This past December, local architect John Pankey and I led a writing workshop for literary center StudioSTL, using the setting of Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark as our muse. It was the second time the Pulitzer and this Grand Center neighbor have come together.

Over the summer, StudioSTL’s director, Beth Ketcher, read for A Marathon Metamorphoses and wrote on the event’s corresponding blog what she felt the marathon was about. Her attitude reflected a principle StudioSTL and the Pulitzer share: the arts are for everyone.

The goal of December’s workshop was not for the participants to produce refined art reviews but to get them to think comfortably, descriptively, analytically, and creatively by jotting down verbal sketches of what they saw in the galleries. Given optional cues in a worksheet, the young authors were asked to investigate the space, write down what they thought, and read their writing to everyone as a conclusion to the session.

Below, one of StudioSTL’s mentors reflects on the workshop.

Paula Davis is an Engineering student at Washington University and a mentor for StudioSTL.

On the twelfth day of the twelfth month, a few young writers–high school students–and a number of volunteers from StudioSTL, sat holding gray pamphlets, on the gray concrete floor of the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, in its gray concrete building, under St. Louis’ cold gray sky. It was quiet. Read the rest of this entry »

Realizing that I never finished my blog about Day 2 at the Harvard Art Museum’s Art and Medical Education conference, I thought I would add to those thoughts now. Coming off our visit to Detroit, where both the DIA and MOCAD sit in close proximity to the medical center, and headed to a visit to the Frist in Nashville, who maintains a strong relationship with Vanderbilt’s medical center, it seems as if there is growing energy and propelling those of us working in the art world to bridge the gap with those in the medical world. The points of intersection are numerous, whether they exist with engagement of patients, medical teams, students, residents, or otherwise.

As my position is jointly appointed with the Brown School of Social Work, who recently founded the Institute for Public Health, this is adding further fuel to this intellectual fire. For this particular partnership, my current mode of exploration, while broad in focus, continues to return to the theme of health disparities—how can art museums use an engagement around art to address health disparities? I would love your thoughts and comments about this particular train of thought.

Crew members from Earthworks Urban Farm in Detroit pose with their produce.

So my personal Detroit visit included conversations with Matt Sikora, head of evaluation at the DIA, and Jennifer Czajkowski, Direct of Interpretive Programs at the DIA. For those of you into evaluation, the DIA conducts what I consider to be an unprecedented amount of formative evaluation, or evaluation that is done during the formation of an exhibition (like market testing), which dovetails nicely with their strong commitment to innovative interpretive strategies, an effort in which Jennifer is highly instrumental. These interpretive strategies, the incorporation of which is based on the theoretical work of Abigail Housen and stages of aesthetic readiness, include thematic curation of exhibitions, specific language in wall text that isn’t necessarily rooted in art history, and other assistive devices, such as “I Spy” plaques and, my personal favorite, the table in their Fashionable Living exhibition that shows pieces on display being used in an 18th century dinner. The truly innovative model of how learning and interpretation (formerly, education) and curatorial interact to create one type of “optimal visitor experience” is somewhat antithetical to our approach, yet both of our institutions are striving toward the common goal of supporting the relevance of art in everyone’s lives. Read the rest of this entry »

At this time of year, it’s easy to wax poetic about reconnecting with old friends and family and the joys of the season, but hopefully we can avoid falling into over-sentimentality while still recognizing how important it is to take time to see old friends again and maintain relationships that have made an indelible impact on one’s life. It is in this spirit that we joyously reunited with the actors who participated in Staging Old Masters to see how everyone is faring and to make sure that the bonds of a company that are built through rehearsal and performance aren’t lost in the midst of the trappings of daily living. We were fortunate to be joined by a little more than half of our company last Tuesday evening, and I’m happy to share that all of those in attendance seemed happy, healthy, and doing very well.

One of them, Naheem Houston, is diligently pursuing his dreams of helping youth avoid the path he once followed while finishing up coursework at Florissant Valley Community College. The following are words from Naheem.

Naheem Houston describes what he likes and what he doesn’t really like about Urban Alchemy.

Naheem Houston:

I was looking forward to last Tuesday night since the Pulitzer sent me the invitation. I love and appreciate everybody that had anything to do with the success of the Staging Old Masters ensemble. The experience was truly a blessing that I will forever cherish, and the food was always a plus. I enjoyed meeting up with old friends and conversating about how life has been since we went our separate ways. I wish all the actors and staff could have made it out, just so I could see the look on everyone’s face in unity. We were the first in the pilot program, so we made history.

During my first shift as a Gallery Assistant at the Pulitzer, I rotated into the Entrance Gallery and was confronted by Garbage Wall.

After spending the last month and a half collecting this garbage from around St. Louis, I stood there and realized how little time I had spent with the finished piece.

My eyes scanned over the objects in the wall, and I recognized all of them! At the sight of each piece of garbage, I was taken back to a day in the collection process. I spotted the section of a brick wall that students at Wash U found during our neighborhood clean-up, caution tape that was left in a donation box in the art room at Metro High School, and shoes collected from a local thrift store’s dumpster. I remembered touching each object (with gloves of course) as I moved it from a school, curb, or dumpster, into my truck bed, and finally into the workshop where Garbage Wall was constructed. I felt lucky to have had this experience that connected me to the piece in a very unique and exciting way.

Read the rest of this entry »

Greetings from Cambridge! This roving social worker (well, roving for one weekend!) just finished day 1 of a Harvard University-sponsored “conference” (more on that later) on art museums and medical education–a day filled with shared excitement, enthusiasm, and exploration. I say “conference”, because it’s really meant to be a conversation between disciplines rather than a traditional museum symposium or conference. At any rate, the day began with a series of museum explorations throughout the Sackler galleries. These experiences included writing and sketching, discussions about grief and loss (thanks, Ray, for the great story about the Buddha and a quest for a mustard seed!), and the creation of metaphors in exploring contemporary art, my favorite of which consisted of comparing a lead sculpture by Richard Serra to either two medical patients with similar scars but very different histories or relating the relationship of the sculpture to the wall that supported it to the patient and his/her support system. Just a taste of the kind of cross-disciplinary talk going on here this weekend.

Read the rest of this entry »

When thinking about social activism, we tend to limit the definition to include protests, sit-ins, boycotts, and marches. Yet such a definition confines our understanding, and we rarely acknowledge activism’s various manifestations. Visual art, music, literature, flash mobs, clothing styles, and deciding which type of coffee to drink further prove social activism’s immeasurable forms. Our everyday choices become steps towards creating change. We can look back to the Civil Rights Movement as a perfect example on the varying expressions of activism. In the movement we see how song, art, literature, and bus rides can change an entire nation. Each time I hear the very first refrain “We shall overcome, we shall overcome, we shall overcome someday,” chills cover me. I am moved by the simplicity of the harmony and the lyrics, not because of their clever arrangement, but because I know such simplicity created such power and unity to bring together thousands. Or perhaps I am moved because decades following the movement the song still shakes one’s inner core and commands such hope. Read the rest of this entry »

From an e-mail yesterday:

“Hi Amy…!!!!

I was getting coffee this morning, and I saw one of your wooden screen printed ads for the Gordon MC show. It looked really cool!”

Those exclamation points make me happy.

Since last Wednesday, after a trip to All Along Press, the Pulitzer’s communications team has been Read the rest of this entry »

Manager of Community Engagement Lisa Harper Chang describes ideas behind outreach programs for the past exhibition, Ideal (Dis-) Placements, and for the upcoming Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark.

Looking back on last Spring’s Let’s Look and Staging Old Masters, Lisa Harper Chang considers the transformative power of art and how it will again be harnessed for the highly anticipated Urban Alchemy. The Pulitzer has already begun partnering with schools and artists for this exhibition, which opens October 30, and is planning a series of panel discussions on themes in Matta-Clark’s art. You can learn more about these and other exciting new programs on our budding website Transformation. Read the rest of this entry »

The last days of an exhibition are always bittersweet, and Old Masters is no different. The memories of the light playing with my perception of the works and the voices of the many who have presented, acted, and read in the exhibition still linger. It’s easy to take an exhibition for granted, especially one that’s been here for a longer period, but when it’s gone, I know I’ll miss the faces, the forms, the landscapes, and all of the stories, including the ones depicted and the ones that were created in the galleries.

This in no way diminishes my excitement about our upcoming exhibition, Urban Alchemy / Gordon Matta-Clark, and the promise of the variety of interactions and opportunities the exhibition inspires. The work for Matta-Clark has already begun, as you’ve been reading about in this blog recently, but now you have a chance to come learn more about our upcoming exhibition, play with building a garbage wall yourself, and see the potential in trash by turning discarded newspaper into fun and functional items.

We will be hosting a table at the Earthways Green Homes Festival in Grand Center this Saturday, September 26. Our table will be open from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (the festival continues through 6:00 p.m.), and we are very excited to share with you information about Gordon Matta-Clark and our plans for the exhibition, including the Garbage Wall. So please come by and see us, say hello, and bring home a handmade kite, paper, or a seed planter as a souvenir and a reminder to come back and see us beginning October 30!