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.

I’m back in St. Louis, and full of ideas from Museums and the Web.  More to come on that soon.  In the meantime, I’d like to talk about my love of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

I’ve written before about how much I admire their approach to museum transparency, but this was my first opportunity to visit in person.  The new Davis Lab gave me ideas for the presentation of our own in-gallery kiosk and the surrounding 150 acres of gardens (with prompts to post your photos on Flickr – nice) was perfect after being cooped up inside hotel conference rooms for days. Their director, Max Anderson, gave an inspiring opening address to the conference, which set the tone for all the great ideas that were to follow. Watch his intro here (ah yes, Art Babble – another reason to love the IMA!).

To add to this always-growing list – here’s a blog post about the “Indy Culture Matters” rally they participated in yesterday and the associated website. Reminded me of Amy’s post a few months back on visiting Jefferson City  (and also here) and how important it is to keep the arts at the forefront and convey their importance to our community leaders.

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.

Lindenwood Senior Beth Doyle, who intends to become a French teacher, says this about the French Program:

“I am in my fourth year at Lindenwood studying to become a French teacher, so the French program at the Pulitzer is a great opportunity for me and I have really enjoyed participating for the past few years.  It is a very unique way for me to improve my own French and learn more about art while also meeting other French teachers in the area who can give me pointers or advice.  It also gives me the chance to teach something new to a group of high school French students and gives me a taste of what I have to look forward to in my future teaching career.”

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.

This is how the cover of the Prospect 1 map describes the city-wide exhibition on view in New Orleans. Only three years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina hit the city, the biennial aims to revitalize New Orleans and affirm it as a vibrant locale for the arts. I was lucky enough to view the exhibition in person and experience not only the impressive array of works, but also the efforts of the people of New Orleans to rebuild their homes, neighborhoods, and lives.My trip to the Lower Ninth Ward had most profound effect on me. Here are a couple of highlights:

Read the rest of this entry »