In the style of the legendary Claude Howell, life and art promise to collide during the Cameron Art Museum’s bash in honor of his 100th birthday this weekend, beginning Saturday evening March 21 and drifting into the wee hours of Sunday, March 22.
In a word, the fete will be experiential.
“There are lots of moving pieces to this,” said Cameron Art Museum Communications Director Kim Kelly.
The installation of a life-sized, three-dimensional recreation of Howell’s 1972 painting “Yacht Club Porch (Mother’s Friends)” was in process Thursday, March 19
“It’s so exciting. The rocking chairs came from the yacht club. That just makes it so much more magical,” Kelly said.
“We have rocking chairs from the yacht club,” Kelly said. Arranged among the chairs are sculpted figures. “They’re definitely Claude-like figures and they’re dressed and so they’re sitting in the rocking chairs just like the painting indicates along with stylized porch railing.”
Guests will pass beneath the porch scene as they cross the threshold into the museum for the 7-hour feast of the senses
While the night is young, top tier ticket holders will witness Howell’s iconic artwork spring to life inside the Hughes Wing. Much as milieu influenced Howell’s work, the multi-media installation blends visual art, narration, music, dance and theatre.
Ushered into the exhibition hall in small groups, vignettes will be performed in succession. Each bay within the wing is staged with works inspired by Howell’s oeuvre. Andre Silva’s animations will be projected onto the walls of the first bay, shared with African-American storyteller Carolyn Evens and Howell’s baptismal painting of African-American churchgoers conducting a baptism in a stream.
“We have engaged Carolyn Evans, a totally world-class storyteller, whose mother happens to have been baptized in a stream. She’s going to bring this painting to life,” Kelly said.
Inspired by Howell’s painting, “The Whittling Bench,” award-winning author Clyde Edgerton has written a dramatic narration performed within the second bay.
“Actors will be sitting at the bench and having conversation,” Kelly explained. Scenery created by Gary Ralph Smith extends the imagery of the paintings into the surround installations.
Another bay will replicate Howell’s furnished apartment. Images from Howell’s travels will be projected. Voyeurs will hear Claude Howell’s measured Southern drawl during the audio portion of this vignette.
As unique as his thumbprint, Howell’s timbre was distinctive.
“That’s what everyone says,” Kelly agrees. “It was his signature, really.”
As groups exit the space, they enter a tented courtyard where “Chez Claude” will be in progress.
Directed by New York choreographer and theatrical director, Ray Kennedy, “Chez Claude” will capture the artist’s life in song and dance in a musical review performed in three acts.
The first act, set in a Parisian nightclub circa the 1920s and 30s, will tip its hat to Howell’s early fascination with the City of Light. Kennedy’s featured performer, Tam Browning, is an accomplished Orlando-based songstress who will set the bluesy-jazz mood with renditions of songs made famous by Josephine Baker. Other muses will conjure chanteuses Eartha Kitt and Bessie Smith. Following a brief intermission, the ensemble will return to the stage for a Big Band set taking the audience all the way up to The Coasters, but not quite breaking into the R&B realm, Kennedy said. The third set is a disco tribute to the 1970s.
Furnished with cabaret and high top tables surrounding the dance floor, Kennedy expects everyone off their seats during the review’s finale. Running from 6:45 until 9 p.m., the entire “Chez Claude” program repeats itself for latecomers.
A live art auction includes both beautiful artwork for bidding and a special art travel package to Asheville, N.C. that includes a tour of the “Dressing Downton: Changing Fashion for Changing Times” exhibition at the Biltmore Estate. With performances by Grenoldo Fraiser in the Weyerhaeuer Reception Hall and strolling musicians, food and libations inspired by Howell’s Mediterranean, Indian and Cuban travels, the party continues until 2 a.m.
More than two dozen museum staff and artistic collaborators conceived the evening. Those who miss out may visit the museum Sunday, March 22 for Carolyn Evans’ encore storytelling performance after the museum reopens at 1 p.m.
Ticket prices begin at $150 per person. Latecomers who arrive at 9 p.m. will pay $50 for lighter fare. The Claude After Hours crowd admitted at 11:30 p.m. will donate a suggested $10 to stay until 2 a.m. for music, comedy and a whole lotta life imitating art during this spectacular, spectacular night at the museum.
