Panelists Discuss the Role & Value of Cleveland’s Former May Show

Wed 5/12 @ 7PM

Remember The May Show? The long-running annual exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art was launched in 1919 offered the chance for northeast Ohio artists to be shown in the region’s most prestigious museum. When it was ended in 1993 due to the cost of mounting it and an increased emphasis on national exhibitions, the move was highly controversial.

The Artists Archives of the Western Reserve is going to fan those flames with a virtual panel discussion titled The May Show: The Museum, The Community, & The Story of Art in Cleveland. It will look at how major museums interact with the creative communities that surround them.

It will be moderated by Michael Gill, editor/publisher of the quarterly visual arts magazine CAN Journal, in whose pages a lively debate on the May Show has taken place. Panelists include Case Western Reserve Professor of Art Henry Adams, Plain Dealer art/ architecture critic Steven Litt and Key Jo Lee, CMA’s Director of Academic Affairs and Associate Curator of Special Projects. They offer differing perspectives on a show such as the May Show, as well as alternative proposals.

“I want to create the next generation of May Show discussion…one which doesn’t just rehash conversations which have been had for decades but instead examines the relationship between the museum and the community, and imagines new possibilities of engagement,” says Gill.

 There’ll be an opportunity for listeners to ask questions after the panel discussion. To register for the free program, go to artistsarchives.org.

artistsarchives.org/event/the-may-show-program/

 

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