A few members of Big Brothers/Big Sisters had the chance to visit the Pulitzer Saturday morning. The institution’s upcoming location in Grand Center has prompted them to explore their new neighborhood. The matches roamed the galleries of the space where many of them had never been to, much less heard of. Afterward, each got the chance to share their experience about the Pulitzer as well as with Big Brothers/Big Sisters. Two members of our staff interviewed and discussed these experiences in order to share their findings with the website. Here’s a little preview:

When I asked William, a Little Brother, to associate a work of art from the “Portrait/Homage/Embodiment” exhibition to himself, he stated that he related to the work by George Segal called “Walking Man.” The work is seen as a part of its surroundings in a day-to-day scene. Paula, his Big Sister could only agree with him, relating to her experience of seeing him in his neighborhood. She told of him talking with his friends introducing her as his Big Sister and saw the respect he had earned with his friends. Paula found a connection with Doris Salcedo’s work “Atrabilarios,” seeing the issues of justice and the individual stories within the work that Salcedo brings to light about the Colombian civil war victims.
-Amy Blomme

I had the good fortune of interviewing three of the Big Brother matches and got a great variety of feedback. One match, consisting of Big Brother, Tim, and Little Brother, John, both enjoyed their adventure into “Joe”, our courtyard Serra sculpture. When asked which artist they would pick to make their own portraits John answered Segal, because he thought he might enjoy the experience of being all wrapped in the plaster strips, but only when he was assured he would not be left in there. In another match, Maria, the Big Sister, expressed a desire to have her portrait done by Cindy Sherman so she could be dressed up as a queen. Ashley, her Little Sister, declined to have any of the exhibition artists do her portrait, but did say she would like to see herself painted by Vincent Van Gogh. In the last match I interviewed, Big Brother Dennis declared that he’d like to have Salcedo do his portrait, consisting of ball caps instead of shoes as in “Atrabilarios.”
-Maggie Abbott