Last week I was invited on a hard hat tour of MOCA, Cleveland's new Museum of Contemporary Art, which is scheduled to open in October 2012. Of course, this opportunity filled me with Extreme Cleveland Art Love and a host of other positive vapors. As anyone would expect, the tour was a dreamlike journey into another world.
For starters, I was greeted by a reliable dragon.
We entered a tiny door that opened up into a huge room--just like in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
The whole time I felt like I was peeking behind the curtain of a beautiful lady's dressing room as she prepared for a breathtaking performance.
We crept through secret passages ...
... while the music of the world-famous Volbeat thrummed upon the rafters.
And as anyone can plainly see, this space is already filled with art.
Delicious treats tempted ...
... and a confident wizard named Jimmy floated above my head.
Behold a space that cuts the sun into perfectly portioned slivers ...
... and delivers shape and light, light and shape.
Some of MOCA's neighbors are celebrating life ...
...while others are fighting death.
But somehow MOCA, I have a feeling you'll fit in perfectly with all of them.
Thanks for the tour. I had a blast.
Love, Erin
* * *
5 comments:
Did you lick the banana tape? I hear the snosberries taste like snosberries.
“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams”
How the hell did you wrangle such an exclusive invite Erin O'Brien?
What a nifty opportunity.
When Jacobs Field was under construction I used to stop by the site once or twice a month to follow the progress. After nearly 20 seasons of baseball down there I still find myself looking around the ballpark, amazed that it's in Cleveland and it's *ours*.
I especially like the spectacle that nature creates at sunset in high summer, when you're sitting out in right field and you'd swear it was an extra, added, unadvertised value for the price of your ticket, flashes of brilliant light, every color of the spectrum challenging each other, and the shadows, for a moment's glory across the front of the bleachers.
But I wasn't in any hurry to see the death of Municipal Stadium either, Modell be damned. I will never forget the first time I walked out of a ramp down there and saw the impossibly-green grass framed by the impossibly (to a ten-year old's eye)enormous structure.
And I'll never forget the sense of joy and wonder I have felt upon encountering some other iconic constructions: Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field, MOMA in New York (and the Guggenheim too), Severance Hall, the Armor Court in our own Museum of Art, The World Trade Center, and...Wow, I could go on quite a while....
Places like these are Cathedrals that have been built to celebrate the human mind, heart and spirit...yeah...a sense of wonder...
MR
Hey, Erin, I can't afford to go to the new casino (I can't even afford the parking). Are you planning on going? If so, I hope you write about it. I need to read something other than the puff pieces coming out of the Plain Dealer.
Post a Comment