See that big honking Christmas tree? No you don’t.

Here is the bad news: There will be no Christmas tree at the Philadelphia Museum of Art this year. Here is the good news: It’s not because of the recession, and also… there will be EXPLOSIONS instead! Now, before you start quoting chapter and verse from The War On Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought, cool your jets, Flanders: It’s only for this one year, and it’s because of a visiting exhibition that involves explosions that would likely burn the Christmas tree, were it there, down to a Charlie Brown-esque twig. “The holiday tree will have a one-year hiatus at the Art Museum,” says PMA Director of Communications Norman Keyes, “which is preparing for a fireworks display that will take place on the East Terrace a few minutes before sunset on December 11.” The display is part of the “Cai Guo-Qiang: Fallen Blossoms” exhibtion, which is itself an homage to the late director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Anne d’Harnoncourt. Collaborating with the Fabric Workshop and Museum, “Fallen Blossoms” will feature a series of gunpowder drawings titled Light Passage, and the explosion event on the 11th, entitled Fallen Blossoms: Explosion Project. (After the event on the 11th, video of the explosions will be on display at the Fabric Workshop.) And if the name Cai Guo-Qiang sounds familiar to you, you’re probably a fan of the fireworks display at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, which he created, as well as the ambitious I Want to Believe at the Museo Guggenheim Bilbao last year. It’s all pretty cool stuff. Meanwhile, Keyes points out, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway will not be without Christmas spirit this year: LOVE Park Christmas Tree returns for the 2009 Holidays with a public tree lighting ceremony set for December 2nd (Wednesday), which will also coincide with the lighting of the Christmas tree on Dilworth Plaza by City Hall.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 30th, 2009 at 1:22 pm.