Music Inside, Art Outside: Living Statues at Symphony Hall

EdgeFest: Amanda Palmer
Collaboration with the Boston Pops
Symphony Hall
8 p.m. tonight
Ticket information

If you are passing by Symphony Hall tonight - or attending Palmer's EdgeFest collaboration with the Boston Pops - you will be able to see how Palmer's 2008 style fuses with the original plans hatched by Symphony Hall architects McKim, Mead, and White back in 1900.

The Boston-based musician, who will close her two-night Pops partnership this evening, has long been known as an artist who made her way as a living statue in Havard Square before the Dolls became an underground Brechtian punk cabaret sensation. While Palmer now spends her time working (and moving around) a stage, the art of the living statue remains a staple of Dolls shows. As such, living Greek statues will be on display outside Symphony Hall tonight.

How does this tie in with Symphony Hall's design? McKim, Mead, and White designed the building to include Greek statuary both inside and outside the building. The Pops said Thursday that financial constraints at the time of the building's construction rendered the inclusion of exterior statues impossible. Tonight's performance, then, will give both audience members and passersby a chance to view the Hall as it was originally designed.

Photo by flickr user j.gresham