The St. Louis Artists’ Guild and ArtDimensions of St. Louis are presenting another ArtDTour in St. Louis. At this event, museums and galleries stay open late so the public can enjoy many arts venues all in one night. People have the option to meet at the St. Louis Art Museum to catch a shuttle that takes them around the city or they can go around on their own. The  museums and galleries involved include: Saint Louis Art Museum, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Craft Alliance Gallery on Delmar, The Gallery at the Regional Arts Commission, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, The Sheldon Art Galleries, Gateway Gallery, the St. Louis Artists’ Guild, and ArtDimensions’ 3^rd Floor Gallery. There will also be free food at some of the stops, and an “After Party” at the Boathouse in Forest Park (that goes until 1:00 am)! Just another great way to promote the arts in our city!

From “Chaotic Black Sheep:”"On Sunday, I finally had the opportunity to view the Gedi Sibony exhibition at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. I am glad that I was able to witness these pieces at a time when the museum was not teeming with people because there is a beautiful intimacy to these works that I feel would be lost in a crowd, for all that I am certain the other experience has its merits as well.”

Click here to read more of this review on the work of Gedi Sibony. The post also mentions the work of Sean Snyder, Bruce Nauman and the Dan Flavin exhibition at the Pulitzer.

A little while ago, Rachel from the Pulitzer and I reported that the staff at the Contemporary and the Pulitzer had to test out the ice cream machine that we are installing for our collaboration on the occasion of The Light Project at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts (read the posts here and here). This Thursday, September 4 is the Opening Reception for The Light Project. Visitors can start at the Pulitzer that evening and get further information about the project there, as well as get a map and further information off of the website. Click on Spencer Finch to see photos and video of Spencer Finch: Sunset (St. Louis, July 31, 2008), the Contemporary’s part of the collaboration. Other partnering institutions include the St. Louis Art Museum (presenting Ann Lislegaard and Rainer Kehres and Sebastian Hunerer) and White Flag Projects (presenting Jason Peters).

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?

I have to say that most of the art organizations in St. Louis are pretty chummy – and this is a wonderful thing.  I personally sit on a geographically-centralized PR committee, which welcomes around 11 visual arts organizations that are within a few blocks of the Contemporary, as well as a number of other arts organizations. Tomorrow one of our collaborations takes flight – “Dancing Off the Wall and in the Street.”  The event mainly focuses on dance, but the visual arts organizations aren’t getting left behind; they are hosting a gallery walk in the afternoon.  You can get more information on the day’s activities at www.grandcenter.org.  Another friendly endeavor, ArtLink, was launched last year as a collaborative young friends program between the Contemporary, Laumeier, and Shakespeare.  ArtLink has some exciting news to announce next week on the growth of the collaboration – and you can find out more about that at www.artlinkstl.org.  I also sit on a marketing committee for arts organizations in the St. Louis region.  Currently, I’m trying to tackle putting together an advertising piece—shared between 5-6 arts organizations-for our Visitors Bureau.  Tomorrow, I have a coffee meeting with Rachel from the Pulitzer to talk about future promotional opportunities and how we might tackle the next opening night—we both have exhibitions opening on February 1.  Then there’s the Pulitzer’s collaboration with the Symphony – they have their water concert tomorrow evening. Anyway, as I go into the 5th day of the week that seems to be focused on collaborations, I’d thought I’d share some of the details of the army of arts organizations that are helping to make St. Louis spectacular—and certainly a city that doesn’t thrive on baloney sandwiches (see this).

A wedding ceremony rehearsal just started four minutes ago. Cole, our Event Operations Manager, paced the courtyard to measure the width of the rows of chairs, and three very young violists warmed up to an enchanting melody that begged for cucumber sandwiches and tea on this fine afternoon in our outdoor space. Meanwhile, one member of our staff took a cell phone call (escaping the violinists) on the other side of the courtyard—near Joe—and subsequently almost got tackled by one of the Contemporary’s gallery attendants, since the Pulitzer is not open to the public today. Yet, the atmosphere was serene.

So, yes, the Contemporary does rentals and it’s always interesting to see a bah mitzvah, fundraiser, or a dog show come to fruition in the midst of our space.  Weddings are always a favorite; it’s a happy event that is surrounded by art and our lovely building. And weddings seem to be quite the tradition at the Contemporary, although normally I’d think of us as untraditional.  Several years ago, Michael Lin created a “chapel” incorporated into work entitled In Sickness and In Health.  His “chapel” was offered in a lottery and a wedding took place the night before the exhibition opened.  Pictures to come. . . (I have to dig through the archives). This was before my time, but marked the first, I believe, of many weddings to be had in the years to come.

Today at our staff meeting, the theme of water was discussed. It was brought up in relation to the exhibition the Pulitzer is now getting ready to install and the exhibition we’re planning right now. Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes will be installed at the Contemporary and will open on September 7. The work concentrates on landscapes, of which many are water. One of the pieces, 2x 4 Landscape, is described as both a rolling hill and a rolling wave. She is creating an edition that incorporates the Missouri River for us, and a wire piece that will be installed in our space explores the landscape of the ocean’s bottom. How’s that for water for you? It will be perfectly lovely to explore this coincidental theme this fall between the two neighboring institutions. Have a wonderful 4th of July!

This Friday is the Grand Center Gallery Walk – I believe it’s our 3rd or 4th one now. I’m proud to say that Rachel at the Pulitzer and I planted the seed that has now grown to be quite the event. More than 12 galleries in Grand Center will be open on Friday afternoon and evening, along with a few restaurants offering discounts and some activity on the streets. What I’m excited about (and still in the middle of planning) is a little behind-the-scenes gallery hop with our Director Paul Ha. He’s agreed to lead a small group of ArtLinkers (our Young Friends group) through the contemporary art galleries to meet their directors. We’re starting with ours – and highlighting our Flat Files programs (the educational piece is to show that you can start collecting now) and then we’ll make our way to the art galleries to speak to gallerists about the work they sell, how to talk to a gallerist and what options are available for those who wish to purchase art. Then we’ll end at the new Pace Framing shop, which just moved to Grand Center and talk about how art work is framed. It’s kind of the second-half of the ‘creation story’ – what to do with art after it’s made and offered for sale. Then, in July, we’ll get a glimpse at the first-half of this story – when we host Open Studios and we can visit with artists and hear them talk about how they work, while we see where they do what they do. It’ll be a great way to demystify the contemporary art world.

Ah, and did anyone happen to go to Hartford Coffee Company to see Free Candy last night? The talk show is witty, comical, and informative. Paul was on to speak about contemporary art, our mission, and our current exhibtion. He was also joined by the owner of the soon-to-be open grocery store featuring local products opening near Tower Grove Park, and a fabulous mind that has organized free movies to be shown outdoors in various venues – meant to construct community, conversation and a good reason to enjoy popcorn outside.

With our new blog site, we’re incorporating our Flickr accounts into serving as an photo album. The Pulitzer set up one quite awhile ago, and I’ve had the duty of setting one up on my to-do list for longer than I care to admit. So, some say the first step is the hardest; however, Flickr really demolishes this notion by providing a fairly easy way of uploading photos to their site. Some of our architectural photos have been added, which you can view here, and I hope to sneak a few minutes away from my other tasks and upload some more. I’m doing all this work to a background hum of sanding machines which are working on the wall which housed Hodges’ mural piece. It’s been a pretty noisy place during install and it’s almost all I can do to keep from sneaking over to the Pulitzer to enjoy some peaceful meditation time in their gallery space.

It’s a fact. Warhol is everywhere, including part of the Contemporary’s new exhibition. (By the way, the Pulitzer also has some Warhol works in their exhibition right now). Andy Warhol is a household name and even those not-so-interested in the visual arts are familiar with the guy. New York Magazine sums the fascination America and the world has in their article, continuing the never-ending 15 minutes of fame that he sort of guaranteed everyone else. Anyway, it’s the 20th anniversary of Warhol’s death, and he’s still famous. Last week, we (the Contemporary) showed three of his films (anyone interested in 54 minutes of kissing?), and it was really interesting for me, to see a bit of his film work. Cinema St. Louis has been working hard on getting the Director (George Hickenlooper) of the recently released movie Factory Girl to St. Louis — and they succeeded. The St. Louis premier screening of the new film is on Friday, February 16 at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema and the Director will be there to do an intro to the film and host a Q&A afterward. So, in short, everything is Warhol at the moment — especially in St. Louis.  And, a special note, our I Remember Heaven exhibition includes several Warhol drawings which haven’t been seen publicly outside of the Warhol museum. Stop by and see the faces (yes, we have self-portraits as well) of Warhol.