The BYU Museum of Art (MOA) will host a Hollywood Red Carpet Night to celebrate the opening of its newest exhibition, CUT! Costume and the Cinema on Friday, July 11, from 7 to 9 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to dress in their red-carpet best as photography will be provided and posted on social media.
CUT! features 40 period costumes from more than two-dozen popular films. Following the red carpet extravaganza, an outdoor showing of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl will begin at 9 p.m. in the MOA’s sculpture garden. The entire event is free and does not require tickets. Hilarie Ashton, marketing and public relations director for the MOA, said there is more to get out of the exhibition than just seeing beautiful costumes.
“We are expecting our audiences to find this show really fun and intriguing,” Ashton said. “While giving people a look at these popular and familiar costumes up-close, we’re also inviting them to draw connections between wardrobe and identity and think about how that plays into character development in film, art and real life.”
CUT! will be on display through December 6, 2014, and Kalisha Grimsman, lead museum educator, wants attendees to leave the exhibition with more knowledge than when they entered.
“At the exit, we will have a selection of portraits to give audiences an idea of the historic inspiration to create a period film,” Grimsman said.
Nancy Lawson, curator of the exhibition, agreed that CUT! will help attendees better relate to actors and the people they portrayed in films.
“I want people to imagine themselves in the period and imagine how different life would be compared to today,” Lawson said. “It helps the actors and actresses to really envision and understand the character. The character came to life when Johnny Depp put on the boots in Pirates.”
Captain Jack Sparrow’s costume isn’t the only well-known piece in the exhibition. CUT! showcases outfits worn by Kate Winslet, Amy Adams, Natalie Portman and Robert Downey, Jr., among others, from several films, including Sherlock Holmes, Sense and Sensibility, The Phantom of the Opera and The Duchess.
“The craftsmanship is seriously beautiful like it was back in the day. To put on as close to what that person would have worn hugely affects the actors and actresses,” Lawson said.
For more information about the exhibition and the red carpet event, visit moa.byu.edu.