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Cleveland Museum of Art's MIX: Underneath

Blog Date
Author(s)
Julie Smith
Stuart O. Smith, Jr.
Tags
Cleveland
Art
University Circle
Museums
Cleveland Museum of Art
#MIXatCMA

Cleveland Museum of Art's MIX: Underneath

We really enjoyed ourselves at Cleveland Museum of Art's MIX: Underneath on the night after Halloween. In fact, it was so great that we felt compelled to share our experience via our photos and tweets/retweets of the evening. We have attended several of the museum's MIX events, but we had the most fun at this one. The "spirit" of the evening was great, with seeing all the costumes and art-related activities, going on the museum's Underneath the Frame "ghost tour," and chatting with friends.

Silk screening at #MixAtCMA: Underneath
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MIX: Underneath was described on the Cleveland Museum of Art's website as...

Go beneath the surface. Don a mask or come in costume, and uncover monsters, spirits, and things that go bump in the night.

Start your Halloween weekend off right and get your fright on with a double feature projection in the atrium, including a screening of the original 1925 version of The Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney as the disfigured musical genius of the hidden chambers and corridors beneath the Paris Opera House. Watch as a Live Art mural by the Rust Belt Monster Collective materializes, and discover what’s underneath with spooky tours of the collection and the new exhibition, Fragments of the Invisible: The Delenne Collection of Congo Sculpture.

We learned more about the Cleveland Museum of Art's Column & Stripe affiliate group and how they are raising money for the museum. The plan is to purchase frames for art pieces that are appropriate for the particular piece. Watch for information on their #FrameUpCLE Kickstarter project at ColumnAndStripe.org.

Cleveland Museum of Art's Column & Stripe Affiliate Group
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UPDATE: tonight we found that Column & Stripe has posted this video

We enjoyed the "Underneath the Frame Tour," where we learned about some haunting works of art, and stories of mysterious happenings at the museum. Did you know that workers at the museum have reported seeing a vision of a woman in a gallery that was known to be empty? We learned that guests to the museum reported mysterious "cold zones" where a child reported that they felt the presence of a ghost. We heard stories of flashlights failing as night guards or construction workers entered a particular gallery.

Truth Booth"Portrait of the Ladies Amabel and Mary Jemima Yorke, c. 1761"

We also learned a piece of trivia about the pale faces of "Portrait of the Ladies Amabel and Mary Jemima Yorke, c. 1761" (red pigment used was poor quality and faded), and viewed "The Race Track (Death on a Pale Horse), c. 1896-1908."

Please select this link to read all about the tours and programs at the Mix Underneath event.

Mix Underneath program

The weekend before MIX: Underneath, Stuart attended a costume-making party. At that party, he decided that since he would be attending the Halloween-themed Mix event, he would make a mask of one of the art pieces at the Cleveland Museum of Art. He chose "Self-Portrait with Hat, 1919," since he drew a version of it when he took art classes at the museum while in high school. Julie wore a cat mask - meow!

Julie and Stuart exploring gallery
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Stuart as "Self-Portrait with Hat, 1919"Stuart as "Self-Portrait with Hat, 1919"#ArtLens iPad app showing "Self-Portrait with Hat, 1919"

Silent horror films, Nosferatu (1922), and the 1925 version of The Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney, were projected on the wall of the south within the atrium. The films helped create the perfect environment for the evening.

The Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon ChaneyThe Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney

The only unfortunate part of the evening is when the museum turned up the lights, indicating that it was time to leave. Everyone was having such a great time that could have stayed much longer into the evening. smiley Thank you to the staff of the museum, who made this evening possible.

#MixAtCMA: Underneath
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Our #MixAtCMA Tweets/Retweets

Here are all the tweets and retweets about the event via @sos_jr. More was shared online, so we recommend going to Twitter and looking at all the great photos and positive comments shared with the #MixAtCMA hashtag.