Summer Solstice
A 24-hour Summer Solstice party celebrated the opening of the museum's new building.
We had this weeklong series of events that—our Inaugural Week it was called, when we opened up to the public. And there were fancy art world parties—it was called our Art World Party—to a Builder's Day celebration where we invited the vendors and people who helped physically build the building, to a breakfast for the cab drivers in the neighborhood, to a typical, traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony and dedication ceremony where we literally got the big scissors out and cut the ribbon across the stairs to open up the space, and lots of government speakers and trustees and things like that. But once we cut that ribbon it launched our 24-hour celebration.
It was called Summer Solstice, and we were literally open for 24 hours, which sounds insane. And it was. And there were lines around the building and there were people everywhere. And I just remember that energy and that excitement was really cool and it was—staff obviously had to work around the clock as well, but the MCA, in its generous way, was always like, "Bring your family. Bring your friends. When you're not working, go enjoy yourselves."