Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque Peter B. Lewis Theatre

The Cinematheque moved into new Peter B. Lewis Theater August 1, 2015. Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque’s new home, the Peter B. Lewis Theater at 11610 Euclid Avenue, (is) only a half mile from our previous location. This handsome, 300-seat, state-of-the-art auditorium is inside the Cleveland Institute of Art’s new George Gund Building in the growing Uptown district. It is easily identified by its sign and by the façade’s distinctive blue-glazed bricks. The theater is set back from the main road, in the rear of the new building.

The Peter B. Lewis Theater will be a great venue for movies. This is because our consultant and contractor on the project was Boston Light & Sound, an internationally known Massachusetts firm that specializes in perfect film presentation.

Our new space has amenities that Aitken Auditorium lacked. But rest assured that some things will not change. We will continue to show 35mm film, and inside the theatre, there will still be raked seating down front and stadium seating in the back, separated by a center entry aisle. There’s still a stage, too. The theatre’s new features include: cushioned seats, updated film projectors, a bigger screen, and vastly improved acoustics and Dolby 7.1 digital sound. We will also have digital cinema capabilities for the first time in our history, allowing us to show films from DCP (Digital Cinema Package), a hard drive containing encrypted files that comprise a feature film. (DCP is the new theatrical standard for the digital age.) But whereas most movie houses have 2K digital projectors and show 2K DCP’s (2K refers to the number of pixels constituting horizontal resolution), the Cinematheque has a 4K projector that can show 4K DCP’s. 4K has more than double the resolution of 2K and four times that of HD! The first film series in our new space is entitled “This Is 4K!“, and it will show off our new capabilities. 4K is now the standard format for major restorations of classic motion pictures. So when these films are screened from 4K DCP’s at the Cinematheque, 100% of the restored image data will be transmitted to the big screen.

By John Ewing, director of the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque.

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