The Living Temple: Don and Moki Cherry

A retrospective on the collaboration between Black jazz composer and musician Don Cherry (1936–1995) and Swedish visual artist and designer Moki Cherry (1943–2009) recreates the life partners’ integrated vision of art without boundaries among genres, artistic disciplines, and cultures. Driven by what the Cherrys called a “Total Music” philosophy, the pair organized hybrid spectacles blending folk music, tapestries, projections, live theater, and architecture. Contemporary artist Lisa Alvarado (of avant-garde band Natural Information Society, inspired by the Cherrys’ Organic Music Society) designs an immersive environment to house the exhibition, bringing together textiles, paintings, music, video, and other media. A catalogue with essays from prominent artists and scholars accompanies the exhibition.

The total grant amount represents project funding plus an additional 20% in unrestricted general operating support.