Three Cleveland Museum of Art Exhibitions and the Summit ArtSpace Grand Reopening Party

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Thursday, April 9, 2026 -- My day of art!

I have created this blog post to share with you my impressions of the day I visited two art exhibitions at one venue, and the reopening of a second, renovated art venue. I want to encourage my readers to visit in person what I share online here. I also deviate from this one day to share my photos from a third art venue, which I visited on April 2nd.

The main blog post sections feature:

• Improper Frames - Cleveland Museum of Art's Transformer Station

• Martin Puryear: Nexus - Cleveland Museum of Art

• Manet & Morisot - Cleveland Museum of Art

• Summit Artspace Grand Reopening Party

I want to take this opportunity to state how fortunate we are in Northeast Ohio to have these art venues to enjoy!

 

 

Thursday, April 2, 2026 - Improper Frames at Transformer Station

I am including the following information and my photos from my visit to Cleveland Museum of Art's Transformer Station on April 2, 2026. When I let the museum's staff know that I had missed the Manet & Morisot exhibition preview, they strongly recommended I tour it the next time I was at the main Cleveland Museum of Art location. Therefore, I made a point of seeing Manet & Morisot on April 9th.

Transformer Station is a vibrant center for the visual and performing arts, where the Cleveland Museum of Art presents the work of emerging artists, time-based media, live music, and dynamic social experiences in Ohio City’s Hingetown neighborhood.
. . .
Transformer Station is open during exhibitions and special events.
. . .
Admission: FREE
. . .
Thursday, Saturday, Sunday 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Friday 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Closed

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One week before "my day of art" on April 9th, I was in the neighborhood of The Cleveland Museum of Art’s Transformer Station, so I stopped in to see Cleveland Print Room's Improper Frames exhibition. I particularly enjoyed the series They Danced on This Land (2025) by Da’Shaunae Marisa. (See her other work at DaShaunaeMarisa.com, DaShaunaeMarisa.Me/5799880, and YouTube.com/@dashaunaemarisa.) See the Ideastream Public Media video I included below to hear directly from Da’Shaunae Marisa and the other Improper Frames artists.

Improper Frames
A Cleveland Print Room exhibition presented in partnership with the Cleveland Museum of Art
Saturday, February 14–Sunday, May 10, 2026
Location: Transformer Station
Free; No Ticket Required
. . .
Improper Frames brings together artists and photographers working through Cleveland’s internal boundaries, partial views, and shifting frames. Their works present material and visual evidence contending with the city’s recently completed property inventory. This exhaustive survey is used to classify and evaluate parcels and buildings, quietly reshaping how Cleveland narrates its future blocks, neighborhoods, and thresholds. Across Improper Frames, trees defy property lines, photographic assemblies gather displaced stories, dust builds an index inside a home, and improvised architectures point to fragmented forms the property survey does not account for. Organized by Cleveland Print Room and curated by Theodossis Issaias, the exhibition features artists Amber Ford, Jon Gott, Michael Indriolo, Da’Shaunae Marisa, Vivica Satterwhite, and Alejandro Vergara, whose projects develop through sustained work across the city’s shifting terrain.

I recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.
Please feel free to pause the video to look more closely at the artwork in the slides!!

 

As I was putting together this blog post, I noticed that I did not take enough photos to capture the scope of the exhibition. Therefore, I want to invite you to please see more by visiting the following two articles with the photography of Emanuel Wallace and video/photography of Jean-Marie Papoi:

• Photos: Cleveland Print Room’s “Improper Frames” Opens at Transformer Station
  February 16, 2026. By Emanuel Wallace - Cleveland Scene

• Artists reflect on property inventory to capture another view of Cleveland
  Published February 27, 2026 at 9:00 AM EST. By Jean-Marie Papoi - Ideastream Public Media

  A 2023 inventory by the Western Reserve Land Conservancy and the City of Cleveland aimed to determine where to focus revitalization efforts, such as demolition of blighted properties or safety hazards like lead paint. More than 160,000 parcels were photographed and evaluated.
  
  Artists responded to that work by focusing on how people exist in the neighborhoods they call home.

  Cleveland Print Room exhibition "Improper Frames"
  Ideastream Public Media
  . . . Mar 3, 2026 CLEVELAND
  How do you tell the story of a city?
  
  One perspective comes from Cleveland property surveys. Six area artists offer something completely different.
  
  The Cleveland Print Room's exhibition "Improper Frames" looks beyond structures to examine the city's most important asset: its people.

I recommend always talking to the museum staff while you are visiting Transformer Station. Whenever I visit there, they are excellent at letting me know what is happening at the Cleveland Museum of Art's different venues. They invited me to come back to see the Transformer Station summer exhibition that is coming in July. I look forward to returning to see Lake Effect: Artists from Cleveland Now - A Juried Art Exhibition Celebrating 110 Years of the Cleveland Museum of Art. It will run from July 9th through December 6, 2026.

 

 

Thursday Morning, April 9, 2026 - Martin Puryear: Nexus Media and Influencer Preview - Cleveland Museum of Art

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Martin Puryear: Nexus
Sunday, April 12–Sunday, August 9, 2026
Location: 003 Special Exhibition Hall
The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall
224B Video
Ticket Required
. . .
The Cleveland Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, co-organize the most comprehensive exhibition of Martin Puryear’s (American, born 1941) career in nearly two decades. Following their presentations, Martin Puryear: Nexus travels to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. Developed in close collaboration with Puryear, this exhibition introduces new audiences to one of the most celebrated and influential artists of our time.
. . .
Martin Puryear: Nexus highlights the global histories that have inspired Puryear’s practice, offering a fresh and timely perspective on his impactful body of work. Puryear’s art is renowned for its elegance and beauty. While accentuating the work’s visual allure, this exhibition and its accompanying catalogue look beyond form. The exhibition’s interpretive frame, rooted in new scholarship, sheds light on the ways that the artist’s unique visual vocabulary has been shaped by his enduring interests in global traditions of material culture, African American history, and the natural world.

A BIG thank-you to the Cleveland Museum of Art Communications Department for inviting me to the Martin Puryear: Nexus preview!! Attendees of the preview were fortunate to be able to hear from the Museum's Chief Marketing Officer, Todd Mesek, and the exhibition's curators, Emily Liebert (Lauren Rich Fine Curator of Contemporary Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art) and Reto Thüring (Head of Culture at the Foundation for Art, Culture, and History in Winterthur, Switzerland).

The real highlight of the preview was to hear directly from the artist, Martin Puryear. He not only shared his insights on this special exhibition of his work, but then opened the floor to questions from the attendees. It was very interesting to hear directly from him about the meaning of some of his artwork, and more importantly, he encouraged the viewers of his work to develop their own interpretation. I will never look at Martin Puryear's Alien Huddle, the same way again. It is a piece I have seen many times when visiting the Cleveland Museum of Art. I talked to some museum staff, and what Martin Puryear shared with us today was the first time they had heard his interpretation. He told us that the "alien" is his newborn child -- a child joins a couple and changes the dynamic of the couple as they become a family of three. It will be interesting to see if the Cleveland Museum of Art elects to update their official description (see image to the right) based on what we heard from Martin Puryear at the preview.

A guided tour of the exhibition was provided by Emily Liebert for the preview attendees. Here is information on how to have your own tour experience:

• Martin Puryear Docent Guided Tours
  Weekly on Saturday and Sunday, 1:00–2:00 pm, from Saturday, April 11, 2026, through Sunday, July 26, 2026.

• To schedule private tours for adult groups of 10 or more, please contact grouptours@clevelandart.org or call 216-707-2752.

If you are interested, the Cleveland Museum of Art has the following book:

• Martin Puryear: Nexus
  $65.00 USD
  Edited by Emily Liebert
  With Reto Thüring
  220 Pages, 266 x 330 mm, 212 color + b-w illus.
  Published: 23 September 2025

  Martin Puryear: Nexus, Edited by Emily Liebert with Reto Thüring
  Yale Press
  . . . Aug 29, 2025

 

Here are my photos from the morning. Note that I was able to get photos of most of the artwork with none of the preview attendees in my photos. That is partly due to the fact that the way the exhibition is displayed has a very airy feel to it with a lot of space between the sculptures. It is a relaxing environment in which to enjoy the exhibition.

I recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.
Please feel free to pause the video to look more closely at the artwork and read the descriptions in the slides!!

I want to invite you to learn more from the following articles and official resources from the Cleveland Museum of Art:

• Photos: A Preview of ‘Martin Puryear: Nexus,’ Opening April 12 at CMA
  Developed in close collaboration with Puryear, this exhibition introduces new audiences to one of the most celebrated and influential artists of our time.
  April 10, 2026. By Emanuel Wallace - Cleveland Scene
  
  When you look at Emanuel Wallace's article, be sure to look for the photo that he took of me at the preview.

• The Story Behind Martin Puryear’s “Alien Huddle,” a Highlight of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  The renowned sculptor is celebrated in a new career-spanning exhibition titled Martin Puryear: Nexus, on view at the museum April 12-Aug. 9.
  April 9, 2026 at 3:19 pm. By Annie Nickoloff - Cleveland Magazine
  
  I mentioned above how preview attendees were very privileged to have Martin Puryear share publicly his interpretation of Alien Huddle, which is a permanent part of the Cleveland Museum of Art's Contemporary Installation. I am thrilled that Annie Nickoloff asked the question which prompted the artist to explain. I want to encourage you to read her full article, which shares the meaning of this and other pieces of artwork that I was fortunate to view at the preview.

  Clevelanders likely recognize one of the exhibition's central pieces, titled “Alien Huddle." The globular wooden sphere sculpture moved a couple of floors away from the contemporary art gallery where it has typically been on view since CMA acquired it in the early 2000s.
  
  At an April 9 preview event for the show, the artist himself stood next to the wooden sphere to answer questions about the collection, which consists of 50 pieces of abstract shapes, colors and forms, each reflecting inspirations in the natural world and cultural identity.
  
  In every abstract shape and detail, the meaning is ultimately up to the viewer to determine. But, when asked by Cleveland Magazine to share more detail around how the museum’s “Alien Huddle” came to be, Puryear divulged the story behind the piece.
  
  “It’s not about an alien from outer space,” Puryear said. “It’s about embracing a new entity in your life.”
  
  Created after his daughter was born, the sculpture was inspired by the process of labor and birth – of the transformation which occurs when a relationship goes from two people, to three.
  
  That story is tangible, when taking a slow walk around the sculpture. From one angle, you can see only one wooden globe. As you slowly step around the piece, a second globe appears. And, from just the right angle, as you continue to interact, a third, tiny globe appears, nestled between them, in one family huddle. A sculptural hug.

  In the following video, Annie Nickoloff captured not only the atmosphere of the exhibition space, but coincidentally, when discussing Alien Huddle, she got a shot of me talking to the museum's curator, Emily Liebert, about the sculpture.

  A Cleveland Museum of Art exhibition celebrates the longtime career of Martin Puryear.

   

• Martin Puryear: Nexus Exhibition
  Cleveland Museum of Art
  April 12 - August 9, 2026
  By Dan Hanson - ClevelandPeople.Com

  When I first arrived at the reception before the exhibition's opening, I was talking to Dan Hanson, and he expressed to me that we are fortunate to have such great art exhibitions right here in Cleveland. We saw people at the preview reception who had traveled from across our nation, and Dan said that we need to encourage those who live in Northeast Ohio to visit the Cleveland Museum of Art.

  When Dan and I first entered the exhibition, I mentioned the interesting shadows of the first piece, which Dan then wrote about in his article: "When you walk in, the first piece you will see is Hibernian Testosterone. The lighting lets the piece cast some cool shadows." In Dan Hanson's video that is embedded in his article, he interviews an art professor from Oberlin College, who I also talked to during the preview. The professor told me how he taught about Martin Puryear's C.F.A.O., but he had never seen it in person. Looking at the photo is not the same as seeing it in person, and experiencing the full 360° view. (In addition to Dan's video, please see the walk-around video of C.F.A.O. that I included above in my photos from the morning.)

• Sculptor Martin Puryear brings major exhibition to Cleveland Museum of Art
  Published: Apr. 13, 2026, 9:25 a.m. Updated: Apr. 13, 2026, 12:44 p.m. By Paris Wolfe, cleveland.com

• Martin Puryear: Nexus
  February 11, 2026. By Emily Liebert, Lauren Rich Fine Curator of Contemporary Art and Chair of Arts of the Americas and Modern and Contemporary Art
  Appears in Cleveland Art, 2026, Issue 1

• The most comprehensive Martin Puryear survey in nearly 20 years opens at the Cleveland Museum of Art
  Press Release (716KB PDF file will open in a new browser window.)

 

 

Thursday Afternoon, April 9, 2026 - Manet & Morisot - Cleveland Museum of Art

Manet & Morisot is the first ever major exhibition dedicated to the artistic exchange between Édouard Manet, often referred to as the father of modern painting, and Berthe Morisot, the only woman among the founding members of the Impressionist movement. Unfolding over a period of roughly 15 years, between 1868 and 1883, theirs was perhaps the closest relationship between any two members of the Impressionist circle. As friends and colleagues—by turns collaborative and competitive—they collected one another’s work.

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I originally was invited by the Cleveland Museum of Art Communications Department to the Manet & Morisot opening preview on Thursday, March 26, 2026, but a family emergency forced me to cancel at the last minute. Here are my photos from my afternoon visit:

I recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.
Please feel free to pause the video to look more closely at the artwork and read the descriptions in the slides!!

I recommend seeing more photos from the exhibition in the following articles:

• Photos: A Preview of CMA’s Manet & Morisot Exhibition
  The exhibition features thirty-six paintings and six drawings and prints borrowed from museums and private collections
  March 29, 2026. By Emanuel Wallace - Cleveland Scene

• Manet & Morisot Exhibition
  Cleveland Museum of Art
  March 29 - July 5, 2026
  By Dan Hanson - ClevelandPeople.Com

• Drawing inspiration: Cleveland Museum of Art shows 'Manet & Morisot'
  Published April 9, 2026 at 11:28 AM EDT. Ideastream Public Media | By Carrie Wise, Jean-Marie Papoi

  Drawing inspiration: Cleveland Museum of Art shows 'Manet & Morisot'
  Ideastream Public Media
  Apr 8, 2026 THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART
  A new exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art pairs two friends’ paintings side by side. In that proximity, viewers can appreciate the similarities and differences between work by Édouard Manet and Berthe Morisot.
  
  Manet was a studio painter who revised his work while Morisot preferred to paint outdoors - or en plein air. Morisot posed for many of Manet’s portraits, but she was not merely a muse who also painted as some “old-fashioned art history” might suggest, said Heather Lemonedes Brown, the museum’s curator of Modern European Art.

Thank you to The Cleveland Museum of Art for the enjoyable day! After this fun day of art, I continued on to spend my evening in Downtown Akron at the Summit Artspace Grand Reopening Party and dance party.

 

 

Thursday Evening, April 9, 2026 - Summit Artspace Grand Reopening Party

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I enjoyed my evening in Downtown Akron exploring the artwork at Summit Artspace! There are always items of interest on display.

I was fortunate to be able to talk to Summit ArtSpace's new executive director, Natalie Grieshammer Patrick. She told me about the new building renovations, which include new lighting, new third floor restrooms, the reopening of the back historic staircase, a new hallway on the first floor, and lots of behind-the-scenes work to make the building more comfortable for the artists who use the space.

After two years of anticipation and detailed planning, we are thrilled to announce that Summit Artspace’s building is getting a facelift! This project, generously funded by owners of the historic building, Summit County, is set to begin this August [2025]. It will update a host of areas throughout the building, including refinishing stairwells, gallery spaces, our 3rd floor event space, and our storefront, making it better equipped and more accessible to serve our 30 resident artists, 400 exhibiting artists, and 9,000 annual visitors. These improvements are exciting but also necessary to maintain the nearly 100-year-old building, and will help make our tenancy in it sustainable, leading up to its centennial celebration in 2027 and beyond.

Here are my photos of some of the artwork I saw while touring the newly renovated building:

I recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.
Please feel free to pause the video to look more closely at the artwork in the slides!!

 

Musical performances for the night were provided by Uno Lady, Rent for Cheryl, and dance party DJ, Brainwreck:

I recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.

I am so glad I was able to attend the Grand Reopening Celebration and dance party! I highly recommend visiting Summit Artspace when in Akron!

 

 

Related Blog Posts

I always like to include in my blog posts a list of related posts that may be of interest to my readers, but since I have written 105 "art" related blog posts going back to September 2012, I recommend that it would be best to just see the related past blog posts under the following categories:

• "Cleveland Museum of Art" - 64 past blog posts.

• "Summit Artspace" - Six past blog posts.

• "Transformer Station" - Six past blog posts, of which four are from before the building became a remote location for the Cleveland Museum of Art.

• "University Circle" - If you are interested in all the museums in Cleveland's eastside cultural center, please see my 84 past blog posts.

• "Akron" - 31 blog posts about venues/events I have written about in Akron.

 

Thank you for reading my blog post about my day of art! I hope it encourages you to go out and see these art venues. You can learn about my travel journeys and the venues I explore in Cleveland and Akron at: sosAssociates.com/Blog

 

 

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Disclosure: I received an invitation to attend the Thursday morning, April 9, 2026, Media & Influencer Preview of Martin Puryear: Nexus, which included refreshments at a networking reception, admission to the exhibition, and presentations by the curators and artist, which were followed by a tour of the exhibition. I had let the museum Communications Department know that I was going to use my membership benefit to also tour the Manet & Morisot exhibition in the afternoon, but they instead provided me a free ticket to the exhibition.

Since my wife, Julie, and I are members of the Cleveland Museum of Art, we were already entitled to free tickets to both Martin Puryear: Nexus and Manet & Morisot, and I plan to use that benefit to return to see both of these exhibitions again with Julie. (Watch for my most recent Cleveland Museum of Art posts on Bluesky.)

The invitation to attend came as a result of my wife/co-blogger, Julie's, and my support of the Cleveland Museum of Art with our many sosAssociates.com blog posts about the museum. I enjoyed the preview, and wrote this blog post to share my experience at both the Martin Puryear: Nexus and Manet & Morisot exhibitions, and other art venues I wrote about in this blog post. I was very grateful to be able to attend previews at the Cleveland Museum of Art!