Philippe Petit, the French high wire artist best known his breathtaking walk between New York City’s Twin Towers in 1974, will be taking his act to Washington, D.C.’s National Building Museum.
Having successfully completed 100 high wire walks on five continents, Petit will mark his first D.C. performance—Wonder On The Wire—by walking a wire approximately 50 feet above the museum’s Great Hall, on Thursday, March 23. Grammy-nominated artists Anat Cohen and Tal Mashiach soundtrack his feat with a live performance below on clarinet and guitar, respectively.
“I have dreamed of performing at the National Building Museum since I first saw a picture of the Great Hall a dozen years ago,” Petit said in a press release.
The Thursday performance will act as a fundraiser for the museum’s upcoming exhibition, “Building Stories.” It will be followed up by another performance on Friday morning for local Title 1 school children, each class of which will also receive a copy of Petit’s award-winning children’s book, “The Man Who Walked Between the Towers,” and lesson plans surrounding architecture and engineering.
“We are delighted to host Philippe Petit for this memorable performance in our Great Hall,” the museum’s president and executive director, Aileen Fuchs, said in a press release. “This event exemplifies the Museum’s guiding Pillar of Impact: Wonder. 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.”
For more information, visit the National Building Museum website.