Sat 6/25-Sun 6/26
For 100 years, the Cleveland Museum of Art made good on its promise to be “for the benefit of all the people forever.”
That includes the Northeast Ohio cultural institution’s Centennial Festival Weekend, which includes its sold-out annual Summer Solstice party. However, throughout two-day celebration will be a memorable (and historic) free music and arts festival taking place both inside and outside of the museum.
CoolCleveland talked to the museum’s director of performing arts Tom Welsh about Centennial Festival Weekend.
What’s planned for this weekend?
Centennial Festival Weekend is indeed the celebration of 100 years of the Cleveland Museum of Art. It really is the pinnacle of a yearlong series of celebrations, activities and special events geared for the centennial. In many ways, this is the top of the mountain for all of our celebrations. Solstice has been our big annual summer blowout and this year we expanded it into a full weekend of festival programming.
Aside from the Solstice, tell us about other events scheduled for the Centennial Festival Weekend.
The free events include lots of tours, talks, art activities, drawing activities and plenty of music. Alarm Will Sound will play on Saturday. They’re playing a piece by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Luther Adams called “Ten Thousand Birds.” This is a large event piece that runs for over an hour. The musicians and the audience move around freely throughout the atrium and the second floor. John Luther Adams wrote this piece based on bird songs of the American Midwest. So it’s not a traditional concert but it will be a large music experience.
Tell us about Northeast Ohio’s Jeremy Bible’s involvement with the Centennial Festival Weekend
We’ll also have a sound installation by Jeremy Bible, who is a noted sound artist. He’s bringing back for us a speaker system that will be in our East Wing Glass Box Gallery commonly known as the Rodin Sculpture Gallery. In 2009, Jeremy for the first Solstice created a sounding environment based on the construction sounds of the museum, which you may remember at that time was in the middle of a renovation and expansion program. We asked Jeremy to bring it back out for the 9th annual Solstice and the Centennial Festival. It will be up and running throughout the weekend. It’s a sound installation and it’s very beautiful. You can pass through at the moment or sit there for hours. On Sunday, we’ll have Alam Khan, who is the son of Ali Akbar Khan, the world-famous master musician of Indian classical music. He’s doing an afternoon raga session. I anticipate it being a very beautiful, soothing and easygoing way to start the day off.
In addition to the band Miramar playing Cuban boleros on Sunday, the Cleveland Orchestra will also be performing in the late afternoon on the steps of the Cleveland Museum of Art. How significant is this?
I think it’s really an amazing gift from the orchestra to the museum. It never happened before. This is an extremely special moment and very generous of the orchestra to help us celebrate our centennial by coming across the street. It’s actually quite remarkable. Everybody here is thrilled that they’re coming over to help us celebrate. I think it’s going to be quite an amazing weekend capped off by this marquee moment.
In the past, has the Cleveland Museum of Art hosted an event similar to the Centennial Festival Weekend?
There was a 75th anniversary 25 years ago, so there has been a kind of giant celebration but by all accounts, we expect this one to far outdo it. Every 25 years or so we might get into this kind of programming but there’s nothing like a centennial.
Finally, what should residents of Northeast Ohio take away from not only the Centennial Festival Weekend but also the Cleveland Museum of Art in general?
We’re hoping this is a chance for everybody to come celebrate the museum, especially those families who live here but perhaps have never seen the museum. It’s a free museum, which is the most remarkable fact. It’s always been free. Not only are we reflecting on the first 100 years but we’re setting the tone for the next 100 years. It’s really also about looking forward and how the museum lives in a community and the role it can play within this community for all audiences. Ultimately, we’re trying to raise the bar at all times. It’s going to be great.
clevelandart.org/centennial-festival-weekend