Today is the last day of my internship here at the Contemporary. I’m excited to head back to school for my senior year; but honestly, after being here all summer, I’m afraid I’m going to miss this place terribly. My internship has been a greatly rewarding learning experience, but I’ll also miss it simply because the Contemporary is such an enjoyable place to work.I started my PR and Marketing internship in the middle of May. As a non-resident of St. Louis, I didn’t really have any idea what was going on around the city. I found my way to the Contemporary (with help from Google Maps, since I’d never even visited the museum), and after only a short time working here, I felt like I belonged. The Contemporary is a very open and welcoming place. With its friendly staff, thought-provoking exhibitions, and numerous development, outreach, and education programs, the museum really opens its arms to the St. Louis community.

Take, for example, the recent Open Studios weekend. The Contemporary staff dedicated months to organizing the fantastic event that allowed people from all over the city to explore studios and meet artists face-to-face. Or consider the New Art in the Neighborhood program, which supports area teens in their learning by providing free training in the visual arts. Beyond these, the Contemporary offers many other events and programs, encouraging people in the St. Louis community to actively engage themselves with today’s art.

I was proud to be a part of the wonderful things the Contemporary is doing. Interning here has given me the opportunity to take part in the museum’s programs and really integrate myself into the community. Not only that, but I’ve also learned a lot! I’ve gained knowledge and skill in my career field as well as a wealth of greater understanding of art. But along with that understanding, I’ve developed a greater curiosity; and when I leave the museum, I won’t stop exploring and learning more about art and the creativity that goes along with producing and viewing it.

If you’re interested in working at the Contemporary, check out its internship and volunteer opportunities!

Rebecca (Program Assistant) and I have spent quite a bit of time working on outlining the Contemporary’s 2nd Annual Open Studios event. Last year, around 40 artists opened their studios to the public.  Hundreds of people drove and walked around St. Louis visiting studios spaces and talking to local artists about their work. It was a fun day.

This year, the City-Wide Open Studios is taking on a larger life. We hope to have around 80 artists participate, and we’re opening the museum for a week-long exhibition of art works by participating artists. Each artist will be able to display one work, so visitors can come in and get a taste for style and develop a “studio hit list” before the big weekend. Then Open Studios will be TWO days long — both Saturday and Sunday. We’re excited about the two day event, which will allow more people to visit studios, and will also allow artists to be able to visit one another. We’re also brainstorming on tour ideas. We hope to have several fun tours – bike, bus, etc — organized so there’s many different ways and reasons to visit the studios. And the weekend closes back at the Contemporary with our “Starving Artist Barbecue” where everyone can enjoy some great food, music, and can talk about their weekend adventures. We would love ideas and volunteers, so if you’re interested, please let us know.

 Jim Hodges, who will have art work featured alongside Andy Warhol in our I Remember Heaven exhibition, has created a very large-scale camouflage mural for our space. Today when I arrived at work, I was greeted by several prompt UMSL students. These students are enrolled in a class taught by Professor (and Guest Curator) Susan Cahan and have been commissioned to help out with the project. Under Louise Hunnicutt’s direction (she’s a mural painter from New York who has a history of working with Jim Hodges), the students will be painting the mural on the wall in our center gallery space.

This morning, I met with a firm who is renting our space during the Warhol exhibition and they were quite surprised and delighted to see such a mess (if you can imagine!) and enjoyed getting a glimpse at what happens during install.

(Correction made to Louise Hunnicutt’s name on 1.8.07)

I had the pleasure last week of inviting artists participating in our Open Studios Day to blog, and I’ve received great responses. I will start posting artist replies on Thursday. In the meanwhile, I want to play catch-up on last week and share a post from our Finance Manager, Mary Walters, regarding our Annual Board Meeting. We said our formal goodbye to Chuck Cook, our Treasurer, who has been with the Contemporary for years. Chuck was instrumental in obtaining funding for the construction of our new building, and most recently, he has had a major role in ironing out the details of our ongoing fund-raising effort, the Contemporary Challenge. We’ll all miss him, but I’m sure Mary, who handles our accounting books will miss him most of all. (Jennifer)

During the June 14th Annual Meeting of our Board of Directors, special thanks were in order for our retiring Board Treasurer, Chuck Cook. He often refers to himself as a “bean counter” so for his parting gift as treasurer we awarded him a jar of beans to count and an “Official Bean Counter Apron.”

Although we are sad to see him vacate his position as treasurer, Chuck will continue on as a member of the Contemporary’s Board of Directors and we will most assuredly see him frequently–decked out in his trademark bow-tie–at our events and parties.