 
Wednesday, November 1, 2023, 7:30–9:00 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
Ticket required

The Cleveland Museum of Art is proud to present Cuba’s legendary vocalist Omara Portuondo as part of her Farewell World Tour Vida 2023.

Portuondo is the grande dame of classic Cuban song. Even in her 90s—her seventh decade of performing—she remains a beloved chanteuse and celebrated entertainer. In her final performances before retirement, Portuondo is sharing a retrospective of her life in music, simply called “Vida.” Critics and fans alike have marveled at the quality and purity of Portuondo’s prodigious voice. Her versatility has allowed her to move from one style to another with complete mastery throughout her career—from jazz to Nueva Trova, Cuban traditional music to son, danzón, boleros, and more.

Outside her native Cuba, Portuondo is most recognized for her work with Buena Vista Social Club. The Cuban ensemble’s eponymous debut album went on to sell more than 8 million copies and win both the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Tropical Latin Performance and the Tropical/Salsa Album of the Year by a Group at the 1998 Billboard Latin Music Awards; the accompanying 1999 film was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 72nd Academy Awards.

But even before this, Portuondo’s star was secure in the Caribbean and throughout the Spanish-speaking world. Between the 1950s and 1990s, she cofounded Cuarteto d’Aida, became a notable interpreter of the Great American Songbook, and released nearly a dozen records. Despite the racism, misogyny, revolution, and socioeconomic and political controversies in Cuba during those decades, Portuondo used her voice as a driving force to celebrate Afro-Cuban music on the island and spread joy and community around the world.

In the 21st century, Portuondo began to receive the global recognition commensurate with a career of her stature. She has been awarded prizes, medals, honorary degrees, and more from around the world, including the laureate of the Order of Félix Varela (the highest decoration in Cuban culture), the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts from the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport, and the Order of the Rising Sun from the Japanese emperor, not to mention a music-specific Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to Latin American and world music.

To this day, Portuondo is still referred to as “The Cubanísima Omara Portuondo” and “The Diva of Buena Vista.” She is a genuine symbol of her country’s deep and enduring culture.

Performers
Omara Portuondo – voice
Jose Portillo – piano
Ramses Rodriguez – drums 
Lino Piquero – bass
Degnis Bofill – percussion

Tickets
$43–$59 nonmembers, $38–$53 members

MIX: China’s Southern Paradise
Friday, November 3, 2023, 6:00–10:00 p.m.
Ticket required

Join us on November 3 at MIX: China’s Southern Paradise to immerse yourself in Chinese art, dance, music, and food. The evening features a rare Cleveland performance of the Pittsburgh-based Steel Dragon Martial Arts lion dancers. DJ Atomix spins a short opening set and then closes out the night spinning Chinese electro-club beats and popular crowd favorites. Chinese-inspired food items, cocktails, beer, and wine are available to purchase from Bon Appétit.

Guests are invited to view the Cleveland Museum of Art’s current special exhibition China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. The exhibition features nearly 200 objects from the Jiangnan region of China 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.

We can’t wait to see you at this Friday-night extravaganza. The entertainment schedule for the evening is as follows:

6:00 p.m.: DJ Atomix
6:15 p.m.: Steel Dragon Martial Arts lion dancers
7:15 p.m.: DJ Atomix

More information about Steel Dragon Martial Arts can be found on their website. 

Guests are also invited to view Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism.

Tickets
CMA members FREE; nonmembers, online purchase before day of event $16; nonmembers, online purchase day of event $18; nonmembers, purchase at the door (subject to availability) $25

Symposium: Jiangnan—Objects in Focus
Saturday, November 4, 2023, 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
FREE; ticket required

“Jiangnan—Objects in Focus” is an international one-day symposium featuring 15 scholars from the United States, Asia, and Europe who will each give a talk spotlighting one exhibit in their respective area of expertise. The goal of the symposium is to discuss highlights of the exhibition and foster a better understanding of the Jiangnan region and its artistic and cultural role in China and beyond. It is held in conjunction with the exhibition China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta, on view through Sunday, January 7, 2024.

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

Welcome and Introduction
10:00 a.m. Welcome
•William Griswold, Director and President, The Cleveland Museum of Art
•Clarissa von Spee, James and Donna Reid Curator of Chinese Art, Interim Curator of Islamic Art, and Chair of Asian Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art

Session 1:  The Southern Dynasties and Beyond
Chaired by Margarete Prüch, Heidelberg University
•Lei Xue: Eulogy for Burying a Crane: A Sixth-Century Monument and Its Afterlife
•Eugene Wang: Mirrors of the South
•Aidi Bao: Instruments of the Sages: A Guqin of the Elite Scholars from Ming-Dynasty Jiangnan

LUNCH BREAK

Session 2: Painting and Sites

Chaired by Eric Lefebvre, Musée Cernuschi, Paris
•Freda Murck: Painting South China’s Atmosphere: Some Poetic Sources of Clouds and Mist
•Malcolm McNeill: Bodhidharma Crossing the Yangzi on a Reed: Legitimizing Lineage
•Choi, Seokwon: Portraying Eremetic, Archaic, and Syncretic Identity: Zeng Jing’s Portrait of Weng Dehong
•Elizabeth Kindall: Floating through Jiangnan: Song Xu’s Eighteen Views of Huzhou

TEA BREAK

Session 3: Craftsmanship

Chaired by Zhang Hongxing, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
•Zhenpeng Zhan: Sacred Objects and Jiangnan Craftsmanship: The Qianlong Emperor’s Carved Lacquer Sutra Boxes
•Shao Yunfei: Imageries of West Lake on High Qing Porcelain
•Yiwen Liu: Imperial Landscape: An Ink Set of the Ten Scenes of West Lake in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art
•Ron Fuchs: Chinese Landscapes on English Ceramics

Closing Remarks
•Clarissa von Spee

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. 

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, Margaret and Loyal Wilson, the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Claudia Woods and David Osage. 

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. 

THE PAULINE AND JOSEPH DEGENFELDER DISTINGUISHED LECTURE IN CHINESE ART
“Heaven Is High and the Emperor Is Far Away”: Jiangnan in Ming-Dynasty China
Sunday, November 5, 2023, 2:00 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
FREE; ticket required

Speaker: Craig Clunas, Professor Emeritus of the History of Art, University of Oxford

Although the Jiangnan region of China, meaning “south of the Yangtze,” was the site of the first Ming dynasty capital, the court relocated to the north of China half a century after the dynasty’s founding. From this time, emperors and their immediate families were largely absent from the culture of this prosperous and vibrant heartland. But many ties still linked the culture of Jiangnan’s “Southern Paradise” and that of the Ming court. This lecture focuses on what artworks, as well as literature, can tell us about the often-fraught relationship between Jiangnan, its people, and their distant rulers in the north.

Craig Clunas is the first scholar of Asian art to hold the chair of art history at the University of Oxford. Educated in Cambridge, Beijing, and London, he began his career as a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He is the author of numerous works on Chinese art and culture, particularly of the Ming period. He is a fellow of the British Academy and, in 2012, delivered the Mellon Lectures at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

LUNCHTIME LECTURE
Creating a Period-Style Frame for a Cassone Panel
Tuesday, November 7, 2023, 12:00 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
FREE; ticket required

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. 

In this month’s event, the CMA’s painting and frames technician David Piurek discusses the materials, processes, and techniques that he used to create a new water-gilded frame for Giovanni Francesco Toscani’s early Renaissance masterwork Panel from a Cassone: The Race of the Palio in the Streets of Florence from the CMA’s collection.

Suggested Reading: https://theframeblog.com  

This program is made possible with support from Gail C. and Elliot L. Schlang.

Freedom First: Keith LaMar and Albert Marquès
Wednesday, November 8, 2023, 7:30–9:00 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
Ticket required

Cleveland-born poet, writer, and activist Keith LaMar tours Europe, the US, and Chile performing his debut album, Freedom First, but does so from his cell at the Ohio State Penitentiary, where he has spent 30 years in solitary confinement on death row for a crime he testifies that he did not commit.

Produced by Catalan pianist Albert Marquès, Freedom First (2022) is the first album to be released by an inmate on death row. The record is a collaboration between international jazz musicians playing new compositions and LaMar, who recites poetry live via phone and video.

It is jazz that has kept LaMar intellectually stimulated in prison. “John Coltrane saved my life,” LaMar said. “Had it not been for A Love Supreme, I’m sure I would have lost myself. I listened to it every day, and it rewired something in me, changed the circuitry of my brain, and opened me up in a way that allowed me to view things (most especially myself) through a broader lens. I needed that, to free my mind, in order to keep living and breathing.”

At the same time, jazz has kept LaMar connected to an ever-growing group of supporters who, through music, advocate for him to be granted a new trial to prove his innocence before his scheduled execution by the State of Ohio.

More information on Keith Lamar’s case can be found on LaMar’s website.

Profits from this performance will be donated to Justice for Keith LaMar, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to repairing the damage done by wrongful conviction.

Performers
Albert Marquès – piano
Chris Coles – alto sax
Zaire Darden – drums
Jordan McBride – bass
Keith LaMar – spoken word from Ohio’s death row

Tickets
$25 nonmembers, $22 members

The 2023–24 Performing Arts Series is sponsored by the Musart Society. This program is made possible in part by the Ernest L. and Louise M. Gartner Fund, the P. J. McMyler Musical Endowment Fund, and the Anton and Rose Zverina Music Fund.

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

Performing arts 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.

Chamber Music in the Atrium: Selections from Handel’s Alcina
Friday, November 10, 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. Grab lunch from Provenance Café and join us at the tables in the atrium. This performance showcases individual opera singers performing arias from CIM’s upcoming fall production of George Frideric Handel’s Alcina.

Tasting Notes: Date Night with Degas
Fridays, November 10 and 24, 2023, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Provenance

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 from November 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 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.  

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

Schedule
November 10: Brent Hamker and Brad Wagner 
November 24: Brent Hamker and Brad Wagner 
December 8: Brent Hamker and Brad Wagner 
December 22: Thorne Musica with Anthony Taddeo
January 12: Thorne Musica with Anthony Taddeo
January 26: Thorne Musica with Anthony Taddeo

In November and December, 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.

The 2023–24 Performing Arts Series is sponsored by the Musart Society. This program is made possible in part by the Ernest L. and Louise M. Gartner Fund, the P. J. McMyler Musical Endowment Fund, and the Anton and Rose Zverina Music Fund.

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

Performing arts 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.

Virtual Symposium: Picturing Women at Work in the 19th Century
Thursday, November 16, 2023, 1:30–4:45 p.m.; Friday, November 17, 2023, 1:30–5:00 p.m.
FREE; ticket required

In conjunction with two upcoming exhibitions that explore images of women’s labor during the 19th century—Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism (The Cleveland Museum of Art, through January 14, 2024) and Mary Cassatt at Work (Philadelphia Museum of Art, May 18–September 8, 2024, and Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, October 5, 2024–January 26, 2025)—scholars from around the globe present on an international range of topics related to the visual culture of working women.

Additional information on the presentations can be found in the list of abstracts.

Organized by Britany Salsbury, The Cleveland Museum of Art; Laurel Garber, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Nicole Georgopulos, University of British Columbia; and Jillian Kruse, Case Western Reserve University

Thursday, November 16, 2023
1:30–2:00 p.m. Welcome / Opening Remarks 
2:00–3:15 p.m. Panel 1: Visualizing Invisible Labor  
•The Lumière Sisters: Rethinking Female Labor in the 19th Century through Photography and Early Film  
Kristina Köhler, University of Cologne 
•Women Leaving the Shoe Factory: Frances Benjamin Johnston’s Photographs of Shoemakers 
Isabelle Lynch, University of Pennsylvania  
•Enmeshed: Lace and Women’s Labor in 19th-Century Photographs
Beth Saunders, University of Maryland, Baltimore County 
•Troubled Domesticities
Elizabeth Carmel Hamilton, Fort Valley State University   

3:15–3:30 p.m. Break 

3:30–4:45 p.m. Panel 2: Depicting Laundry and the Textile Trade 
•The Seamstress: A Working Woman for the Middle Classes
Alice J. Walkiewicz, Pratt Institute  
•Imperlaperle e merlettaie: Women Workers at the Point of the Needle in Late 19th-Century Venice
Anna Dumont, Northwestern University  
•Women at Work: Laundresses and Potable Water in the Entorno of 19th-Century Mexico City
Stacie G. Widdifield, University of Arizona   
•The Air That They Breathed: Thinking Ecocritically about Degas’s Laundresses
Marni Reva Kessler, University of Kansas  

Friday, November 17, 2023
1:30–2:45 p.m. Panel 3: Labor and the Colonial Gaze 
•Imperialist Imagery of Chinese Weaving Women in Great Britain: Thomas Allom and the Reworking of the Pictures of Weaving Genre 
Roslyn Lee Hammers, University of Hong Kong  
•Wringing Out the “Laundry Problem” in East Asian Modern Art
Stephanie Seung Eun Lee, Northwestern University  
•Black Women Workers and the Art of US Occupation in Haiti, 1915–1934
Shelby M. Sinclair, Dartmouth College 
•Portraying Working Women in the Visual Culture of 19th-Century India
Divya Gauri, Jawaharlal Nehru University 

2:45–3:45 p.m. Panel 4: Representing Marketing and Selling 
•Female Street Vendors, Manhattan to Montevideo: Local Market / Global Trade
Katherine Manthorne, The Graduate Center, CUNY    
•Chic Parisienne: The Department Store Saleswoman and Class in 19th-Century Paris
Justine De Young, Fashion Institute of Technology (SUNY)  
•Seeing and Sewing: The Family Business
Francesca Berry, University of Birmingham 

3:45–5:00 p.m. Keynote Address and Final Discussion 
•Demystifying the Immodest Modiste in 19th-Century Paris
Susan Hiner, Professor of French and Francophone Studies,
Director of Research Development on the John Guy Vassar Chair,
Vassar College 

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.

Chamber Music in the Atrium
Wednesday, November 29, 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. Grab lunch from Provenance Café and join us at the tables in the atrium.

Edgar Degas: The Artist’s Process and the Question of Finish
Wednesday, November 29, 2023, 6:00 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
Free; ticket required

Speaker: Ann Hoenigswald, Senior Conservator of Paintings Emerita, National Gallery of Art

Edgar Degas was a particularly experimental 19th-century artist. Close technical study of his paintings, graphic work, and sculptures reveals his eccentric choice of materials and unconventional manipulation of media. Degas was known to rework his pictures, often decades after initially considering them finished, and often approached his artworks as if they were works in progress. Frequently, he left clues on the surface to expose these changes, but on occasion, only with technical imaging can the embedded layers be deciphered. This lecture explores these aspects of his paintings and delves into his process, his use of materials, and the complicated issue of finish.

A conservator of paintings at the National Gallery for more than 40 years, Ann Hoenigswald focuses on the treatment and technical studies of 19th- and early 20th-century paintings, with a particular interest in artists’ process, intended surfaces, and the issue of finish. Her research and publications are often in collaboration with curators and academic art historians. She is currently an invited Museum Scholar at the Getty Research Institute working on Degas.

New this month!

Six Dynasties of Chinese Painting
Friday, November 10, 2023, 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.

New Narratives: Contemporary Works on Paper
Sunday, November 19, 2023, 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, the successful insurrection by enslaved and free people of color against French colonial rule in 1791–1804. 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.

Francis Alÿs: Paradox of Praxis 5
Tuesday, November 21, 2023, 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. Born in Belgium, Alÿs 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. 

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.

On-Site Activities

Art in the Afternoon
Wednesday, November 1, 2023, 1:00–2:15 p.m.
Select galleries 
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.

MATERIAL MATTERS GALLERY TALK
Ivory: Luxurious, Costly, Cruel
Wednesday, November 15, 2023, 6:00 p.m.
Ames Family Atrium
Sold out

Speaker: Beth Edelstein, Objects Conservator, The Cleveland Museum of Art

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 about how the museum preserves artworks for the future.

Ivory has long been a valued luxury material around the world; associated with the powerful elephant, it has a beautiful luster and can be finely carved into dynamic objects. The history of ivory in art gives an insight into trade routes and relationships between Africa and Europe, but it also has a darker side. The trade in elephant ivory has caused irreparable harm to elephant populations and is now strictly controlled, affecting even the travel and loan of artworks. Learn more about this fascinating material and explore objects made of ivory and other similar media in the CMA galleries.

Gallery talks meet in the Ames Family Atrium at the information desk.

ADULT CONTINUING EDUCATION
A Closer Look: Connections across the Medieval World
Sold out

In-person course:
Wednesdays, November 1 and 8, 2023, 6:00–7:00 p.m.  
Parker Hannifin Corporation Donor Gallery and select galleries 

In-person course:
Fridays, November 3 and 10, 2023, 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.  
Parker Hannifin Corporation Donor Gallery and select galleries

Both classes are sold out for the fall. Please add your name and email to the wait list to be notified about future courses.

Instructor: Amanda Mikolic

Explore the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art by getting a closer look. Courses give lifelong learners the opportunity to form a deeper connection with the museum and enrich their understanding of the CMA’s collection of art and artifacts from around the world. All sessions are conducted in the museum galleries.

Join us for the next installment of the CMA’s “A Closer Look” courses, which continues our exploration of the museum’s collection into the medieval period and beyond. This four-week course introduces the art of the medieval world using objects from the CMA’s encyclopedic collection to demonstrate the connections between cultures in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Artworks discussed cover a broad range of time, spanning from the 300s CE to the 1600s. Individual sessions focus on cross-cultural themes, such as holy and sacred families, architecture and original contexts, vessels of everyday life, and symbols of power.

Please contact adultprograms@clevelandart.org with any questions.

Sensory-Friendly Saturdays at the CMA
Saturday, November 18, 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
Iron-On Art
Saturday, November 18, 2023, 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
Ames Family Atrium
FREE

Every 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 session, explore Edgar Degas’s images of women at work by creating iron-on prints. Make your own printed handkerchief using designs by artist Julie Schabel of Wave Space Studio, add to a community-decorated tablecloth, and understand the world of working people in the 19th century with objects from the museum’s education art collection.

This event is organized in conjunction with the exhibition Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism.

Final weeks!
When Salt Was Gold: Yangzhou, City of Riches and Art
Through Sunday, November 5, 2023
Clara T. Rankin Galleries of Chinese Art | Gallery 240A
FREE

When Salt Was Gold: Yangzhou, City of Riches and Art features over a dozen paintings, from monumental wall hangings to intimate album leaves, from the museum and private collections that illustrate the artistic production of Yangzhou, the most flourishing city of 18th-century China.

Situated north of the Yangzi River along the Grand Canal, Yangzhou linked cities in the lower Yangzi delta with major political headquarters in the north. It was a center of Buddhism and bronze mirror production during the Tang dynasty (618–906), and the region’s coastal marshes provided sea salt for the empire and generated unprecedented income for Yangzhou merchants, who had been managing its distribution on behalf of the government since the 1600s.

Yangzhou’s wealth attracted artists, craftsmen, and literati who sought to make a living. Their patrons, mostly salt merchants, had mansions and gardens so grand that they hosted the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) emperors on their inspection tours. The merchant class sought recognition through establishing close ties to the court and by socializing with literati-officials.

Painters catered to the tastes of merchants and urban dwellers, combining the aesthetics of the literati with novelties in subject matter and style. Eccentricity, humor, a sketchy approach, and close-up compositions are characteristic of their works for sale, innovations that would later inspire modern artists in Shanghai. 

Samson Young: Sonata for Smoke
Through Sunday, November 19, 2023
Gallery 224B
FREE

How do we take hold of what is impermanent? This question is at the heart of Sonata for Smoke. Samson Young created the work while at an artist residency at the Zen temple Ryosoku-in in Kyoto. In that setting, he choreographed a sequence of ritualistic actions to trigger the emission of smoke, recording the image and sounds of that ephemeral substance on video. Throughout, the equipment used to capture the smoke is included in the video’s frame. This brings into focus the labor of grasping a transitory substance.

Continuing Exhibitions 
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.

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 tours for China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta are offered at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, through December 21; ticket required.

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 tours for Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism are offered at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays and at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesdays, through December 20; ticket required.

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. 

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, as well as 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.

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, November 4, 2023 | 11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. | Sábado, 4 de noviembre 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. 
Artist | Artista: Juan Fernandez (habla español)

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.

Amazing Backgrounds with Miguel C. Hernández | Fondos Increíbles con Miguel C. Hernández
Sunday, November 5, 2023 | 1:00–3:00 p.m. | Domingo, 5 de noviembre 2023

Join Cleveland comic artist Miguel C. Hernández of Studio JS at the Community Arts Center to learn the art of designing backgrounds for comics! Miguel’s experiences with comics started at a very young age with his fascination with ’90s comics, manga, and the Mamoru Oshii animation era (Patlabor, Ghost in the Shell), leading him to acquire a great passion for Japanese animation and culture. 

Participants are encouraged to bring their new skills to the Genghis Con comic convention to connect to other illustration exhibitors on Sunday, November 26, at the Pivot Art Center (where the Community Arts Center is located).

Free. All ages. All experience levels. Supplies included. Reserve your spot by emailing commartsinfo@clevelandart.org.  

¡Únete al artista de cómics de Cleveland Miguel C. Hernández de Studio JS en el Centro de Artes Comunitarias para aprende el arte de diseñar fondos para cómics! Las experiencias de Miguel con los cómics comenzaron a una edad muy temprana con su fascinación por la era del cómic de los 90, el manga y la era de la animación Mamoru Oshii (Patlabor, Ghost in the Shell), lo que lo llevó a adquirir una gran pasión por la animación y la cultura japonesa. 

Se anima a los participantes a traer sus nuevas habilidades a la convención de cómics Genghis Con para conectarse con otros expositores de ilustración el domingo 26 de noviembre en el Centro de Arte Pivot (donde el Centro de Artes Comunitarias está ubicando).

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

Snack Stories with John G. of Shiner Comics | Cuentos de Bocadillos con John G. de Shiner Comics
Sunday, November 12, 2023 | 1:00–3:00 p.m. | Domingo, 12 de noviembre 2023

John G. is an illustrator and cartoonist that has been contributing to the arts and comics communities of Cleveland and beyond for more than 20 years. This workshop teaches the process of how to tell a story in a one-page comic format using a snack recipe as a narrative construct. Join us at the Community Arts Center for a guacamole demonstration, enjoy our nacho bar, and jump into illustrating your own comic page on how to make your favorite snack! 

Participants are encouraged to bring their new skills to the Genghis Con comic convention to connect to other illustration exhibitors on Sunday, November 26, at the Pivot Art Center (where the Community Arts Center is located). 

Free. All ages. All experience levels. Supplies included. Reserve your spot by emailing commartsinfo@clevelandart.org.  

John G. es un ilustrador y caricaturista que ha estado contribuyendo a las comunidades de artes y cómics de Cleveland y más allá por más de 20 años. Este taller enseña el proceso de cómo contar una historia en un formato de cómic de una página utilizando una receta de bocadillo como una construcción narrativa. ¡Te invitamos al Centro de Artes Comunitarias para una demostración de guacamole, disfrute de nuestro bar de nachos y comience a ilustrar su propia página de cómics sobre cómo hacer su bocadillo favorito! 

Se anima a los participantes a traer sus nuevas habilidades a la convención de cómics Genghis Con para conectarse con otros expositores de ilustración el domingo 26 de noviembre en el Centro de Arte Pivot (donde el Centro de Artes Comunitarias está ubicando). 

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

Crate Night Upcycled Records | Noche Discos Reciclados
Friday, November 17, 2023 | 5:00–7:00 p.m. | Viernes, 17 de noviembre 2023

We invite you to the Community Arts Center for a special collaboration between artist Susie Underwood and DJ J. P. Hernandez, aka Barrioboy. Transform old vinyl records into something creative and new! Records are provided and played during the workshop. Bring your friends, kids, partner, or community, or come alone and plan to work with others! Guests are invited to bring a favorite record for J. P. to spin! 

Free. All ages. All experience levels. Supplies included. No registration required. Refreshments provided.

Te invitamos al Centro de Artes Comunitarias para una colaboración especial entre la artista Susie Underwood y DJ J.P. Hernández alias BARRIOBOY. ¡Transforma viejos discos de vinilo en algo creativo y nuevo! Los discos se proporcionan y se reproducen durante el taller. ¡Traiga a sus amigos, hijos, pareja, o comunidad, o venga solo y planee trabajar con otros! ¡Los invitados están invitados a traer un disco favorito para que J. P. gire!

Gratis. Todas edades. Todos los niveles de experiencia. Suministros incluidos. Sin cita previa. Refrescos proporcionados.

Doodlin’ with Justin Michael Will | Garabatear con Justin Michael Will
Sunday, November 19, 2023 | 1:00–3:00 p.m. | Domingo, 19 de noviembre 2023

Cleveland artist Justin Michael Will likes to draw every day. Join him at the Community Arts Center as he showcases and teaches techniques, tips, and tricks to using brush-pens and shares elements of what it means to build a strong illustrative practice. Those who have never drawn, those looking to find a new tool to use, or those hoping to build on their practice are all welcome to attend. 

Participants are encouraged to bring their new skills to the Genghis Con comic convention to connect to other illustration exhibitors on Sunday, November 26, at the Pivot Art Center (where the Community Arts Center is located).

Free. All ages. All experience levels. Supplies included. Reserve your spot by emailing commartsinfo@clevelandart.org.  

Al artista de Cleveland Justin Michael Will le gusta dibujar todos los días. Te invitamos al Centro de Artes Comunitarias, donde exhibe y enseña técnicas, consejos y trucos para usar bolígrafos de pincel y comparte elementos de lo que significa construir una práctica ilustrativa sólida. Aquellos que nunca han dibujado, aquellos que buscan encontrar una nueva herramienta para usar o aquellos que esperan desarrollar su práctica son bienvenidos a asistir. 

Se anima a los participantes a traer sus nuevas habilidades a la convención de cómics Genghis Con para conectarse con otros expositores de ilustración el domingo 26 de noviembre en el Centro de Arte Pivot (donde el Centro de Artes Comunitarias está ubicando).

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

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  

All education programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Education. 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, Mr. and Mrs. Walter R. Chapman Jr., 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, 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, Mr. and Mrs. Walter R. Chapman Jr., 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, Henry Ott-Hansen, Michael and Cindy Resch, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation, Margaret and Loyal Wilson, the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Claudia Woods and David Osage.