Inspired by the Great Rivers Biennial 2012 exhibition, CAM, in collaboration with the Mizzou New Music Initiative, is pleased to present New Music, New Works at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, May 19. This event is free and open to the public.

The event will feature the world premiere of original compositions by University of Missouri students Grant Fonda, Joe Hills, and Joseph Weidinger, each of whom has created a new piece that attempts to capture the aural essence of one of the three Great Rivers Biennial artists’ projects. The Mizzou New Music Ensemble, directed by University of Missouri associate professor Stefan Freund, will perform all three compositions, along with Ad Parnassum, a piece by 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner Steven Stucky that was inspired by sketches by artist Paul Klee.

“There’s been a historic link between the visual and musical arts, and we’re glad to be able to continue that tradition,” said Freund. “Any time we have an off-campus performance, it’s an opportunity for our composers and performers to step out of the academic world and into the real world. That’s a valuable experience for them.”

“Collaborating with CAM provides an interesting challenge for these bright, young composers, while also introducing their talents to new audiences,” said Jeanne Sinquefield of the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation, which provides financial support for the Mizzou New Music Initiative. “Composers want their music to be performed in front of audiences. Forging alliances like this one is another way our new music programs in Missouri are helping them achieve their aspirations.”

ABOUT THE COMPOSERS
GRANT FONDA
Grant Fonda (b. 1985) was selected as a semi-finalist in the 2011 Transatlantyk Instant Composer Competition (a part of the Transatlantyk Film and Music Festival), and was one of just two Americans selected for this international competition. In 2010 and 2011, he was a finalist for the Sinquefield Composition Prize, and in 2006 his Of Shepherds, Angels and the Advent of a Miracle won honorable mention at the Fred Bock New Music review. His composition Out of Darkness, Light was commissioned by the Master’s College School of Music in 2007 and given nine consecutive performances in their Come ChristmasSing concerts. Fonda also received honorable mention for his string quintet Five Horses in the University of Aberdeen 2009 Music Prize competition, and has had several other works for choir, wind ensemble, and orchestra commissioned and premiered at colleges and churches in the U.S.

Fonda attended the Master’s College in Santa Clarita, CA, studying music composition with an emphasis in film scoring and percussion under Richard Pressley and Stephen Johnson. He and his wife Carley currently live in Columbia, Missouri, where he is completing work on an MM, Composition at the University of Missouri under the instruction of W. Thomas McKenney and Stefan Freund.

JOE HILLS
Joe Hills (b.1987) is a composer of many styles, genres, and instrumentations with a strong appreciation for music of all forms and tonalities. He has written for wind and chamber ensembles, full orchestra, solo and ensemble percussion, drum & bugle corps, and marching band. Prompted by his father, Terry Hills, bringing home the first version of Finale on floppy disk, Hills began his compositional career at a young age. He also enjoyed marching for six years with the Blue Knights Drum & Bugle Corps, which inspired his love for marching music and drill writing.

Born and raised in Colorado, Hills began his undergraduate studies at Colorado State University with an interest in music education, but soon transitioned to composition. He completed his degree in the spring of 2011, and was accepted into the University of Missouri graduate program in the fall of 2011. He is now pursuing a Master of Music in Composition, studying under Dr. W. Thomas McKenney, and serving as a graduate assistant for the theory department at Mizzou. Hills was a finalist for the 2012 Sinquefield Composition Prize.

JOSEPH WEIDINGER
Joseph Weidinger (b. 1990) is currently completing his coursework at the University of Missouri and in May 2012 will graduate with a B.M. in Music Composition. His composition teachers include Dr. W. Thomas McKenney and Dr. Stefan Freund. Over the course of four years, Weidinger has written more than 20 original compositions. In addition to writing original music, he also has done work in arranging and transcribing and as a copyist.

Weidinger also is active as a performer, primarily as a pianist and organist. As an organist, he has been playing regularly in Catholic church services since the age of 13. At the University of Missouri, Joseph studies piano under Dr. Peter Miyamoto. Aside from learning the traditional piano repertoire, he has performed in number of his own pieces and the works of others for churches, musicals, and wind ensembles.

ABOUT THE MIZZOU NEW MUSIC INITIATIVE
The Mizzou New Music Initiative brings together a diverse array of programs intended to position the University of Missouri School of Music as a leading center in the areas of composition and new music. The Initiative is made possible by the generous support of Dr. Jeanne and Mr. Rex Sinquefield and the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation.

The Mizzou New Music Ensemble is made up of University of Missouri graduate students under the direction of Stefan Freund, a cellist, composer and associate professor. They serve as the repertory group for the Mizzou New Music Initiative, working with faculty, students and visiting composers, and give public performances on campus and in the community. The Ensemble’s members for the 2011-12 season are Stephanie Berg, clarinets; Ryan Borden, percussion; Young Kim, flutes; Matthew Pierce, cello; David Snow, violin; and Renata Tavernard, piano. For this concert, Rachel AuBuchon also will perform on piano, and doctoral candidate Christopher Baumgartner will conduct the Steven Stucky composition Ad Parnassum.

The Board of Directors of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (CAM) today announced the appointment of Lisa Melandri as incoming Director. This decision follows a five-month international search. Melandri, currently the Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Programs at the Santa Monica Museum of Art (SMMoA), will assume her new position in August 2012.

“We are thrilled that Lisa will join CAM as we near the tenth anniversary of our building,” said David Obedin, Chairman of the Board. “Given her experience and success, I am confident that she will lead the Museum into an exciting new chapter of growth and development.”

Melandri has served in a managerial and curatorial capacity at the Santa Monica Museum of Art since 2001, when she was named Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Programs. During her tenure, SMMoA has grown significantly in scope and size, nearly doubling its staff and operating budget (to $2.2 million), and has increasingly received national and international recognition, respect, and critical acclaim.

“I am tremendously excited for this new opportunity and challenge to make CAM ever more relevant and important to the global world of contemporary art,” stated Melandri. “I look forward to working with the extraordinary board and staff to transform the Museum into an essential space for discovery, providing exhibitions and programs that inspire, delight, teach, surprise, and embrace each visitor. I am thrilled to become a part of the St. Louis community, and eager to learn about and participate in the cultural richness of the city.”

“I could not be happier for Lisa. It gives me great pleasure to have provided the context for a brilliant young person to launch her career,” said SMMoA Executive Director Elsa Longhauser.

Melandri is the curator of Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe, the artist’s first solo museum project currently on view at SMMoA, which will travel to the Brooklyn Museum in September 2012. She also was the curator for Marco Brambilla: The Dark Lining (2011), Combustione: Alberto Burri and America (2010), William Pope.L—Art After White People: Time, Trees and Celluloid…(2007), and Enigma Variations: Philip Guston and Giorgio de Chirico (2006, co-curated with Michael Taylor). Melandri and Longhauser were co-curators of Al Taylor: Wire Instruments and Pet Stains (2010) and Beatrice Wood: Career Woman (2011), one of the most positively reviewed exhibitions of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980 initiative.

“I am so pleased that Lisa Melandri is joining the Museum and enthusiastically anticipate developing CAM’s future with her,” said Dominic Molon, Chief Curator at CAM. “We share a commitment to building a culturally diverse exhibition program and creating a balance of presentations that are intellectually rigorous and critically significant yet broadly accessible, timely, and relevant. Lisa organized challenging and prescient exhibitions at the Santa Monica Museum of Art that provide a strong indication of the dynamic vision she will bring to CAM.”

Prior to joining SMMoA, Melandri was Acting Artistic Director at the Galleries at Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia. She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and Master’s degree in the History of Art from the Williams College Graduate Program. She will relocate to St. Louis with her husband, Jordan Gaunce, a highly regarded prepress technician who provides specialized work for movie studios, advertising agencies, and car manufacturers.

Board member Dwyer Brown has served as Interim Director since December 2011, when former Director Paul Ha departed to become the Director of MIT’s List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, MA. CAM engaged Linda Sweet of Management Consultants for the Arts, Inc. to facilitate the search.

“I am grateful for Dwyer’s outstanding dedication to the Museum and his leadership throughout this transition process,” noted Obedin.

Brown will continue to serve as Interim Director until Melandri’s arrival at the Museum in August.

For more information, please contact Allyson Pittman, Public Relations Manager at 314.535.0770 x311 or apittman@camstl.org.

CAM is pleased to host the 7th Annual City-Wide Open Studios, a week-long event in July dedicated to the discovery of the hidden spaces where local artists work.

Eligible artists must maintain working studios in St. Louis City, University City, or Maplewood to participate in the program, and must be able to open their studios to the public from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on either Saturday, July 28 or Sunday, July 29, 2012. CAM will allocate, based upon neighborhood, which day your studio will be open.

On a first-come-first-served basis, a limited number of studio spaces will also be made available at an alternate venue to those artists whose studios lie outside the prescribed limits or those that do not have traditional studio practices. These spaces will function as “pop-up studios” as well as “project spaces” for artists wishing to engage audiences in performative, installation, new media, participatory, or other works.

CWOS is open to all artists working in every discipline (traditional and non-traditional). CAM highly encourages artists to share spaces or participate collectively in the program. Artists must pay the registration fee as an individual, but can share the same studio/address. Art organizations that promote and/or support local artists via studios and other means are also welcome to participate in the program.

In addition to promoting a tour of your studio, CAM will display ONE work from your collection at the Open Studios Preview from July 24-29. Please note, the artworks act as a small representation of an artists’ studio practice. The Open Studios Preview allows visitors a glimpse into an artists’ practice and enables them to plan their weekend itinerary based upon the physical artworks they are most interested in. Because of the volume of artworks received, 2-D works will be hung salon-style and 3-D works will be organized appropriately within the limited floor space. ONE artwork can be delivered to CAM between July 17-22. Artwork will NOT be accepted after July 22 at 3pm. Artists are responsible for insurance coverage in their own studios. Please make sure your space is safe and free of hazards.

Each registered artist will:

• Be included in the CWOS Preview Party at CAM
• Be included on the CWOS website
• Be included on the CWOS map, distributed by St. Louis Magazine, CAM, and online
• Receive postcards promoting the event to mail

Click here for more information and to register.  Registration is due Monday, April 30, 2012.

It’s finally here; GOOD Ideas for Cities is tonight and CAM’s staff couldn’t be more excited to see what the 7 creative teams have come up with!

Check out the final challenge to be presented at tonight’s presentation:

7. St. Louis is a region with a deep heritage in great community parks. Yet since the economic crisis, funding is scarce and the capacity of the park departments has been greatly reduced, meaning our regional, state and national parks are in serious decline. How can we ensure that the city is able to protect, preserve and maintain our prized parks for generations to come?

Susan Trautman, Great Rivers Greenway and Kevin Farrell,Partnership for Downtown St. Louis

HOK FIT: Chip Crawford, Mary Ostafi, Sarah Weissman, Charlie Lutz, Valerie Greer, Tyler Meyer, Michael Browning, Leesa Coller, Jonathan Murphy, Jason Pierce, Dhaval Barbhaya

GOOD Ideas for Cities
Thursday, March 8
Doors: 6:00 p.m.
Program: 7:00 p.m.
Free and open to the public, no RSVP required.  Invite your friends to the Facebook event.  Cash bar.  Pi On The Spot will be selling personal pizzas outside of CAM.

GOOD Ideas for Cities is hosted by GOOD, CEOs for Cities, HOK, and the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis, and supported by ArtPlace.  Special thanks to our partners: AIGA St. Louis; ALIVE Magazine; Amber Murphy, nextSTL; Nine Network; St. Louis Regional Arts Commission; UrbanReviewSTL.

Check out the next two challenges:

5. One of the most critical challenges facing St. Louis is the low graduation rate for St. Louis City schools. Currently, only 20 to 30% of St. Louis City students graduate from high school. We know that low graduation rates cost taxpayers more, and as a result there is a rise in crime, homelessness, and substance abuse rates in the city. How do we motivate and empower more local high school students to graduate?

Rachelle Morgan, Shearwater; Jay Swoboda, The Homeless Empowerment Project; Sarah McCabe, The Point

ACTivate the City: Stan Chisholm, Dayna Kriz, Gina Martinez, Kevin McCoy, Mallory Nezam, Carlie Trosclair, Daniel Waxler

6. Government fragmentation, or the lack of regionalism, is a hindrance to building a prosperous St. Louis region. The lack of regional cooperation impedes progress of both public services and social services. How do we break down the real and perceived barriers that continually inhibit regional institutions, local governments and both states in the metropolitan St. Louis region from working together?

Maggie Hales, East-West Gateway Council of Governments and Tom Etling, St. Patrick Center

Live the Lou: Stacey Wehe, Juard van Dijkhorst, Amanda Clark, Court Sloger, Mike Glodek, Laura Schmaltz, Nate Paul, Whitney Sewell, Ed Reggi

GOOD Ideas for Cities
Thursday, March 8
Doors: 6:00 p.m.
Program: 7:00 p.m.
Free and open to the public, no RSVP required. Invite your friends to the Facebook event. Cash bar. Pi On The Spot will be selling personal pizzas outside of CAM.

GOOD Ideas for Cities is hosted by GOOD, CEOs for Cities, HOK, and the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis, and supported by ArtPlace. Special thanks to our partners: AIGA St. Louis; ALIVE Magazine; Amber Murphy, nextSTL; Nine Network; St. Louis Regional Arts Commission; UrbanReviewSTL.

Check out the next two challenges:

3. Have an animated conversation with a young transplant or multi-generational loyalist and you will understand the passion people here have for St. Louis. But, too often, the message falls back on empty boosterism. Whatever the cause, we must understand it, admit it and fix it. How do we deepen the pool of diverse people who love St. Louis and are personally invested in its progress?

Jeff Rainford, Office of the Mayor Francis Slay and Hank Webber,Washington University

Brain Drain: Matt Strom, Tara Pham, Logan Alexander, Noah MacMillan, Zoë Scharf, Amanda Yates, Andrew Warshauer, Kuan Butts, Danielle Wallis, Christine Stavridis, Bennett Gale

4. Located in the heartland, St. Louis has unique resources that could allow it to become a leader in urban agriculture. Yet most of the food consumed in the region is produced hundreds or thousands of miles away, and many urban areas of St. Louis have limited access to fresh food. How can St. Louis use our resources and stakeholders to increase accessibility of healthy, locally grown food?

Craig Heller, Food Works; Frank Finnegan, St. Louis Area Foodbank; Mike Sorth, Gateway Greening; Eric Schneider, RCGA

STL Provocateur: Rhonda Smythe, Jeanette Reynolds, Stephanie Co, Nat Zorach, Andrew Flachs, Anne McCullough

GOOD Ideas for Cities
Thursday, March 8
Doors: 6:00 p.m.
Program: 7:00 p.m.
Free and open to the public, no RSVP required. Invite your friends to the Facebook event. Cash bar. Pi On The Spot will be selling personal pizzas outside of CAM.

GOOD Ideas for Cities is hosted by GOOD, CEOs for Cities, HOK, and the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis, and supported by ArtPlace. Special thanks to our partners: AIGA St. Louis; ALIVE Magazine; Amber Murphy, nextSTL; Nine Network; St. Louis Regional Arts Commission; UrbanReviewSTL.

This Thursday, March 8 we will be hosting GOOD Ideas for Cities, an event that taps creative problem-solvers to tackle real urban challenges and present their solutions. Last year, we issued a call for creatives in St. Louis, and chose seven teams to represent the city. Each team was issued a challenge proposed by local urban leaders. At the event, the creative teams will present their solutions to their assigned challenge, and the urban leaders will join them onstage for a brief Q&A.  Afterwards, join us for drinks and more conversation as we discuss how to make these ideas a reality for St. Louis.

For the next few days we will be introducing you to a couple challenges a day so you can get acquainted with what will be presented this Thursday.

Check out the first two challenges:

1. We have a world-class light rail system in St. Louis. However, we have not seen a major effort to leverage the system as a catalyst for building more livable communities in the St. Louis region How might we increase ridership on St. Louis’ light rail to help demonstrate to the city the important opportunities around transit?

Kim Cella, Citizens for Modern Transit and Rhonda K. Hamm-Niebruegge, Lambert-St. Louis International Airport

STL Alley Lovers: Christopher Galli, Andy Heaslet, Derek Hoeferlin, Monika Jankowiak, Jenny Murphy, Jonathan Stitelman

2. Historically, St. Louis neighborhoods have been racially and economically segregated. The effects of these historic policies, and some current policies, allow the City of St. Louis to remain segregated in these ways: Throughout the city there are streets and public spaces that serve as dividing lines. How can we design the borders between our communities to act as bridges between our neighborhoods?

Vince Schoemehl, Grand Center and Jennifer Allen, Trailnet

Arch City Revival: Katy Mike Smaistrla, Emily Hemeyer, Joyce Gorrell, Amy Lampe, Sarah Paulsen, David Burnett, Michael Allen, Kara Clark Holland

GOOD Ideas for Cities
Thursday, March 8
Doors: 6:00 p.m.
Program: 7:00 p.m.
Free and open to the public, no RSVP required.  Invite your friends to the Facebook event.  Cash bar.  Pi On The Spot will be selling personal pizzas outside of CAM.

GOOD Ideas for Cities is hosted by GOOD, CEOs for Cities, HOK, and the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis, and supported by ArtPlace.  Special thanks to our partners: AIGA St. Louis; ALIVE Magazine; Amber Murphy, nextSTL; Nine Network; St. Louis Regional Arts Commission; UrbanReviewSTL.

Congratulations to Alex Elmestad, CAM’s Manager of Public Programs and Interpretive Technology, on the opening of his artist-in-residence exhibition, Institutional Memory, at the Luminary Center for the Arts this past Friday.  Here’s what Alex had to say about his exhibition.

“The main objective of this exhibition will be to produce a memory of past experiences within a publication that will hold not only personal histories within the pages, but the intimate and personal narratives of the community will also become part of the institutional history.

A limited edition book will be produced from the manuscript taken at the opening. As a literary form of expression as well as written documentation of an event, exhibition, or project, this catalog will take the form of a performance first. A stenographer will be hired during an opening. Equipped with a stenotype, the modern shorthand machine, the stenographer will be assigned to a specific gallery and will be instructed to eavesdrop on as many conversations as possible over the course of opening night and the week following. In many ways a museum is a listening tool often asking for feedback from the visitor in order to improve its mission and enhance experiences. Without the social dialogues welcomed and formed within the forum atmosphere of a museum, the public would not feel ownership with the institution. It is exactly the dialogues produced that make the space personally important for members of the community. Through this performance the metaphorical museum ears are literally personified with a living person transcribing and recording the social activity inside the space.

This performance will exceed the boundaries of traditional recording and will somewhat venture into espionage because the stenographer will be obtaining information without permission of those in the space. Thus the issue of private and public space is raised. The fragmented conversational material will then be reviewed by the artist, notes will be made and items will be arranged to create a more cohesive, yet engaging narrative; however, conversations will not bealtered to any degree. The artist will work with an editor to realize the literary vision of the work, and a final manuscript will be approved and the artist will collaborate with a local designer and print shop to produce a visually interesting editioned publication to be sold by the organization. Titled Institutional Memory and produced as a print multiple, the work is intended to be shared with others. As a limited edition, the work will maintain a certain value and have ephemeral qualities, but the main objective will be to produce a memory of past experiences within a publication that will hold not only personal histories within the pages, but the intimate and personal narratives of the community will also become part of the institutional history. As a result the institution truly becomes a place of dialogue consisting of many voices that are listened to and the exchange is materialized in a written form. The publication will include an introduction text written by the director, a short discussion between the artist and stenographer, select typed short hand notes, and the edited conversational narrative.”

http://www.vimeo.com/12553705
Auditions: February 2 and 3, 2012
Performance: February 15, 2012 / 6:00 pm

A visual artist and a choreographer are collaborating to create a performance piece based on chess. We are looking for both men and women who are interested in playing with boundaries and restrictions in movement through costume, space, and abstract boundaries. Thirty-two movers are needed from diverse technical backgrounds to embody the roles of the various chess pieces. Must be a team player due to the large number of people involved. The cast will rehearse for two weeks, 5 days a week. The artist is looking for both trained and untrained performers.

The performance will take place at CAM on Wednesday, February 15.

If interested, please contact Liliya Lifanova at lili.lifa@gmail.com or Davy Bisaro at davy.bisaro@gmail.com.  Please include your headshot, experience, availability, and your pant/top sizes.

For more information visit www.liliyalifanova.com.  To see a video of a past performance – Click here.

This project is produced by the World Chess Hall of Fame in conjunction with the exhibition OUT OF THE BOX: Artists Play Chess (on view September 9, 2011 – February 12, 2012).  Special thanks to our Associate Sponsor: Saint Louis University’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts.

If you would like to attend the performance on February 15, RSVP to Heather at hboever@chichillc.com or (314) 678-0500.

Frieze Magazine asked a number of artists, curators, critics, and frieze contributors for their picks of the Best of 2011. CAM’s very own Chief Curator Dominic Molon was among those chosen. Find out which art happenings, sports moment, impromptu a cappella performance, and more made Dominic’s list.

1. Karla Black’s Scottish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale
Following Martin Boyce’s virtuoso installation in this space in 2009 would have been a mighty prospect for any artist, but Black’s go-for-broke distribution of material textures, fragrances, surfaces and colours within seemingly every corner of the space made for a spectacularly transcendent and visceral experience.

2. Wayne Rooney’s bicycle kick goal, Old Trafford stadium, UK, February 12, 2011
It wasn’t just the timing and the significance of the goal that allowed Manchester United to beat their noisy neighbours, Manchester City (and move closer to a record-breaking 19th Championship). It was the pure style and aesthetics of the thing: the anticipation of the slightly deflected cross from Nani, the striking acrobatics to meet the ball, and the elegant arc into the net that resulted.

3. David Hartt’s MCA Screen project at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA
An installation combining sculpture, photography, video, and sound that takes the viewer into the dynamically designed offices of the Johnson Publishing Company (publishers of the popular African-American magazines Ebony and Jet). It deftly intertwined a sense of privileged visual access into a hitherto mostly unseen space with the provocative revelation that corporations, in the best and most unusual instances, still possess the potential for a sense of positive individual identity to occur. The installation was wildly successful in matching the sophisticated originality of its subject.

4. Tacita Dean, FILM, Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London, UK
Dean successfully resolved a space that has challenged numerous artists since Olafur Eliasson’s tour-de-force Weather Project in 2003. Not only a joyous exploration of the inherent properties of film itself but also a work that provided a thoroughly resolved physical/sculptural experience as well.

5. Juan William Chavez, Pruitt-Igoe Bee Sanctuary, Los Caminos, Saint Louis, USA
Comprising various plans, films, and sculptures, this project-in-progress reconsiders the legacy of the failed Modernist project of urban planning through an appreciation of the more positive socially collective activity and structure of insects.

6. Rick Perry’s ‘Oops’ moment, Republican Presidential Debate, November 7, 2011
Three things I love about this moment: the self-sabotage of one of the scarier prospects in the 2012 American Presidential Election; its astonishing mixture of hilarity and weirdly empathetic unease; and … uh …

7. Bertrand Goldberg: ‘Architecture of Invention,’ The Art Institute of Chicago, USA
Desperately overdue survey exhibition dedicated to the visionary architect best known for Chicago’s iconic Marina City (1959–67) buildings.

8. Michael E. Smith, Michael Benevento, Los Angeles, USA
If ever there was a beautiful marriage of ‘furtive reconfigurations of abject everyday objects’ and ‘insanely brilliant installation tactics,’ this would be it.

9. Robert Heinecken at Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York, USA
A perfectly installed presentation of a long underrated and underestimated pioneer of photography. His ongoing critical reassessment (arguably begun at the MCA Chicago in 1999) is remarkably welcome and long overdue.

10. The semi-impromptu performance of ‘Lean On Me’ by Stephen Colbert, Brian Eno and Michael Stipe, The Colbert Report, November 10, 2011
My new ‘happy place’ in gloomy times. Pure sweetness and light.

To see what made other art aficionados swoon this past year, click here.