The Pulitzer’s assistant registrar stands in the center of Richard Serra’s Joe.

Even with Urban Alchemy gaining momentum as we prepare for spring’s programming, Serra’s Joe is never far from the spotlight on Washington Blvd. Particularly after a marked weather change, as in today’s snow blanket, someone is likely to say, “Joe looks beautiful; someone should take photos.” So Elise and I trekked into the courtyard this afternoon, looking for ways to digitally translate beauty.

For more of the encore presentation of  “Snowy Joe,“ and for images of Joe’s 2001 installation, visit our Flickr collection “The Building and Beyond.”

Nicole Stevens, Gallery Assistant, talks about Gordon Matta-Clark’s Splitting.

Wednesday afternoon, I borrowed Gallery Assistant Nicole Stevens, last on our blog with Cephalus and Procris, to continue “From the Galleries” with Urban Alchemy. In the video above, Nicole talks about Splitting on the Mezzanine while referencing two documentary photographs of the monumental piece. (Do the images seem familiar to you?) In the Pulitzer’s Cube Gallery, you’ll find Splitting: Four Corners and a print, Splitting, which artfully reveals the interior of half the house that Matta-Clark bisected and that Four Corners was taken from.

As I’m sure all of you already know (because you follow our blog, facebook and twitter accounts faithfully) our Urban Alchemy / Gordon Matta-Clark exhibition opening took place last Friday from 5pm to 9pm. Admittedly, scheduling a 4 hour opening did seem like a long amount of time and we therefore planned to evaluate the visitor attendance flow every hour to figure out if, for future openings, we should open later or close earlier. Much to our excitement, we found that our 900 visitors came in a steady stream – showing up on their way home from work or arriving after a dinner on the town for a glass of wine on our mezzanine. It certainly didn’t hurt the event when the skies cleared just hours before we were slated to open, giving our guests an amazing view of a setting sun against a St. Louis skyline.

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In the video above, Director Matthias Waschek describes how community engagement is incorporated into the Pulitzer’s primary identity as an arts institution. This is the first in what we plan to be a series of “From the Director” clips in which Matthias presents topics unique to the Pulitzer.

If you have a question, please feel free to leave it in a reply. We want to know what you want to know.

Having been a gallery assistant at the Pulitzer, I can’t recall how many people I’ve seen glide their palms over the Pulitzer’s walls with a look of admiration. Yes, these walls are smooth, but knowing nothing about concrete, I’ve never been nearly as awed as some visiting architects. Still, the more I learn about the building, the more I appreciate the brainwork and assiduousness behind the “Ando concrete.”

Early last Friday, Facilities Manager Steve Morby explained to me what makes the concrete here special. He became acquainted with it when he worked on Ando’s first project in the United States, the Eychaner Residence in Chicago, completed in 1998. Steve had been working with concrete for 25 years, but in his paper “Constructing Concrete as an Art Form,” he explained that he had “never seen such exacting details, and the expectations of such high levels of wall quality were amazing.”

Although Ando is not the first to use exposed concrete in the way he does, as architect Thomas Daniell pointed out in 2007, the process for making an Ando wall is still unusual, and because Ando uses it consistently to affect a building’s overall environment, it has become his trademark. In the following video, Steve describes the procedures for making concrete and how his construction team altered them to create the Ando quality.

For the last month, at varying days and times, there’s been some man raised via lift or scaffolding to the Pulitzer’s outside walls, putting something all over the cement. Don’t worry-I know these men to be part of the facilities crew and have thought nothing of it. I simply say, “Hi!” and walk in the building.

Generally, when I see things, such as Facilities Manager Steve Morby carrying a big bucket of something through the hallway, or Assistant Facilities Manager Shane Simmons sloshing through the Water Court in galoshes, or a pair of pink, man-size latex gloves (which must be theirs, right?) near my desk, I don’t ask questions. If I did, I’d be asking for shop class every day, since these guys have a big job every day.

“Can you tell me about how you’re cleaning the Water Court?” I asked Steve today.

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When visitors walk into the Pulitzer’s front door, they first meet gallery assistants, guardians for the building and ambassadors for the Pulitzer Foundation. Besides directing guests to the coatroom, explaining why the lights aren’t on, or escorting people through Joe, these GAs are equipped with wide-ranging knowledge and talents.

You can now get a little introduction to this team online. For the past few weeks, we’ve been collecting short biographical paragraphs from them for a Flickr album, “Meet the Gallery Assistants.” You can also see the GAs’ web contributions in their blog posts on our various pages, or in videos, such as those in the “From the Galleries” posts.

Gallery Assistant head shots, used in Flickr set “Meet the Gallery Assistants”

On yesterday’s Morning Edition, NPR broadcasted “Cezanne’s Shadow: A Master’s Influence Lingers.” The story investigates the long-lasting influence of the French painter, which is the theme of Cezanne and Beyond, the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s current exhibition.

The Cezanne exhibition displays some works borrowed from the St. Louis Art Museum as well as works by Ellsworth Kelly, who as most of you readers know, has a permanent piece (Blue Black) displayed in the Pulitzer’s Main Gallery. On the Morning Edition show, you can hear Kelly express his respect for Paul Cezanne’s work.

Also, the Pulitzer would like to brag that its previous curatorial assistant, Camran Mani, is now a curatorial assistant for the Philadelphia Museum of Art and worked on Cezanne and Beyond.

As a way to generate interaction with our PFA Myspace/Facebook pages, I’ve been asking people to email me photos and drawings made from Pulitzer visits, to put in albums currently titled “Visitors’ Images.” This is so average guests can showcase their creativity and have a visual discussion of what they see at the Pulitzer.

Today is the opening at this online gallery. Here is some of what is being exhibited:

If you have something you would like to submit, you can email it to me at web@pulitzerarts.org.

This past Saturday, art teacher Bryan Rickert visited the Pulitzer with his wife and two daughters. It wasn’t the first time he has come to see Ideal (Dis-) Placements; he’s regular at the Pulitzer and enjoys the peaceful qualities of its atmosphere.