CAGECIRCLE: Composition for an Exhibition

Cagecircle: Composition for an Exhibition will re-open at Bard College’s Stevenson Library (1st floor) from August 3–25, 2026.

This exhibition brings together a dazzling variety of archival items—from twenty-two collections—to create an unexpected cabinet of curiosities. For this remarkable collaboration between the John Cage Trust and Bard College’s Stevenson Library, John Cage’s methods of chance procedures were used as a tool for curation. Items selected by chance include everything from a work by Marcel Duchamp to Hannah Arendt’s kitchen cabinet door, from a death mask to an architecture model of a garage, from a 19th century ivory satin children’s bonnet to a volumetric flask, and much, much more.



About Cagecircle and Chance Procedures

Cage attended D. T. Suzuki’s lectures on Zen Buddhism at Columbia University (1952–57). Fascinated and inspired by concepts of non-intention, discipline, and indeterminacy, he began using the I Ching, the Chinese “Book of Changes.” Cage used chance as a means for making choices to compose music and make art while leaving the ego behind. For Cagecircle, collections from throughout the Bard community were solicited for lists of representative items that could be borrowed. The same chance procedures used by Cage were then employed to select just a few items from each list. Note that “chance” does not equal “random”—one decides the questions one asks, but then accepts whatever answers might be given.



About John Cage

The John Cage Trust, located at Bard College, preserves his legacy as a living archive. John Cage (1912–1992), one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, created genre-expanding works encompassing music, performance, writing, and visual art. His oft-quoted phrase “there is no such thing as silence” is synonymous with his influence. His landmark composition 4’ 3 3”—a work where a performer or performers simply exist without intentionally making any explicit sounds—alone redefined the very concept of what music might be. His curious and generative thinking, not only about music, art, philosophy, and literature, but also about how to live one’s life, continues to influence and invite new ways of art-making and being throughout the world.



About the John Cage Trust

The John Cage Trust furthers the legacy of late American composer John Cage by gathering together, organizing, preserving, and disseminating his work. The John Cage Trust ensures that Cage’s voice remains vibrant, and toward that provides access to our archives, gives information about his life, guides how his works might best be performed or exhibited, and presents, organizes, and collaborates on programs, performances, exhibitions, and scholarship. We are guided not so much by what Cage has done but, rather, by what Cage’s legacy is doing now.

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For more information, call 917-609-7112, or e-mail [email protected].

Time: 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm EDT/GMT-4

Location: Stevenson Library