With visual art, music, and dance all coming together in Dancing around the Bride: Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, and Duchamp a visit to the exhibition galleries becomes a true multi-sensory experience. It is a total immersion into the intersecting worlds of these five artists, presenting their creative exchanges of the postwar era as if unfolding in the very moment. Helping to make it all possible behind the scenes, however, is state-of-the-art technology more often associated with Broadway than with a museum.

Sound is critical to embracing the spirits of the artists featured in this show—particularly of composer John Cage and choreographer Merce Cunningham. With that in mind, curators Carlos Basualdo and Erica Battle, as well as Paris-based artist and exhibition orchestrator Philippe Parreno turned to a team of sound professionals including sound designer Nicolas Becker of HAL and sound system designer Duncan Edwards of Audio Design International. Together, they created a soundscape that integrates and distributes both pre-recorded and live sound on 43 speakers throughout the exhibition. Moving endlessly throughout the space, the soundscape is powered by Meyer Sound Lab’s D-Mitri, the same sound system that has been used in countless productions including Spiderman, The Lion King, Les Miserables, Cirque de Soleil, the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and in theme parks such as Disneyland in Anaheim and Opryland.

In Dancing around the Bride, the soundscape is further enhanced by two Yamaha Disklavier pianos, one situated in the exhibition galleries and the other in the Museum’s Great Stair Hall. Disklaviers are unique because, unlike player pianos, they are computer-driven performance reproduction systems, able to record the subtlety of each hammer strike of the performer, catching even the slightest stutter or faintest note. Acclaimed pianist Margaret Leng Tan recorded two John Cage compositions on these Disklavier pianos—Chess Pieces (1944) and Music for Marcel Duchamp (1947)—which now echo, like ghosts, through the Great Stair Hall and Dorrance Galleries.

Other sound components of the show include additional recordings of John Cage’s music, previously recorded outdoor sounds, and live outdoor sounds captured daily using microphones that pick up sound from the streets just outside the Museum (an element that proved essential in any performance of Cage’s “silent” piece 4’33”, which relies on environmental sounds over instrumentation). Parreno also contributed a sound piece titled How Can We Know the Dancer From the Dance? (2012), which plays back audio recordings of the former Merce Cunningham dancers, enabling their movements, footsteps, shuffles, and breathing to travel across the 28 x 32 foot dance floor that has been turned into a speaker with additional high-tech equipment.

All of this together creates a setting that, unlike many museum exhibitions, allows visitors to have different experiences at different times. Each visitor will have their own unique moment in the show. This confluence of art and life was of great importance to Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, and Duchamp, and is at the heart of Dancing around the Bride.

This post was originally published on the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Knight Arts blog. Dancing around the Bride is made possible by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative. Additional support is generously provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Glenstone, The Presser Foundation, the Dedalus Foundation, The Robert Saligman Charitable Foundation, Dr. Sankey V. Williams and Constance H. Williams, Dina and Jerry Wind, John Wind, Barbara B. and Theodore R. Aronson, Christie’s, Mary S. and Anthony B. Creamer, Jaimie and David Field, Lawrence Luhring and Roland Augustine, Seda International Packaging Group, Mari and Peter Shaw, Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Levine, Alice Saligman and Klaus Brinkmann, and other generous individuals. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Support for the accompanying publication is generously provided by Larry Gagosian.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is home to the largest collection of work by Marcel Duchamp in the world, with visitors from across the globe drawn to these galleries year after year. One such visit in the late 1950s was so meaningful that without it, the Museum’s upcoming exhibition Dancing around the Bride: Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, and Duchamp would not be able to happen.

It all started in 1957, just a few months after art dealer Leo Castelli opened his gallery in New York. He launched a show called New Works, featuring the art of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. When the reviews came out, Art News referred to John’s 1955 Flags as “neo-Dada.”

The critic’s remarks started a chain of events that changed the course of postwar art history. Johns had no idea what “neo-Dada” meant, but he knew that in order to find out, he’d have to first understand Dada. And to understand Dada, he had to explore the works of one of the key figures of Dada himself—Marcel Duchamp. With that, Johns and Rauschenberg journeyed to Philadelphia to immerse themselves in the Museum’s Duchamp galleries.

The rooms then known as the Arensberg Galleries that they saw were just as Duchamp had installed them in 1954. The Large Glass (pictured) was there then, as it is now, in front of a small north-facing window overlooking the Museum’s East Entrance courtyard and the only one of its kind within the Museum’s gallery spaces. Employing the happenstance beauty of chance and reflection, Duchamp chose this very site so that the viewer could experience the varying effects of changing light through the glass along with the movements of the everyday passerby. The terrace’s fountain further animates the scene. They also saw Duchamp’s paintings—from the early portraits to the avant-garde cubist works such as The Bride and Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, as well as his readymades—such as Why Not Sneeze, Rrose Selavy?.

After the visit, the two developed an enduring friendship with the older artist. In 1959, Duchamp reciprocated with a visit to their studios, where he would have seen Johns’ numbers paintings and target paintings, as well as Rauschenberg’s Combines, an art form that complicates the relationship between painting in sculpture that Rauschenberg invented in 1954.

Duchamp’s work thus became even more profoundly influential for them, and it also informed the two other artists featured in the exhibition, John Cage and Merce Cunningham. Rauschenberg had been involved with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company since 1953, serving as Resident Advisor, often in collaboration with Johns. Meanwhile, Cage was the music director. The complete and open communication between the four was now being infused with a decidedly Duchampian spirit.

In Dancing around the Bride, you will see the direct effect of this visit and the subsequent influence in Rauschenberg’s combine Bride’s Folly; several of Johns’ paintings that invocate The Bride in various constellations, and the centerpiece of the exhibition, Walkaround Time, a set created by Jasper Johns for a dance by Merce Cunningham. The set design was inspired by The Large Glass, and visitors will be recognize elements of it throughout. One of the key themes in Dancing around the Bride is to highlight both how these artists worked together and how they worked in parallel, in a community of artists who embodied the spirit of openness, chance, and trust.

While Dancing around the Bride: Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, and Duchamp doesn’t officially open until October 30 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, September 5 is also key date for the much-anticipated exhibition. It is the 100th anniversary of the birth of John Cage (American, 1912-1992), an artist whose art and life were inextricably interwoven with the four other avant-garde artists whose interactions and collaborations in the 1950s and 1960s exerted a powerful and lasting impact on future generations.

Cage, often regarded as one of the most influential artists of the last century, was a pioneer in electronic music, indeterminate (or chance-based) music, and a key figure in the emergence of Fluxus and Happenings in the visual arts. A tireless innovator, he invented the “prepared piano” by inserting miscellaneous objects on the strings and hammers of his piano, taking the instrument into a completely new sound world. Throughout his career, Cage surprised audiences by expanding the very idea of what a musical experience could be. With 4’33″, perhaps his most infamous piece, the performer remains silent for the duration of the performance, creating a sonic environment in which composer-intended sounds are replaced by the unassuming beauty of the concert hall’s ambient noises.

To mark the centenary, the work and legacy of John Cage is being celebrated in festivals all over the world, from London to Sydney. Philadelphia will be no exception: in conjunction with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bowerbird will present Beyond Silence: The Music of John Cage, a festival celebrating his radical output, at the time of Dancing around the Bride. Events will take place in the Museum galleries and throughout the city. One of these events will be presented as part of Art After 5, the Museum’s Friday evening concert series.

Cage is no stranger to Philadelphia Museum of Art audiences. In the summer of 1995, three years after his death, we presented Rolywholyover: A Circus for Museum by John Cage. It was one of the last large-scale projects that he conceived, a constantly changing array of art, performances, film screenings, readings, and programs. Much of the show’s installation was randomly determined by computer, and rearranged daily so that viewers could never have the same experience twice. It broke with tradition, just like Cage did. So, too, will the installation of Dancing around the Bride, conceived collaboratively with contemporary artist Philippe Parreno, whose past works include one created in direct homage to both Cage and Rauschenberg.

Dancing around the Bride will be the first exhibition to chart the catalytic effect of the five artists together, via paintings, sculptures, stage sets, musical notations, choreographic notes, performance, and programming. While their activity across artistic disciplines ignited the art world 50 years ago, the exhibition brings this critical moment back to life, representing the performative context for which the well-known works of visual art were created.. And the timing couldn’t be more appropriate—not only is 2012 Cage’s centenary, it is also the 125th anniversary of Duchamp’s birth and the centenary of his celebrated 1912 paintings Bride and Nude Descending a Staircase, no. 2, featured prominently in the exhibition.

Cage was fascinated by Duchamp long before they met. They were fellow travelers in a way, each intrigued by the relationship of chance to art and life. In this spirit, we invite the public to engage in the moment and take away from the show whatever they ‘chance’ to discover.

This post was originally published on the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Knight Arts blog. Dancing around the Bride is made possible by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative. Additional support is generously provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Glenstone, The Presser Foundation, the Dedalus Foundation, Christie’s, Dr. Sankey V. Williams and Constance H. Williams, Barbara B. and Theodore R. Aronson, Mary S. and Anthony B. Creamer, Jaimie and David Field, Mari and Peter Shaw, Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Levine, and other generous individuals. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanitites. Support for the accompanying publication is generously provided by Larry Gagosian.

Chances are, you've seen the traditional yellow "Sampler" box of Whitman's chocolates in drugstores before. But you may not know that the Philadelphia-based chocolate company amassed a vast collection of actual samplers, or embroideries by school girls, which Pet, Incorporated gave to the Museum in 1969.

The Whitman Collection boasts several hundred American and European samplers dating from the 17th through the 20th century, and ten 18th-and 19th- century Scottish samplers from this group are on view right now in Gallery 271. We toured the installation with Costume and Textiles Curatorial Fellow Laura Camerlengo, who told us more about this unique art form (and put us in the mood for chocolate).

What are samplers exactly?
Samplers are embroideries that were used for many centuries to teach literacy and needlework skills. The word comes from the Latin exemplar, meaning “model”.

Early samplers were primarily functional. Girls and young women created them as a sort of reference point for their favorite stitches and patterns to use later for other types of embroidery.

By the 19th century, pattern books were readily available and samplers became much more ornate and pictorial. Affluent girls would often display them in their family homes to show that they were skilled in the domestic arts …that is to say, the girls were good marriage material.

What make Scottish samplers unique?
Scottish samplers have some elements of the English tradition, but they also have their own distinct aesthetic; their motifs are more detailed, the lettering is more elaborate, and you see a wider array of colorful threads, particularly in shades of red and green.

Do they reveal any other bits of social history?
They tell us much about Scotland’s prevailing economic, political, and social developments through their materials and designs. For example, while linen was often used for 18th- and 19th-century samplers, wool became more widespread as Scotland’s linen industry staggered in the 1820s. Many of the works in the gallery were also made in Scotland’s riverside and coastal regions where industry flourished, and feature representations of family homes or other important buildings. These show the shift from cottage to the manor over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, and ultimately evidence the rise of the middle class during the Industrial Revolution.

What other kinds of designs do they typically have?
You see a lot of crowns and coronets on Scottish samplers made after the restoration of the British monarchy in the late 17th century. Thistles, which are native to Scotland, regularly appear in borders. And peacocks are also a favorite design, reflecting Britain’s trade links with the Netherlands and Asia.

And these are all part of the Whitman Collection?
Yes. Pet, Incorporated, then-parent company of Whitman’s, gave several hundred American and European samplers to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1969. (Today Whitman’s is owned by Russell Stover.) Whitman's assembled the collection from local families and dealers, and some were displayed at the company’s stores, including the Philadelphia flagship store on Chestnut Street. A select group of samplers also toured the U.S. when the collection was given to the Museum.

Was the "Sampler" chocolate box inspired by the collection that we now have?
Actually, the collection wasn't assembled until later – between 1926 and 1964. The iconic needlepoint-style "Sampler" box that we know today was the idea of the company’s president, who was supposedly inspired by a family heirloom, in 1912, and it’s celebrating its centennial this year. The "Sampler" was meant to be a year-long promotional package, filled with an assortment of chocolates from Whitman’s ten best-selling boxes, but it quickly became Whitman’s most popular product. It's fitting that the company would go on to assemble such an impressive collection of samplers.

You can see Embroidered Exemplars: Scottish Samplers from the Whitman Collection in Gallery 271 through Summer 2013.

There's so much for families to see and do at the Museum, both in the dwindling weeks of summer and once the school year starts. Read on, and let your creativity soar!

For the very wee ones, we offer Stroller Tours. At 11 a.m. on Wednesday August 15 and on the second Wednesday of each month beginning in September, Museum educators lead interesting gallery tours for parents and caregivers and their young ones under 1 year. Fussy babies are more than welcome!

For slightly older children, enjoy family gallery explorations throughout the month of August with themes such as 'Hidden Treasures' and 'Art of the Middle Ages'. And if you visit on a Sunday, you're in for an extra special treat. The family studio is alive with excitement as families create works of art together based on the works of art on view in the galleries (this month's theme is 'Summer Splendor'), while other Sunday highlights include 'Early Bird Read and Look' and 'Tours for Tots'.

Our Special Family Events begin again in September, when you'll have the chance to play with clay at the Rodin, enjoy a fall harvest at Mount Pleasant, discover the exhibition Shipwreck! Winslow Homer and The Life Line, and so much more. And don’t forget, registration for children's art classes begins on August 14.

As always, we offer printed family guides for those who want to explore the treasures of the Museum on their own. The guides have all sorts of writing and drawing activities, as well as ideas for generating conversation and getting kids of all ages looking differently at works of art.

It's never too early to share the wonders of the galleries with the kids in your life!

While the Rodin Museum is certainly an idyllic escape for couples, as well as solo wanderers looking for some quiet contemplation, what you may not know is that it's also a great destination for families.

From the spacious grounds to the monumental sculptures, there is so much to stir young imaginations. To make the experience even more engaging, our Division of Education has produced a colorful family guide, which will be available at the museum's entrance, that's perfect for introducing elementary schoolers to the great French sculptor.

Whether its The Burghers of Calais or The Thinker, children will be encouraged to look closely at Rodin's works to discover the emotions and meanings that they reveal. They will be challenged to see how simple gestures convey larger stories, and they may even be inspired to explore their own means of self-expression.

Special workshops for kids will also be taking place at the Rodin throughout the year, among them a day to play with clay on Sunday, September 16th. The whole family will be able to enjoy clay and drawing workshops, as well as tours of the museum.

So there's no need to find a babysitter when you're planning your trip to Rodin. And who knows? You just might discover that you have a budding sculptor on your hands.

Time really does seem to fly in two recent videos now available online and in iTunes. Like magic, hours, days, and even weeks of hard work are condensed into a few fast-paced minutes that make putting works of art together look so very easy.

The first video features Sol LeWitt: Lines in Four Directions in Flowers. Thirty years after its original conception, we see the soil being prepared, the evergreen hedges being arranged, and more than 7,000 plantings in white, yellow, red, and blue being strategically configured into rows.

The second video features the installation of Jessica Jane Julius's site specific Static, on view in Craft Spoken Here. Static is the sculptural expression of Julius’s recurring dream, in which a three-dimensional black line gains intensity, vibrates, and is accompanied by a low-pitched hum. She uses hundreds of fragile threads of glass to recreate the dream's sense of agitation and anxiety. Look closely, and you'll even catch a few glimpses of curator Elisabeth Agro popping in and out of the screen.

Afterwards, don't forget to stop by and check it all out in person! Craft Spoken Here is on view through August 12, while Lines in Four Directions in Flowers will be blooming throughout this summer and next.

Here's an idea for a summer escape: take in a world premiere performance of cutting-edge contemporary classical music, all the while enjoying the lush gardens and dramatic sculpture of Auguste Rodin. Sound good?

Tickets are now available for the Spectral Impressions concert series, featuring two adventurous musical compositions commissioned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and inspired by the great French sculptor. These and other works will be performed by the Argento Chamber Ensemble in the gardens of the newly renovated and rejuvenated Rodin Museum soon after it reopens in July.

The first program, on Sunday July 22, is devoted to the music of Tristan Murail, who is considered the world's authority on French Spectral music, His premiere piece will be performed along with works for ensemble, electronics, and solo piano.

The second program, for Saturday July 28, will feature three new works by Philippe Hurel, considered one of the most compelling French composers on the contemporary music scene. Hurel's work has been described as sensual and intense – not unlike the work of Rodin himself. You'll hear pieces for ensemble and solo vibraphone, as well as the world premiere version of "Phasis" (2012) for clarinet and ensemble.

So this summer, your world-class destination for sculpture can also be your must-visit venue for outdoor performance.

Both programs, including commissioning and presentation, have been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Music Project and by the French American Cultural Exchange through The French-American Fund for Contemporary Music. Rain or Shine.

When you visit the Museum's website, you'll notice that there's a space in the left-hand column of the homepage that is always devoted to showcasing an object from the collection. This used to be an "Object of the Day" pulled from our database—maybe a medieval portrait, a piece of colonial furniture, a 19th century Japanese kimono, a Duchamp readymade, or any one of our over 50,000 works of art now online. But we've made a few changes so that now you get to have a say in what gets top billing.

The "Object of the Day" has recently become the "Most Loved Object"—meaning the object from our online collection that you love the most. To make your feelings known, first search our site to see if your favorite works of art are online. Next, click the blue heart icon just below the image, and your vote will help boost your beloved object into the top spot. Van Gogh's Rain is leading right now.

And if your favorite work of art isn't online? We're adding new objects every week, so be sure to check back often and learn more about our commitment to making more and more of the collection digital with ART 24/7.

As you walk through the many period rooms installed in the European wing on the second floor of the Museum’s main building, you’ll come upon a 1923 drawing room from a town house that once stood at 901 Fifth Avenue in New York City. The paneled room and its French furnishings—brilliantly colored Sèvres porcelain, Louis XVI furniture, tapestries depicting the story of Psyche—were bequeathed to the Museum in 1938 by Eleanore Elkins Widener Rice. She was not only one of the Museum’s esteemed donors, but also a survivor of the shipwreck that took the lives of both her first husband, George D. Widener, Sr., and one of her sons, Harry, on April 14 one hundred years ago—the wreck of the RMS Titanic.

The daughter of William L. Elkins, the streetcar magnate for whom Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, was named, Eleanore was born in 1861 and grew up to become one of the city’s most celebrated and beautiful women. Her collection of pearls was renowned, and her 1883 marriage to George D. Widener lit up the society pages.

The Wideners were also prominent Philadelphians, and George’s father, Peter A. B. Widener, was a close friend of Eleanore’s father. The couple had a daughter, Eleanor, and two sons, George, Jr., and Harry.

Eleanore and George boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg, France. Harry, a collector of rare books who had picked up a few volumes at auction in Europe, was with them. Also with them were Amalie Geiger (Eleanore’s maid) and Edwin Keeping (George’s valet). They settled into an opulent, first-class suite of rooms on the port side of the C deck, cabins C-80/82. If you’ve seen the James Cameron movie Titanic, you can imagine their accommodations alongside those of Rose rather than Jack.

The Wideners’ traveling companions included a who’s who of early twentieth-century American privilege: John Jacob Astor IV and his wife, Madeleine; Benjamin Guggenheim; Isidor Straus and his wife, Ida; and fellow Philadelphians John B. Thayer (second vice president of the Pennsylvania Railroad), his wife, Marian, and son Jack.

On the evening of April 14, the Wideners hosted a dinner party in the ship’s À La Carte restaurant in honor of Titanic’s captain, Edward J. Smith. After dinner, the men smoked and conversed while Eleanore retired to her room. At 11:40 p.m. the ship struck the iceberg.

George and Harry pressed Eleanore to board Lifeboat 4 with a group of other women from the first-class cabins. George gave her his emerald ring. Some say she survived by manning the oars in her lifeboat until the passengers were rescued by the RMS Carpathia and taken to New York. Eleanore then traveled by private train back to Philadelphia. The New York Times initially reported that Harry had survived, but Eleanore soon learned that both her husband and her son had gone down with the ship.

In time, she would honor their memory magnificently. She dedicated two Tiffany stained glass windows to them at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Elkins Park, where a memorial service was held. She also made donations to Harry’s alma maters, The Hill School and Harvard University—giving $3.5 million to Harvard to build a library, a meaningful tribute to a young man who so loved books.

At the dedication of the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library on Commencement Day 1915, Eleanore found herself in the company of Dr. Alexander Hamilton Rice, a famous “gentleman explorer” nearly fourteen years her junior. Within a few months they married.

In later life, Eleanore accompanied Dr. Rice on some of his explorations in South America; the two also traveled extensively in Europe and India. Eleanore Elkins Widener Rice died in Paris in 1937. She is buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery, just a few miles west of the Museum in Fairmount Park.

Her legacy, and that of her family, resonates with the Museum in important and lasting ways. She, her father, brother, daughter, son, and grandson all gave generously and enriched the collections enormously. In addition to the drawing room from her New York town house that was part of her bequest, Eleanore gave to the Museum the salon from the Hôtel Le Tellier (gallery 268). Her children also gave an important collection of eighteenth-century English silver that belonged to their mother; much of it bears Eleanore’s initials.

Eleanore’s son George D. Widener, Jr., became a Museum trustee, and served as chairman from 1947 to 1964. He later made a generous bequest that allowed the Museum to acquire Edgar Degas’s late masterpiece After the Bath (Woman Drying Herself). Eleanore’s grandson, the late Fitz Eugene Dixon, Jr., also served on the Museum’s Board of Trustees, and it was he who endowed the Museum’s directorship in the name of his uncle. He wore the emerald ring throughout his life and today it is worn by his daughter, the great-grandaughter of George D. Widener, Sr.

Fitz’s wife, Edith, is a Museum trustee today. In 2009, she donated a painting of the drawing room from Eleanore Elkins Widener Rice’s Fifth Avenue town house, the very drawing room that now resides in gallery 265.

Want Even More Titanic Tie-Ins?

• In the exhibition Zoe Strauss: Ten Years, there’s a photo of a little boy sliding down the deck of an inflatable ship in the Delaware River. Its title? Titanic, Philadelphia.
• This fall, the exhibition Shipwreck! Winslow Homer and The Life Line will focus on the themes of peril at sea and the power of nature.
• One of the artists to be featured in the spring 2013 exhibition “Great and Mighty Things”: Art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection is named George Widener. Upon learning by coincidence that he shared a name with one of the victims of the Titanic disaster, Widener began incorporating motifs of the ship in a number of his intricate works of art.