Art festival “Earth to Space” will start this week in the Kennedy Center

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The rendering of fireworks on the Potomac River as part of the “Interspecies Love Letter” by artist Cai Guo-Qiang, a Sky painting for the Earth-Zu-Weltraum Festival in the Kennedy Center for the performing arts in Washington, DC. | Credit: CAI Studio/The Kennedy Center

Almost one -month space mission is ready to withdraw and the final preparations are made in the Kennedy Center.

To be clear, not the Kennedy Space Center from NASA in Florida, but the John F. Kennedy Center for performing arts in Washington, DC

“Earth to Space: Arts Breaking the Sky” will transform live appearances, films, art, interactive exhibits and discussions into a start pad for three weeks of the United States for three weeks. At the festival, artists are combined with astronauts, poets appear with physicists and dancers with space vehicles.

“How do we use the space? What are the problems with space? And how does the space help us to understand more about the earth? These are the topics we examined when we spoke to artists and scientists and have traveled to people to understand as much as possible on this topic,” said Alicia Adams, Vice President for International Programming in Kennedy Center.

Related: Photos: President John F. Kennedy’s spatial flight legacy

“Earth to Space” is the third festival of the center as part of a decades of initiative, which is divided into arts and nature. After Adams and her co-curator Gilda Almeida concentrated on rivers in 2023 and the forest in 2024, they were motivated from the current focus of NASA on the return to the moon and the namesake of the center to look beyond the planet beyond the planet.

“[President John F.] Kennedy was an inspiration for us because he was the person who initiated the lunar shot, “said Adams.” There are many quotes about what Kennedy thought about the room. We do these things “not because they are simple, but because they are tough”, as he said, and “it is to explore in our nature”, so we started there. “

The festival, which runs from Friday (March 28th) to April 20, is literally switched off with an ONE-NIGH only event. On Saturday (March 29) the sky above the Potomac River becomes a huge canvas for large -scale projections and custom -made fireworks to tell a really cosmic story.

“Our large, lively opening will be from the river bank of the Kennedy Center,” said Adams. “What you will experience is told by the user-defined AI model Cai by artist Cai Guo-Qiang, and it is a love story. That is why it is called” Interspecies Love Letter “.

The “Sky Painting” will follow the relationship between Stella, a satellite and its engineer Ethan on the ground. In the fleeting moments of her “life” in search of extraterrestrial intelligence, Stella uses her love and a new friend from her cemetery orbit with a message that she both connects.

“It is also interactive. People can use their phones to access a QR code, and at the right time they will give them a signal for a certain thing that starts fireworks in the sky,” said Adams.

Actor on stage with a big blue — The “Earth to Space” festival brings the Global Starmus conference for the first time in the USA and two days of presentations by astronauts, scientists and artists. | Credit: Starmus/the Kennedy Center

The “Earth to Space” sessions will be combined on Tuesday (April 1) with a two -day special version of Starmus, the global celebration, science, music and art. For her debut in the USA, the conference of Apollo 16 Moonwalker Charlie Duke, Nicole Stott, President of the National Academy of Sciences, Marcia McNutt, Seti Pioneer Jill Tarter, astrophysicist Garik Israelian and Kennedy Center, will be discussed with APOLLO 16 Moonwalker, President of the National Academy.

There will also be a special dance performance of Debbie all Dance Academy, which is based on a poem by Allen’s mother Vivian Ayers, which was a “hidden figure” at NASA.

“In terms of diversity and inclusiveness, we tell the audience that it is really important to support the artists, to support the art and to support the work that we, as curators and employees of this center, have done in the past 50 years,” Adams told Collectspace. Her answer was a response to the recent changes in the management of the center and the efforts of the White House, to remove the state -performed programs for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), such as the way that Kennedy asked to set women and minorities for work for the space program.

Related: NASAS true “hidden figures”

A picture of a white building next to a reflective pool with a graphic reading — The river pavilion in the range, part of the Kennedy Center, becomes a room for discussions and performances on drinks during the “Earth to Space” festival. | Credit: The Kennedy Center

Other highlights of the “Earth to Space” festival are:

Get an opportunity to get an expensive look and a photo with Astrolabs Flex or Flexible Logistics and Exploration, Lunar Rover. Flex is one of three Lunar Terrain Vehicle Design that NASA selected NASA for possible use by Artemis Astronauts at the south pole of the moon.
The world premiere of “Moon”, Anoriginal Performance of the Mark Morris Dance Group, which is inspired by the Golden Platte, which was drawn up on the two Interplanetary Room vehicles from 1977 as an introduction to humanity.
The unveiling of “The Next Giant Leap: Moon Quilts”, the resulting creation of a nationwide competition, which is led by the astronaut and textile artist Karen Nyberg, the first person who quilt quilt in space.
“From earth to space and back”, an exhibition by Norman Foster and Foster + Partners, in which scaling modules and 3D printed structures are examined, which examine how research into spatial research can help to build a better future on earth.