Museums

Back in 2012, we wrote about attending a Crash Party, which introduced the ArtLens App and related gallery. Through this event, we became fascinated with the ways that the Cleveland Museum of Art uses technology to engage their visitors. Since 2012, we have visited the gallery and used the app many times and have written several ArtLens-related blog posts. We have watched both the ArtLens App and related gallery gradually evolve to expand their functionality and ease of use.

When we were invited by Cleveland Museum of Art Chief Information Officer Jane Alexander to attend the 2017 ArtLens Crash Party on June 21st, we knew that major changes were coming -- changes that were not just evolutionary, but revolutionary!

Ever have a day when you have a few things planned, but as the day proceeds, opportunities for more fun activities arise? That was my day on Saturday, May 6, 2017, when a couple of fun things evolved into a full day and evening of activities.

• Late Morning: Cleveland Flats - Drink Local. Drink Tap. Inc.'s "4 Miles 4 Water"

• Early Afternoon: Downtown Cleveland - Cleveland Public Library's "Superman: From Cleveland to Krypton – An Exhibit" Opening!

• Late Afternoon: Uptown Cleveland - Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA)'s Free Admission First Saturday

• Evening: Cleveland's University Circle - Cleveland Museum of Art's MIX: Model

Thanks to all the organizations that hosted these events -- from the flats to Uptown and beyond!

We were fortunate to receive an invitation to attend the April 26, 2017, Cleveland Museum of Art's "Alex Katz Media and Influencer Exhibition Preview."  The exhibition opened on Sunday, April 30, 2017, and will continue through Sunday, August 6, 2017. 

The museum's Director of Communications, Caroline Guscott, and Communications Associate, Kelley Notaro, greeted us as we arrived to start the evening. They introduced us to Curator of American Painting and Sculpture Mark Cole. It was great to have Mark Cole at the preview, so that we could ask questions about the paintings and learn some art history of the time period represented by this exhibition of Alex Katz's work.

We also met Diana K. Tuite, the Katz Curator from the Colby College Museum of Art.

January 18, 2017 - Biomimicry!

This is the third blog post we have written about a Cleveland Museum of Natural History Think & Drink with the Extinct event. Each event has been a unique experience.

Think & Drink

Raise a glass and increase your knowledge of the natural world at one of the brainiest happy hours in Cleveland!

We did not know that the very first Think & Drink with the Extinct that we would attend, with our brand-new membership, on January 18, 2017, would feature the University of Akron Biomimicry Fellowship Ph.D. candidates we had already written about in our blog twice! We were excited to learn of their new product based on biomimicry principles, and meeting some of the other students. It is great that the museum gives the opportunity for many people to learn about the unique ideas being developed at Akron University's Biomimicry Fellowships!

We had a such a great time at University Circle's 23rd Annual Holiday CircleFest on Sunday, December 4, 2016, that we wanted to share our photos and tweets/retweets of the day to thank all the sponsoring organizations. Unfortunately, Julie only was able to attend the early activities, since she had a choir performance, but Stuart stayed to the very end of the evening activities.

One of the great things about the day is the people who work at the sponsoring organizations, who warmly welcome and talk to visitors. Stuart wants to give a shout-out to the people he met during the day. Their actions show how to effectively engage visitors to University Circle.

A year ago, we were invited via Twitter to go on the final CircleTrek Walking Tour of University Circle for 2015. We really wanted to go, but unfortunately we had a conflict.

We have been very busy in 2016, and it feels like suddenly it is one year later. Luckily, we saw a tweet announcing the "...final FREE #CircleTrek guided walking tour of the season," and Julie signed us up to attend!

It was a brisk morning on Saturday, October 22, 2016, when we found ourselves with a group of other people interested in learning about our city's University Circle. As we were on the tour, we kept finding personal and family connections. This made the tour more interesting to us, as we personally related to the history and current developments of Cleveland's University Circle.

We had a great time at the Wednesday, October 19, 2016, Cleveland Museum of Natural History's Think & Drink with the Extinct, so we wanted to share our photos and tweets from the evening. The theme for the night was "Wildlife," which Stuart knew would be of special interest to Julie. It is always fun to be able to get close to the animals at the museum.

Like many of our adventures, it all started with a tweet!

Through this tweet, we learned about and decided to attend the Akron Art Prize Finale Reception on Saturday, October 1, 2016. We enjoyed seeing all the Akron Art Prize entries first at Summit Artspace, and then attending the awards reception at the Akron Art Museum.

We had such a good time and were so impressed with the artwork, that we wanted to share our photos and tweets/retweets from the event.

Every year, we visit and write a blog post about the Cleveland Museum of Art's Chalk Festival. It is one of our favorite events in our community. This year, we also visited other art events on the same weekend, so we included our @sos_jr tweets with photos of these events as well. Enjoy!

Although it is a very busy time of the year, and we had visited the Cleveland Museum of Art and University Circle recently, when we heard about the Ohio Blogging Association's University Circle Holiday Night Out, we knew we had to make the time for this special night. We know that we will remember this fun evening for a long time!