Next month, Washingtonians will want to look up as high wire artist Philippe Petit is set to walk 50 feet in the air at the National Building Museum.
Next month, Washingtonians will want to look up as high wire artist Philippe Petit is set to walk 50 feet in the air at the National Building Museum.
Well-known wire walker Petit is planning to traverse the National Building Museum’s Great Hall from 50 feet in the air in a special performance that the museum is calling Wonder on the Wire.”
It will take place on two dates, Thursday, March 23, and Friday, March 24. It will be Petit’s first-ever D.C. performance.
The public is invited to attend the Thursday performance, though tickets aren’t cheap, starting at $300. They also include cocktails, dinner, and music from jazz clarinetist Anat Cohen with Tal Mashiach on guitar as Petit walks above.
Plus, when he’s completed his walk, attendees will have a chance to meet Petit while eating dessert.
All will then adjourn to the west court for dessert and the opportunity to meet Philippe.
The Friday walk is not open to the public and will be performed for an “audience of local school children primarily from Title 1 schools,” per the museum’s press release.
All proceeds from the event will go towards the museum’s upcoming exhibit Building Stories, which opens in November.
Petit, now 73, is probably most well-known for his 1974 stunt at the World Trade Center in New York, when he snuck past security guards, threw down a 131-foot cable, and walked between the two towers as spectators watched and gasped 1,300 feet below. In 2015, the stunt was turned into a Hollywood movie starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
A 2008 documentary about the high-wire star called Man on Wire won an Academy Award as well. It’s also the subject of a 2007 childrens’ book, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein. Each student attending the Friday performance at the National Building Museum will receive a copy.
In all, Petit has performed 100 high-wire walks on five continents, including “unauthorized” appearances at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and Harbour Bridge in Sydney.
While this performance is certainly authorized, Petit has wanted to walk above the museum’s Great Hall for a while.
“I have dreamed of performing at the National Building Museum since I first saw a picture of the Great Hall a dozen years ago,” Mr. Petit wrote in the museum’s press release.
Museum president and executive director Aileen Fuchs noted that his performance fits into the National Building Museum’s ethos.
“It’s our hope that Wonder on the Wire will inspire people of all ages to look up at the beauty around us, develop a better understanding of our place in the world, and return to the museum to explore possibilities and dream with us,” she said in the press release.
The National Building Museum is itself known for its summer blockbuster interactive exhibits, like last year’s Shakespearean Playhouse, 2015’s ball pit, and a rolling hill of grass.
As for what this year might hold, a museum spokesperson told DCist/WAMU that an “exciting announcement” is coming early next month.