Director Matthias Waschek explains why the Pulitzer doesn’t label the artwork in its galleries.

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 »

Andrew Raimist, an architect, talks about Bingo for Frame of Reference. To watch video of part of his talk, and to read his thoughts on the Pulitzer and Gordon Matta-Clark, visit Architectural Ruminations.

On the first Saturdays of every month, the Pulitzer hosts Frame of Reference, discussions lead by special guests about specific artworks on display. It’s a wonderful opportunity to gain insight on the art and artist, as well as the chance to ask questions and engage in invigorating conversations.

A couple Saturdays ago, I listened to our Senior Curator, Francesca Herndon-Consagra talk in the Cube Gallery about the Matta-Clark piece Four Corners. About ten other people were  in the room, walking in and around the objects as we discussed and learned what these four corners of a now demolished house meant as a physical document and how we can mentally interpret this work in the present day.

Frame of Reference Saturdays are a great way to further explore the Pulitzer space and visual art.  It welcomes anyone and everyone to participate in a fun and interesting discussions about art, without making you feel like your in a class lecture. It’s great to see familiar faces in the art community and to share a viewing experience with a group of people.

Gallery Assistant Kay Renner talks about Conical Intersect and invites you to come to the Pulitzer.

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

Friday, August 14, I tagged along for the first experimental run of the Pulitzer program Exploring Art: Ideal (Dis-) Placements. Exploring Art takes the idea that people come to art with different personal backgrounds, and placed within a facilitated group setting, their ideas about a work can be brought forth to show its value for them individually. Sometimes within the context of the group’s discussion a work can take on completely new meanings. This is a program that the Pulitzer has tried before but this time is monitoring closely through evaluation and also an added component of facilitation training. 

It’s my duty to schedule group tours, and Exploring Art workshops usually include free cookies, but this was the first time we started with lunch down the street at the Best Steak House, one of Grand Center’s notable eateries. Dining there might be the perfect way to start an Exploring Art session. People in the group were from wide-ranging organizations in St. Louis, and they and their docents for the day, Hannah and Christina, were able to introduce themselves over steak burgers and A1 sauce. It was really an inviting way to begin talking about the Old Masters we would experience next.  Read the rest of this entry »

Art:21’s blog has been running a fantastic series over the past few months called “Flash Points”.  They present topics related to contemporary art and ask a variety of guests to write about it from their perspectives.  In my opinion, it’s one of the most interesting and well-presented contemporary art discussions happening online.  Currently, the series is focusing on themes within their upcoming 5th season, the first of which is “Compassion“.

I wrote a post on one of their featured artists, Doris Salcedo, whose work Atrabiliarios is one of the few owned by the Pulitzer.  To me, Salcedo goes beyond compassion to fully envelop herself in the reality of her subjects.  Check out the full post here.

Two great posts I just finished reading about social media (which reminds me that I still want to do a major recap of what I’ve learned from Museums and the Web…).

This article from NPR discusses the shift from the web being page-based (and focused on displaying past information) to a constant stream of active information (a la Twitter) and what that says about our society today.  The Pulitzer has a Twitter page and participates in this “stream” – do you?  And do you think this type of constant information will eventually replace static information on the web?  Which also ties in with something else I heard on NPR this morning – will these musings online have any hope for longevity?  What will our version of Shakespeare’s sonnets be?

The other piece I just finished reading was by Kimberly from the Kemper.  She wrote about social media and art on the Saint Louis Art Map and discussed how what we do on the web as museums needs to relate back to our mission and audience.  It reminded me of the paper Nina Simon presented at Museums and the Web, which takes this idea one step further.  She discussed how our approach to an online presence – with it’s emphasis on accessibility and the interactions with Web 2.0 – and how we should bring these ideas back inside the galleries.  As she calls it, “going analog”.  It’s an interesting read -check it out here.