Whitney Signs: High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 Sat, Mar 7, 2026, 3:30–6 pm

Whitney Signs: High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100

Sat, Mar 7, 2026
3:30–6 pm

A handmade circus scene with a wire lion tamer and a lion puppet in front of a colorful cage.
A handmade circus scene with a wire lion tamer and a lion puppet in front of a colorful cage.

Alexander Calder, Lion Tamer, Lion and Cage, from Calder's Circus, 1926-31. Wire, yarn, cloth, buttons, painted metal, wood, metal, leather and string, dimensions variable. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from a public fundraising campaign in May 1982. The Robert Wood Johnson Jr. Charitable Trust contributed one half of the funds. Additional major donations were given by The Lauder Foundation; the Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc.; the Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation, Inc.; an anonymous donor; The T.M. Evans Foundation, Inc.; MacAndrews & Forbes Group, Incorporated; the De Witt Wallace Fund, Incorporated; Martin and Agneta Gruss; Anne Phillips; Mr. and Mrs. Laurance S. Rockefeller; the Simon Foundation, Inc.; Marylou Whitney; Bankers Trust Company; Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth N. Dayton; Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz; Irvin and Kenneth Feld; Flora Whitney Miller. More than 500 individuals from 26 states and abroad also contributed to the campaign 83.36.34.1a-f. © 2025 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Tickets

This event is free. Advance registration is required. We are unable to accommodate walk-ups. Due to limited capacity, this program is Deaf-priority and not open to ASL students

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The Hearst Artspace and the Seminar Room are equipped with induction hearing loops and infrared assistive listening systems. Accessible seating is also available.

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Floor 3, Education Center

Open to members of d/Deaf and hard of hearing community

Join us for an in-person tour of High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 led by Deaf educator Christopher Tester in American Sign Language. The event begins with a tour at 3:30 pm and will be followed by a wine and cheese reception from 5–6 pm in the Laurie M. Tisch Education Center. Please plan to meet in Hearst Artspace on Floor 3 at 3:15 pm. 

This tour will be in ASL and will not have voice interpretation. To request interpretation for Tactile, Protactile, International Sign Language, another language, or additional accommodations, including Braille, please email accessfeedback@whitney.org or call (646) 666-5574 (relay calls welcome) with two weeks’ notice.


On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Frank WANG Yefeng, The Levitating Perils #2

Learn more about this project

Learn more at whitney.org/artport

On the Hour projects can contain motion and sound. To respect your accessibility settings autoplay is disabled.