Canton POS

Exhibition Opening Celebrations & Events

Attend the Opening Celebration of BOHEMIAN CHRYSALIS: UNVEILING CLEVELAND’S

INFAMOUS KOKOON KLUB & enter the KOKOON KLUB KOSTUME KONTEST!

Friday, December 13, 2024

5 - 7PM

Download the Opening Print Invitation

Learn More About the Kokoon Klub Exhibition

Immerse yourself in the spirit of the Kokoon Klub in this opening celebration and Kokoon Klub Kostume Kontest! The evening will feature Kokoon-themed décor, music, and refreshments, plus cash bar as you enjoy this exhibition of Klub original artworks, posters, invitations, and original Bal-Masque costumes. Bohemian Chrysalis is a feast for the eyes, an enjoyment of all-things outrageuous and over-the-top from early 1900s, and a celebration of artists and artistic development not only in our region, but also across our country.

They were avant-garde and outrageous. Cleveland’s Kokoon Klub artists stood for originality, self-expression, and freedom of thought. Get inspired by their free spirits, the Roaring ‘20s, and beyond as you celebrate our featured exhibition and enter our Kostume Kontest. Keep it ARTSY AND FUN ... the more handmade and decorated, the better!!!

Kostume Judging @ 6:30PM in the galleries

Judging by CMA Curators and Special Guest Judge Patty Edmonson, Museum Advisory Council Curator of Costume and Textiles, Chisholm Halle Costume Wing — Cleveland History Center

Kostume Kontest has 2 categories: 18 and under & 18 and over

3 prize levels for each age group:

1st Place — Two Tickets to CMA’s 90th Anniversary Gala (Nov 2025) or free ADULT CLASS or CHILDREN’S CLASS in the CMA School of Art

2nd Place — A free CMA Gallery Circle Membership with free admission to CMAand participating reciprocal museums in Ohio and across the U.S., along with discounts in the CMA shop and on School of Art classes. (If you’re already a member, you can GIFT it to someone else!)

3rd Place — A CMA Family Membership plus an age-appropriate CMA Swag Bag

Kostume Rules: No nudity. No wet paint or liquids. No look-alike weapons (e.g., toy guns, knives, etc.). No costumes that may offend others due to race, culture, gender, religion, or sexual orientation.

Image Credit: 11th Bal Masque Poster (detail), 1924. Joseph Jicha (American: 1901-1960). Lithograph on paper. On loan from the Daniel Bush and Hilary Gent Collection.

Kokoon Klub Exhibition Speaker Series #1

The Kokoon Arts Klub, August Biehle, Jr., and the Becoming of a City

Saturday, December 14, 2024 | 10:30 – 11:30AM
Canton Museum of Art
Cultural Center | Cable Hall

Speaker: Frederick Biehle

Join CMA curators and other art and history buffs as we take an in-depth look into Cleveland’s Kokoon Arts Klub, one of it’s influential artist members, August Biehle, Jr.; and the rise of “new art” and artistic expression in Cleveland, influenced by modern artists from Europe embracing a plurality of creative approaches.

The early 1900s were remarkable moment for the city of Cleveland — and for art and architecture. The first building of the city’s new downtown plan, the Federal Courthouse on Public Square, had just been completed and opened in 1910; the struggling Kokoon Klub, founded in 1911 by a small group of artists with a shared vision to pursue modern art, came up with an idea that could work as a fundraiser, a masked ball; and a young artist named August Biehle had just returned from study in Munich with a copy of the “Der Blau Reiter (The Blue Rider) Almanac” under his arm. Things were just getting started that would later connect artists, musicians, and performers across nations, cultures, media and styles and would have a lasting influence on generations of artists to come.

No Registration Necessary | Tour the Exhibition FREE Following the Program

About the Speaker: Frederick Biehle is an architect and an Adjunct Professor at Pratt Institute in New York. He represents the third generation of the Northern Ohio Biehle family dedicated to the fine and decorative arts. In 1986, he was awarded the Rome Prize Fellowship in Architecture allowing him to live and study in Italy for two years. His drawings and architectural works have been exhibited and published widely. He founded his own firm, viaARCHITECTURE, in partnership with Erika Hinrichs, in 1997. More specifically, he is the grandson of artist August F. Biehle, Jr., and the curator of his family’s archival collection, which includes the hundreds of drawings left from Biehle’s studio following his death in 1979. He has been working on a publication on Biehle’s career.

Kokoon Klub Exhibition Speaker Series #2

From Kokoon to Butterfly: The Amazing Saga of the Kokoon Club

Saturday, January 18, 2025 | 10:30 – 11:30AM
Canton Museum of Art
Cultural Center Theatre

Speaker: Henry Adams

The Kokoon Club started off in 1911 as a place for artists working in downtown Cleveland to quietly draw from the nude model.
But it burst to widespread attention in 1913 when it staged an astonishing costume ball, which featured a nude dancer with butterfly
wings who jumped out of a coffin, and artists clothed in bizarre Cubist and Futurist costumes. Clevelanders were aghast but fascinated.
By the 1920s these Bal Masques were attracting a crowd of revelers numbering in the thousands.

The posters, decorations, and costumes created for these balls are today regarded as among the greatest achievements of American Art Deco. And over the years the Kokoon Club Ball transformed the culture of Cleveland as a city, from one which had spurned modern art, to one that celebrated it – to a place that supported art in shades of brown and gray to art one that embraced art in dazzling color. Today, a century after it was created, the art of the Kokoon Club still feels provocative – an invitation to throw aside tired old rules and conventions and embrace the spirit and excitement of modern life.

No Registration Necessary | Tour the Exhibition FREE Following the Program

About the Speaker: Henry Adams is the author of nearly 500 articles, exhibition catalogues, and books in the field of American art. The painter Andrew Wyeth described his book Eakins Revealed as “without doubt, the most extraordinary biography I have ever read on an artist.” He is currently Ruth Coulter Heede Professor of Art History at Case Western Reserve University.

New Exhibitions On View Through March 2, 2025

* Winter School of Art Classes Open for Registration *