The Great Mystery Show

The Great Mystery Show beckons you—each the star of your own personal mystery show—to our American Visionary Art Museum's newest, wholly original, art exhibition. From psychics to physicists, The Great Mystery Show artfully peels away the veil of the unknown, playfully exploring mystery as that one secret power behind great art, science, and pursuit of the sacred. One part lively fun house, two parts cosmic dream lab, the exhibition weaves the creative investigations of 44 visionary artists, research scientists, astronauts, mystics, and philosophers into one grand-scale exploration of mystery that's 100% devoted to inspiring that ever-questioning "sleuth for the truth" in each of us. No "alternative facts here"—just a wildly visual exaltation of the strangeness and wonder of Life itself.

Our choice of Mystery as a communal focus celebrates the fact that we humans start out life as little question machines, i.e. "Why is the sky blue, Mommy?" Even Einstein declared, "I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious." As we grow and age, our hardwired need for answers and meaning progresses—"Is there life after death?" or "Why do terrible things happen to good people?" Here, Einstein offers more sage solace, "God does not play dice with the Universe"—his assertion that life is not random, nor casually conceived, nor without purpose. 

Mystery holds the door open to human imagination, inspiring our fascination with whodunit-style film and books and theological and scientific inquiry. In a time of so much focus on fear and doom, inventor Michael Faraday reminds us, "Nothing is too wonderful to be true."

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website