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 »

Emily Augsburger is a Brown School of Social Work practicum student in the Pulitzer’s Community Engagement Department.

Last Saturday, Jenny, Aaron, Craig, Lisa, and I set up a table at the Earthways Green Home Festival with old newspapers and a Plexiglas box ready to be filled with garbage. The morning was cool and breezy, and the news forecasted rain, but we were warmed by coffee and eagerly waited for festival tourists.

Within minutes of the kickoff, we made a friend, whose mom was volunteering with Earthways. Henry, a student from Loyola Academy, became an amazing assistant to the Pulitzer’s booth. He joined our recycling paper task force and eventually became an expert with the hand-crank blender used to make the paper pulp.

Henry, Jenny, and Emily demonstrate making paper pulp and paper out of recycled newspapers. Read the rest of this entry »

Loyola Academy students pose in front of their simulated wall of garbage.

Yesterday, Jenny, practicum student Emily Augsburger, and I rode in Jenny’s gold truck to Loyola Academy, a nearby all-boys school, to spread the word about Garbage Wall.  We hauled bins of junk and a six-foot-tall Plexiglas box with us.

In the art room, Jenny announced to a table of middle school boys the upcoming exhibition, asked if they knew what “alchemy” was, and then connected the term to Matta-Clark’s transformative art. She prompted the class to hypothesise how a 2’x2’ mock-up of Garbage Wall, left in the classroom the day before, had been built. Then the class thought of more ways to renew trash.

Some students casually rested their heads on the table in front of them, but they all readily chimed in and paid attention when others spoke. Still, after we paraded outside for the kids to simulate their own garbage wall, the adults truly witnessed unbridled energy, as the students, wearing blue latex gloves, eagerly explored the junk bins.

“So what do you think of this project?” I asked one boy, who had been pretending his gloves made him a superhero.

“It’s fun,” he replied, “I wish we could glue it together.”

Melba, the art teacher, who the Pulitzer collaborated with for the Community Light Project, assured her pupil that the class would get their chance to use elements of Garbage Wall in one of their upcoming assignments.

You regulars may recall Claire Wolff, a mover and shaker for Let’s Look, The Community Light Project, and other past projects. She graduated and ended her practicum three months ago, but since then she’s been very busy, using what she learned as a social work student to help begin a non-profit café, Urban Studio Café.

When Claire told me Urban Studio Cafe was about to have its soft opening two weeks ago, it was clear we needed to follow up and see how work at the Pulitzer prepared her for this new venture. What’s more, she needed a taste tester for barista training, and I wanted to do my part by trying a surplus latte.

About two miles from the Pulitzer, Urban Studio Café sits around the corner from Crown Candy, in Crown Village, the site of significant revitalization efforts. The cafe was birthed by what was just “the Urban Studio,” a facilitator of art workshops for kids in Old North. With profits from sandwiches and coffee drinks, these programs will continue, and at the same time, the cafe will provide a common space for the neighborhood. (Read the cafe’s goals on its website.)

Approaching the entrance, you see a poster taped to the storefront window, which was given to Claire by our community engagement coordinator, Lisa Harper Chang. It reads, ”How to Build Community,” with a list of maxims that pretty much sum up what the café is about (besides delicious lattes).

To practice ”ask a question” and “know your neighbors,” I asked Claire and her crew what they were doing August 27:

“It appears that cultural organizations, in comparison with other agencies, might be uniquely positioned to act as catalysts for community involvement and as agents for capacity building. Cultural initiatives are inclusive, and have an unsurpassed capacity to open dialogue between people and engage their enthusiasm and commitment to a shared redevelopment process.” -Richard Sandell

On my second day as a Brown School social work practicum student at the Pulitzer, I found myself in the art room at Cole Elementary working with fourth- and fifth-graders to create a light installation piece. This was a decidedly atypical social work task, but I was excited to learn things that I couldn’t necessarily glean from textbooks.

The Cole students were instructed to pour paint in glass ornament balls and swirl the paint around to create marbled patterns. The ornaments were to fill a 6-foot tall clear tube to be displayed in Grand Center. We quickly realized that we’d have to ban the glitter and strongly encourage the “less is more” approach to painting so that the balls would dry in time. Read the rest of this entry »

In this day and age, everyone is looking for ways to be more environmentally responsible. Whether it’s recycling, buying locally grown foods, switching to compact fluorescent bulbs, or using mass transit, “going green” is the way to conserve energy, save money, and reduce one’s carbon footprint.

At the top of the list is investigating alternate energy sources–namely solar, wind, and thermal. The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts and EarthWays Center are offering you a low-cost opportunity to take this important step towards energy efficiency. The solar panel system that once powered Spencer Finch’s The Light Project installation, and is now in use at the Missouri Botanical Garden, could soon be yours for only $100!

Throughout the month of June, you’ll have the opportunity to purchase raffle tickets to win the entire system: eight 195 watt panels (1.56 kW), six 235 amp/hr 12V batteries, inverter, charge controller, and mounting hardware. The system is valued Read the rest of this entry »

Seven months after the close of The Light Project, the solar energy system used for Spencer Finch’s installation Sunset (St. Louis, July 31, 2008) is on view once again! This time, the system is on loan to the Missouri Botanical Garden (MOBOT), powering an interactive exhibit in EarthWays: Living the Green Life. The eight solar panels are mounted on the roof of the Brookings Interpretive Center, adjacent to MOBOT’s famous Climatron:

The rest of the system–including batteries, inverter, and charge controller–is on view within the Brookings building.

The system is fully installed and functioning at the Garden (in fact, it’s running the nearby vending machines as well as a misting fan). It serves as a concrete example of how solar power can be used as an alternative energy source. All in all, the MOBOT exhibition is designed to help visitors learn about the various green products, ideas, and technology that will help protect the Earth’s future.

This show is just one of the many activities organized to celebrate MOBOT’s 150^th anniversary. Further information on related exhibitions, lectures, concerts, and events can be found on their website. Also, be sure to check out yesterday’s Post-Dispatch article highlighting the Garden’s 150 year history.

COMING LATER THIS WEEK: COULD YOU BE THE NEXT OWNER OF THIS SOLAR SYSTEM???

On Tuesday, Assistant Registrar Elise Hall and Community Engagement Manager Lisa Harper-Chang spoke to an Art and Civic Engagement class, at the University of Missouri in St. Louis. In addition to sharing their work experience and how they got their start in the art world, Elise and Lisa explained ways in which the Pulitzer reaches out, not only to its community partners but also to general Grand Center visitors. Although they mentioned Staging Old Masters and Let’s Look, they centered on the The Light Project and The Community Light Project as examples of community engagement.

The class professor, Mel Watkin, had e-mailed Visitor Services to see if a staff member could speak to her class about specifically The Light Project. The class was made of Seniors, with specializations in areas such as Library Science, Art History, Graphic Design, and Theater.

“They were very enthusiastic and asked a lot of really good questions,” said Elise. 

With a PowerPoint presentation of around 100 images, Elise reported working behind the scenes as a registrar, noting chief details such as the selection of artists and art sites, the insourcing of workers, and the securing of equipment (scaffolding, fencing, projectors, wiring, solar panels, an ice cream machine, sprinkles, etc). Can you imagine keeping track of that? She also emphasized the importance of working with a variety of local consultants: structural engineers, ironworkers, projection specialists, and dairy experts among others.

“I didn’t know anything about solar paneling, so I had to find the best possible authority on that topic.”

Lisa described the public’s overall reaction and the implementation of The Community Light Project. The latter involved partnerships with four neighborhood schools, Washington University, and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Elise said the UMSL experience was positive for her; it gave her the opportunity to teach as well as to reflect and process all that went into that massive enterprise in the fall of 2009.

A photo from Elise’s PowerPoint presentation

After working on the Community Light Project with the students from the schools in the Grand Center neighborhood and seeing their amazing drum performances with Craig Woodson, I am even more convinced that greater access to arts education is necessary for our city schools.

Because of budget cuts and the No Child Left Behind act that required more stringent adherence to testing for reading and math, art education has become a low priority for many school systems, especially in low-income and urban areas. This is truly unfortunate because art education has wide-ranging benefits besides simply gaining mastery of an art form. Research has shown that children who receive quality art education have increased verbal, reading, and math test scores. They also score higher on SAT’s and other standardized tests. Art education improves focus, motivation, social development, self-confidence, perseverance, and stress reduction. Although the Pulitzer took an approach that was less education focused and more centered around experience and engagement, we still saw the profound effects of art on children’s lives. Cole Elementary students’ intense motivation and focus as they performed their xylophone piece was a perfect example. And if you were watching the boys from Loyola, their dancing drum routine oozed with self-confidence and self-expression. Research also shows that art education improves school community and teacher innovation. In the case of the Community Light Project, the schools benefited not only a strengthening of community internally, but also strengthening of external relationships to institutions like the Pulitzer and the Symphony that can further support the cultural enrichment of their students.

Ultimately, art education has the ability to reduce the drop out rates and close the achievement gap in our school system, as well as create citizens who have an appreciation for art, culture, and aesthetics. As I learn more about art education, and especially how institutions like the Pulitzer can engage schools and students, I will post blog entries. If you have examples of how art education has shaped a school or a student that you know, or if you have insight into how institutions like the Pulitzer can engage students in art, feel free to pass along the info! Leave a comment below. Thanks!

So, why would the Pulitzer be interested in philosophy, neuroscience, or cognitive psychology? Here at the Pulitzer, one of our main missions is to nurture that personal experience with art, a mission we fulfill through our architecture, supporting literature, and/or programming. As we venture into exploring the social relevance of art through integrating social work into our Pulitzer-world, the desire to learn more about what factors influence an individual’s perception of art has become even greater. We hope that you’ll join us in this new exploration.