Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music students will take to The Guggenheim Museum in New York on Friday, blending their sound into the museum itself. Drawing on different themes from “Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers,” six students will form a musical soundscape that bounces off of the architecture of the rotunda.

The Center For Black Visual Culture at the Institute of African American Affairs’ collaboration with the Guggenheim aligns with the center’s dedication to exploring the visual representations of Black people, uplifting artists and highlighting scholars across the diaspora. Rashid Johnson, whose artwork the curated performances respond to, explores his identity within the African American collective while experimenting with painting, sculpture, photography and video.

When planning the programming, the CBVC identified key words that recurred throughout the exhibition that artists could respond to in their performances, program manager Kalila Abdur-Razzaq said in an interview with WSN. Some of these terms included ancestor veneration, baby blue, expansive Blackness, promised land and tending.

“I really love the idea of being able to allow artists to do what they do and not exert a kind of control over what the output is,” Abdur-Razzaq said.

The Guggenheim hosts two performance spaces, “Sanguine,” a temporary piano installation on the top ramp hidden by plants and shelves for more intimate performances, and the rotunda stage on the ground floor for larger audiences where the Clive Davis students will perform.

To prepare for this event, students worked to accommodate the room’s open plan, which uniquely echoes sound, and to integrate their performances into the existing soundscape of the museum, according to Nicholas Sansano, Clive Davis associate chair and director of production curriculum.

“They get the opportunity to work together all the time on recorded music and sometimes with performance, but very rarely in a conceptual direction,” JD Samson, associate arts professor and area head of performance at Clive Davis, told WSN. “So it’s been really fun for them to kind of explore what it means to communicate with the artwork and with this new kind of space.”

Beginning with a semi-improvisational section, the show starts with an original soundscape by senior DJ Dustin Averbuch. Senior Zane Mattingly will join Averbuch, presenting his poem, along with sophomore Aviad Poznansky, who will layer in his own frenetic rhythms throughout. Next, senior Luisa Wilson will present original vocals, along with Averbuch and Poznansky. Sophomore Alessandra Clarke will then perform “ENVIDIA” by Nathy Peluso and one of her original songs, followed by more vocals from senior Sumaya Bouhbal. In the final sets, the performers’ works converge, overlapping pieces that integrate multiple artists at once. The evening will conclude with a DJ set from Poznansky.

“I would probably say the hardest part was working with music that I’m not familiar with,” Clarke said in an interview with WSN. “Since everything has to be continuous, I’m not really singing to the original track that I usually sing to.”

In the past, the Guggenheim’s Student First program has hosted events to highlight specific artists, but the goal of Friday’s performance is to activate the entire museum atmosphere with the musical performance responding to the visual exhibition, said Chitra Ramalingam, director of the academic engagement department at the Guggenheim. Through this partnership with CBVC, the Guggenheim hopes to present the museum as a space to uplift well-known artists like Rashid Johnson and younger artists like the Clive Davis students.

“We really want to invite students who’ve never been to the Guggenheim before to one of these evening events and help them understand that the museum is a place for them to enjoy art, to be with friends, to connect with new friends and students across the city,” Isabella Caporuscio, manager of academic engagement at the Guggenheim, said in an interview with WSN.

Along with the Clive Davis students, CBVC invited Tituss Burgess, Kwami Coleman, Michael McElroy, the Candice Hoyes Quartet and others to perform throughout the month. The performances will include poetry readings, DJ sets, opera performances and more.

Tickets for Friday’s event can be purchased here, and NYU students can use the code STUDENT5FIRST for $5 off student tickets.

Contact Siobhán Minerva at [email protected].