August 29th, 2008
We are preparing to start the celebration of our 5th Anniversary Season. The Contemporary has been open and serving the public in its new space for five full years now! Opening Night of Lutz Bacher: Spill and Aϊda Ruilova: The Singles 1999 – Now, just 2 weeks away, is going to be unlike any of the others we have had, as it will be the kick-off to a year full of celebratory events for our 5th Anniversary Season. The Opening will last from 5:00 to 10:00 pm (five full hours) and will also be the beginning of five weeks of free admission for all…be on the look out through the next year for all of our events correlating with our 5th Anniversary Season.
August 27th, 2008
The visitor experience is something the Contemporary takes pride in. What does the visitor do when they first walk in the museum? What do we want them to do (or do we never want to “tell” them what to do, but just to do what they feel right…is this part of the experience? What does the visitor get out of their time here? How can we accommodate to visitors with different backgrounds, interests, levels of knowledge of art and make sure they all have a good experience? What is the best way to let them know we have IPOD tours, a café, a resource center and so on?After a staff-wide discussion we have already decided on a few small changes and are brainstorming to come up with more ideas.
If you are visitor of museums, what do you like/dislike upon entering? Do you ever wish there was anything different or more or less available while you are browsing through a museum?
August 25th, 2008
An article was published in the Riverfront Times titled “STATE OF THE ARTS: Pushing boundaries, retaining talent, expanding audience diversity key to bolstering the arts in St. Louis” The writer, Tiffany Frye, goes to Paul Ha, director of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Ron Himes, founder and producing director of the Black Repertory Theatre, Roseann Weiss, director of community art programs & public art initiatives of the Regional Arts Commission and Rebecca Brogan, editor-in-chief of STL Sound to find answers to these questions: what does St. Louis offer that an artist cannot find in other cities? How can we effectively retain talent? And, how can diversity be improved in the local art world?” Read the article here.
August 19th, 2008
Breaking news at the Contemporary…well for me this is wonderful breaking news since I am an ice cream fanatic. I am not much of a sweetaholic (for example I’m not a big fan of birthday cake (or any kind of cake for that matter)…something other Contemporary staffers just don’t understand, and they explain how they do not understand every time we celebrate someone’s birthday), but when it comes to ice cream, I’m there. Today an ice cream machine was brought into the Contemporary! (I wish I had one at my house). Staff members and gallery attendants all had to “test” out the ice cream machine to be sure it was working properly, and that we did! You are probably wondering why I am babbling for so long about an ice cream machine. It has to do with a very exciting collaborative project between the Contemporary and the Pulitzer, called the Light Project. From September 4 through October 17 visitors will enjoy free ice cream! You can learn why an ice cream machine at an art museum is relevant by reading Rachel’s corresponding blog post! Today, the ice cream we tried was just plain, white vanilla. When the ice cream stand is open to the public, it will be “the color of a St. Louis sunset.” How cool is that?
August 19th, 2008
Hey friends, it’s me Crate 4 of 6. I’m good just livin’ my life. It’s been an exciting journey all the way here from Lutz’s studio in San Francisco. I’ve taken the US by storm, friends! It’s too bad I’ve been in the back of a truck with nothing to see except my crate brethren and sometimes some questionable truck drivers. Now me and the Crate fam are at CAMSTL just chillin, no literally ‘chilling.’ Ya’ see I’m like a goldfish, not in the fact that I have a delicious snack named after me that even moms love, but because I have to adapt to my climate before I get opened. Really I’m like a body guard, just servin’ and protectin’ out here in the rough and tumble world of art shipping. I even have some new tats to make me look tough and let people know not to mess with me (okay okay, the tattoos are rub-on, but don’t’ tell anyone, I need my street cred).I can’t wait to get opened so I can get all this art work out of me. It’s hard having to be tough all the time with all this fragile stuff inside. I feel like Tony Soprano mixed with a fed ex box. It’s weird being me! Later y’all
Crate (aka Cole, the Registrar)
August 15th, 2008
Though there has been talk about this at the museum, I didn’t really look into the story too much in detail until I received an e-mail from my boyfriend’s father…I have talked about him before-he is the kind of guy who just doesn’t get it (”it” being contemporary art). His email simply said “modern art” and included a link to an article that began with: “A giant inflatable dog turd by American artist…”
August 13th, 2008
Our Main Galleries are currently closed for installation of Lutz Bacher: Spill and Aida Ruilova: The Singles 1999 – Now, but The Front Room remains open to the public. Yesterday was the opening of The Center for Advanced Visual Studies. The Center for Advance Visual Studies is devoted to the production of artworks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in The Front Room shows a sampling of their work from the past four years. Take a look at the below installation photos and then visit our website to read further about the exhibition and a workshop offered to the public this weekend. The first photo is of a birdhouse installed right outside the Contemporary’s front doors! Creator, Pam Larson titled the piece Flacon vs. City, 2008. The birdhouse has been installed with hopes of a co-habitant. It has a video camera inside it with a view of the Contemporary’s outside entrance from out of the entry hole-framing the world. Visitors can experience the view on a live feed to a monitor in the Contemporary’s lobby.
August 11th, 2008
An interview with Chief Curator Anthony Huberman was recently published on Flashartonline.com. The interview starts with this as an introduction: “Anthony Huberman joined the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis as chief curator in August 2007. Flash Art posed him a few questions about his plans and ambitions for the forward-looking museum” and goes into a variety of questions regarding details about the curatorial vision, The Front Room, and our upcoming exhibition Lutz Bacher: Spill and Aida Ruilova: The Singles 1999 - Now. Click here to read the interview and to gain a little more insight on the Contemporary.
August 7th, 2008
Kiersten, our Visitor Services Coordinator and Gift Shop Manager, shares some of her top music choices with us. Visit the Contemporary’s MySpace page to give them a listen. You can also see museum pictures and read and leave comments for us here! These are her choices…
LCD Soundsystem All My Friends
Raveonettes Dead Sound
The National Mistaken for Strangers
Spank Rock Bump
The Unicorns I Was Born (A Unicorn)
Arcade Fire No Cars Go
Gossip Are You That Somebody
Radiohead Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
Santogold LES Artistes
Les Savy Fav What Would Wolves Do
Broken Social Scene Backyards
Vampire Weekend Campus
The Dodos Red & Purple
The Ting Tings That’s Not My Name
Panda Bear Bros Edit
She and Him Why Do You Let Me Stay Here
August 5th, 2008
The exhibition is already close to be completely de-installed! There are photos of the process below. This exhibition has brought up some interesting topics of conversation and was the first of our new curatorial team and the one plus one equals three theory. Here are a few links that will allow you to reflect on the exhibition, John Armleder and Olivier Mosset.
Opening
Toblerones
Photos
Thoughts
Leave your own reflections in the comment section, even if you weren’t able to make it to the museum in person to see it…you lived it through this blog!
