sound waves interacts with stylus; DJ John Uhlemann, host of “Music from the Hills,” talks about Balkan music and what it’s like to play at the Pulitzer.

sound waves: Balkan took place last Thursday evening. Every “Third Thursday” of the month, for the duration of the exhibition stylus, the Pulitzer, in collaboration with 88.1 KDHX, is hosting sound waves from 6-9pm. For information on the upcoming sound waves: Jazz, visit our events page.

As part of the stylus’s community programming, the members of Urban Wave are also leading hand making workshops at various St. Louis schools. Chloe Bethany, a graduate of Washington University’s Sam Fox School, worked on the paper hands in Ann Hamilton’s installation (read story here), so she knew what she was doing last week when she instructed students at Metro High School on how to make their own. From Chloe:

Last week, two compatriots from the Brown School of Social Work  and I conducted a hand making workshop at Metro High School.

Metro is just a few blocks west of the Pulitzer. As we unloaded clay model hands, paper, and glue onto a cart to bring upstairs, we wondered whether this was just a normal day at Metro. We were greeted at the door by high school students wearing togas and eating chocolate chip cookies. It was immediately a friendly place, amplified by what we learned were the accoutrements of school spirit week. The mood continued all the way into the classroom, where we were met art teacher Tom Tobias and a class of around twenty-five students.

I enjoy teaching the workshops. As the sort of art-logistics member of the team, I get to do what I like best: get my own hands dirty and help others do the same. Emily Task and Regina Martinez handled what we’ve designed to be the content-focusing aspect of the workshop, a pre- and post- question: what does an open hand mean to you?

I spoke a little about the exhibition, and then a clay hand was passed out to each student in the class. The clay is oil-based, meaning that the hands stay soft and pliable. After the discussion of the hand as a symbol of nonverbal communication, many students were eager to form their hands into peace signs and other ambiguously positive gestures (we discourage the obvious offensive gestures that many high school students find highly amusing). And then, we got messy! Read the rest of this entry »

Nico Leone, Co-Executive Director of 88.1 KDHX, and Scott Rice, a percussionist, talk about the upcoming sound waves.

Almost a month ago, the sounds of Brazil hummed throughout the Pulitzer galleries. This week, we’re moving on to the continent of Europe for Balkan night. KDHX DJ John Uhlemann will be playing music likely to be heard on his radio show “Music from the Hills” (see of his playlists here), and Scott Rice, a percussionist from the last sound waves, will return with a different set of instruments.

Our neighbor Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis will simultaneously be offering another event with music. Check out that line-up on their main website. Our institutions, in our shared vision of fostering arts and culture in Grand Center, are promoting our events side-by-side and encouraging you to visit both buildings on these “Third Thursdays” of the month.

This Thursday, be sure to pick up a form for a contest we’re partnering on–a treasure hunt of sorts–in which you’ll be asked to investigate both art spaces and hopefully discover more than just a $25 gift card to the City Diner if you’re completed form is selected (even just that is a pretty good incentive for playing…).

Robert E. Gard

In the third weekend of September, I attended the Gard Symposium in Madison, Wisconsin. The conference was dedicated to the life work of Robert E. Gard, a community arts developer out of Wisconsin. Robert E. Gard is known for his community work in theatre, creative writing and folklore. (To read more about Robert E. Gard and his foundation, please click here). The symposium, inspired by Gard’s life work, called participants to discuss the future of community arts development.

I made the journey to Madison with a friend from the social work program at Washington University (she is also the founder of the Community Arts Initiative at the Brown School). We attended the conference to hear the testaments of those who have been actively bridging the arts with unlikely sectors. The symposium aimed to address “healthy communities” by presenting viewpoints of seemingly different disciplines: economics, sociology, technology, politics, religion and social work. Community arts practitioners responded to each discipline’s approach to a healthy community by offering ideas in which the arts might be integrated. It is important to note that healthy, in the symposium and the social sciences speak, refers to an overall, holistic health.

Though the presenters provided strong evidence of the powerful abilities of integrating the arts into diverse sectors, I was particularly moved by the expressed views of Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton. The Lt. Governor’s perspective was fresh, independent and innovative, as she understood that the arts were not only essential a healthy community but also an integral aspect of democracy. As stated in her paper written for the symposium, the Lt. Governor writes, “[the arts and humanities] provide the creativity and spontaneity and sense of freedom necessary to fuel the ongoing struggle that is democracy. A politically healthy community invests in the arts to ensure the context and conditions that will make it robust and prosperous.” It is my hope that symposia such as this catapult community arts development into common dialogue.

Sean Thomas, the director of Old North Restoration Group, shows Urban Wave’s Regina Martinez and Chloe Bethany a building in Crown Village as a possible spot for a hand poster.

stylus is the Pulitzer’s first commission-based exhibition, and the new territory offers us a chance to closely merge our programming activities with the installation concepts through direct communication with the artist. In yesterday’s video, Lisa touched on collaborating with Ann Hamilton and Matthias to design programming that “amplifies” the installation and still practices social work. One program that emerged from their conversations is Urban Wave, a project with two students from Washington University’s Brown School of Social Work and two from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts.

Urban Wave hopes to extend stylus’s theme of “call and response” and to activate the installation outside of the building, as the sound from the bell speakers does. Over the next few weeks, its interdisciplinary team will paste more than thirty posters of stylus’s image of a hand–the one seen on the projections, flyers and web catalogue–in various spaces in St. Louis, particularly in Old North.

“We’re in the phase of deciding sites based on input from people in the community,” says Regina Martinez, the Pulitzer’s current practicum student from the Brown School and a member of Urban Wave. Read the rest of this entry »

Community Projects Director Lisa Harper Chang describes matching programming with  stylus and how the exhibition offers a chance to explore the pairing of social work and art.

The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts partners with the St. Louis Public Library to bring a Banned Book Reading to the installation stylus – a project by Ann Hamilton.

A week ago, the Pulitzer and the St. Louis Public Library celebrated together Banned Book Week by hosting a reading of banned or challenged books amidst stylus. Twelve St. Louis librarians read passages of various challenged books; To Kill a Mockingbird, Howl, Gone with the Wind and Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends were among their naughty choices.

It was the Pulitzer’s very first banned book reading, though librarians have celebrated Banned Book Week for twenty-eight years. Librarian Judith Krug began Banned Book Week  in 1982 to raise awareness of First Amendment issues and to oppose infringement on those rights. Since stylus incorporates much about speech, text, archives and reading out loud, the Pulitzer found the installation and a banned book reading an apt pairing.

stylus is the first exhibition in which the Pulitzer is partnering with the St. Louis Public Library, and the community engagement department is planning more shared endeavors, such as paper hand making workshops and a hand poster project. Stay tuned for more on that.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a symposium titled, “Breaking the Rules of Engagement: New Perspectives on Thinking about Art,” at the Denver Art Museum, or DAM, as it is so lovingly called. The weekend included art, culture and new ideas about museum goers and supporters. I explored the museum and city, but  I was there particularly to meet with other museum professionals and discuss the future of docent programs.

The symposium centered on new ideas in docent presentations. Three interesting speakers at the conference were James Chung, Michael Cassin and Shelly Casto. They talked about tapping into proven trends and integrating new and creative ways to actively engage a visitor’s quest for the visual. Many discussed that the old ideas about tours were not the way to entice audiences. Instead, engaging in interesting conversations surrounding the work of art is the preferable method. Read the rest of this entry »