Chicago-area art buffs had more than just aesthetics to appreciate at the opening-night party for the Museum of Contemporary Art’s summer exhibition.

Alongside German photographer Thomas Struth’s towering pictures from across the globe, patrons enjoyed music, food, drinks and a performance by physical theater group Plasticene.

“We love to take the opportunity to combine performance with the exhibitions,” said Karla Loring, the museum’s media director.

She added that the museum has been committed to fostering performance as well as visual art since it moved in 1996 to its current building, which houses a 300-seat theater.

And performers — such as the Plasticene members who slunk, walked and ran through the crowds in pin-striped suits with what looked like black shower caps pulled down over their faces — have become a common sight not only in the museum but specifically at its summer exhibitions’ opening nights.

For the past seven years, the museum has programmed these parties to last 24 hours, starting June 21, the summer solstice. Loring said the celebrations are so popular that several people showed up at the museum on the solstice this year only to find the event had been moved to a later date. Although the the Struth exhibit was not available until June 27, Loring said she still expected the museum’s usual turnout of more than 10,000 guests per night.

“I love the energy,” Loring said of the events. “I love that people get to see the art who don’t typically come through our doors.”

Because the exhibit could not open on the solstice, the museum also modified the event’s schedule to include two nights rather than one 24-hour session. The second night included a speech by Struth and a classical guitar performance by his friend Frank Bungarten.

But Loring said she held over at least one aspect of the summer solstice celebration this year — the silent dance party. Participants are given headphones so they can hear, and dance to, music from a live disc jockey. Loring said she decided to bring back the dance party because people last year had enjoyed watching the dancers almost as much as they enjoyed dancing. This year she booked two DJs so the dancers would be grooving to different beats and the people on the side lines would have twice as much to watch.

When they weren’t busy laughing at the dancers jiggling to the music in their headphones, though, the event’s guests had Struth’s photography to admire.

With land- and cityscapes from locations such as the Yangtze Gorge in China, Venice, Rome and Australia, Struth’s work inspired some viewers to see the parts of the world he hadn’t yet captured on film.

“It makes me really want to travel,” said Kelly Noah, a photographer and Web site designer from Chicago. “It makes me curious about the people there.”

Victorrio Giustino said he was also fascinated by the people in Struth’s pictures.

“With photographs it seems much more real — you can see the people,” he said, pointing out the wrinkled pants of a tourist standing outside Notre Dame Cathedral in one shot.

“It shows that photography is a much more acceptable art now,” Giustino said. “It’s here to stay and it’s only going to grow.”