Philip Matthews is a 2011 graduate of the MFA program at Washington University in St. Louis and is this year’s Jr. Writer-in-Residence in the English department. He teaches poetry and creative non-fiction. He is also a gallery assistant at the Pulitzer.

by Philip Matthews, Gallery Assistant

Last Thursday, October 6, I had the pleasure of experiencing the first of a series of Sound Waves events, which will all respond to the current exhibition, Reflections of the Buddha. For this installment, DJ Tim Rakel pumped a variety of Indian and Indian-influenced music throughout the exhibition through a sound system installed in the grates in the floor. The effect was encompassing, and as a gallery assistant stationed in the main gallery over the course of three hours, I found myself considering the Buddhist concepts of impermanence and attachment.

According to Buddhist thought, everything is in a constant state of change. The Pulitzer building exemplifies this principle, as natural light shifts throughout the day throughout the galleries: in one moment, a shimmering reflection of the Watercourt on the ceiling; in one moment, a rod of light through the Buddha on a phyllite plate; in one moment, nightfall reveals the standing Buddha reflected in a window, alongside my own reflection. And Rakel’s musical selections enhanced this principle beautifully: moving from a recording of monks chanting a cappella in unison, to a shimmering of sitars and a woman’s microtonic pipes like I have never heard, to a percussive, upbeat dance fitting of a dakini. Throughout the event, I am struck by how the power of the artworks around me interact with the music and the building, and how those relationships evolve as time progresses. At any given moment, I am satisfied to be here, having the experience I am having. Is this something like samadhi?

But when I begin to become attached: for example, when I begin to miss the blocks of orange light which sunset cast on the wall, I begin to miss out on the current experience of night available to me, with its different beauties and significances. This, I feel, is the Buddha’s most useful teaching to my daily life, which is full of attachments: to loved ones, to routine, to self-image. Because nothing is permanent, my attachments dissatisfy me when the conditions of my life change: I am dissatisfied that the relationship I want to last must inevitably end; I am dissatisfied when my students are not as talkative as they were last week; I am dissatisfied that, at 24, I am still so much skinnier than other men. The Buddha: “…on the cessation of craving ceases attachment; on the cessation of attachment ceases becoming…” (Mitchell, Donald W. “The Teachings of the Buddha.” Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience. New York: Oxford UP, 2008. 42. Print.)

Here is a creative response to the challenges and questions of intimacy, attachment and impermanence which the current exhibition at the Pulitzer has begun to raise for me. The first draft of this poem was written at Sound Waves on Thursday, October 6, in fragments, on the back of a receipt I had in my wallet at the time.

Megan Johnson is the Pulitzer’s newest practicum student from the Brown School of Social Work, and she is currently coordinating the Dream Journal Project in connection with our current exhibition. In the letter below, Megan explains the project to those who signed up at the Dreamscapes opening reception. We want to hear your dreams too! Please sign up for the Dream Journal Project with Megan Johnson, Dream Journal Coordinator, at mjohnson@pulitzerarts.org.

Greetings, Fellow Dreamers!

Thank you for joining us for the opening of our new exhibition, Dreamscapes, and for participating in the Dream Journal Project. I hope this email helps answer any questions you might have about it.

We invite you to join us as we explore our dreams, nightmares, inspirations and thoughts. The dream journal you received the night of the opening (or any journal you wish to use) can serve as a place to explore your dreams using any medium you desire, be it painting, drawing, writing, collage, photography or any other. There are no rules stating how the themes of your journaling should be expressed.

Throughout the course of Dreamscapes, you will receive emails from me encouraging you to continue examining your dreams, as well as providing prompts if you are experiencing dreamer’s block.  These prompts are in no way mandatory and are solely provided to help you continue your explorations. If you happen to have a prompt idea, please send it in!

Toward the end of Dreamscapes you will receive an invitation to the Dreamscapes finale. The finale will include an opportunity for you to share your journal in a number of ways. You can submit your journal prior to the finale to be on display for all visitors to peruse, or you are welcome to bring your journal with you and share it personally. The day will also feature time when Dream Journal participants can read from their journals.

In all aspects of the Dream Journal Project, please share your dreams in the manner that is most comfortable for you—authored or anonymously.  And, if you choose to donate your journal for the finale, you are welcome to include your name or not, as you prefer.

Happy dreaming,

Megan Johnson

(MSW expected 2012)

Dream Journal Project Coordinator

The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts

This Saturday at 1pm, the Pulitzer will introduce a new series, Dreamtime Storytime, in connection with its current exhibition Dreamscapes. Every fourth Saturday of the month, writers, educators, artists and performers will tell stories related to dreaming.

This Saturday will feature Jane Ellen Ibur, a writer and co-host of Literature for the Halibut, and Emily Kohring, Education Director and Artistic Associate for Metro Theatre Company, telling stories together and asking members of the audience to share what stories pass through their heads as they sleep in their beds.

Jane Ellen Ibur will also be reading some of her original poems. Please enjoy this preview of “Cat Nap”, which will make you think about what expressions you use with children.

Every Thursday, 7-8pm, Ann Haubrich and Jane Ellen Ibur give KDHX 88.1FM listeners Literature for the Halibut, an hour of readings, interviews, and discussions on Literature. Last week they read newly-published poems of St. Louis-born poet Frederick Seidel, but this week they’re rewinding a couple millennia for–you guessed it–Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

Special guests tonight include our very own Senior Curator Francesca Herndon-Consagra and Kress Interpretive Fellow Hannah Fullgraf as well as St. Louis Poetry Center Consultant Lorin Cuoco. They, along with Haubrich and Ellen Ibur, will read sections of the Classic and talk about next weekend’s A Marathon Metamorphoses. 

Ann Haubrich will be reading at the marathon, so you might think of the show as an auditory preview. If you haven’t checked out the A Marathon Metamorphoses blog lately, read today’s slant on Ovid from St. Louis Magazine’s Culture Editor Stefene Russell, who will also be reading next weekend and has helped host Literature for the Halibut in the past.

Yesterday was the day we published Post 1 and 2 of the A Marathon Metamorphoses blog-have a look please. The notes consist of a welcome from Hannah Fullgraf and, along with a little reiteration on my part, a video of Director Matthias Waschek, explaining the Pulitzer perspective behind the mega-read.

The basic strategy for this blog is to offer some background information and updates related to the event at this month’s conclusion. Throughout August, we’ll sprinkle a few words on Ovid here, some on Wtewael there, and tie everything together with the narration of Hannah, as she’s the event’s manager. But like other aspects of the laboratorial Pulitzer, the blog doesn’t have a cookie-cutter recipe, which makes me, as a web communications assistant using an ever-changing form of documentation, wonder what exactly this web page should be made of.  

The Pulitzer has a few other web sites/blogs with the same layout, such as Let’s Look, Sorrento Springs, the French Program, but if you look at those pages linked to on our Collaborative Programming page, you’ll see that the events or programs are different from one another and have been documented in diverse ways. The French Program, periodic visits from Lindenwood, can be posted about per visit. The Sorrento Springs trip was a one-time occurrence and written about from various witnesses’ perspectives.

Now when it comes to A Marathon Metamorphoses, an event which will last just one weekend but include people from all over St. Louis and span art forms and areas of study, we’re working with a whole other animal. What should be recorded in the event planning? How do we make the page worthy in itself aside from the event? Does that matter? How do we tell people about Ovid et cetera without becoming too “educational” and departing “blog”? What will readers want to know? What will the pace be?

A Midsummer Night turned into a magical event the Friday before last. The St. Louis heat and humidity let up until we were only cozy, and by sundown, the moon was a perfect Cheshire Cat smile. Guests filtered in and out throughout the evening, and the general feedback was that they enjoyed themselves. We now have footage from the occasion for you:

In the second to last clip, Director Matthias Waschek remarks how A Midsummer Night’s Dream fits in with the Pulitzer’s current exhibition as an Old Master work with its script, direction, and music. This made me think of other ways particularly the play compares to our current paintings, such as how its ageless themes of human experience (love, dreams, lust, confusion, violence, etc.) make it forever pertinent to society.

Yesterday, I asked people on Facebook and Myspace broadly, “What do you think makes Old Masters relevant to our society today?” and received some thoughtful responses, including that of Facebook fan Paula, who wrote, “…I think every one of those pieces of art speaks to something within the human condition…” Likewise, A Midsummer Night’s Dream deals with the frustrations of desire and how comical humans can be while hooked to their base emotions.

We’ll observe human nature more during A Marathon Metamorphoses, when we read a Classic that must have stirred Shakespeare’s imagination a little. For instance, in Ovid’s story of Cephalus and Procris, we see tragedy associated with one of those seven deadly sins, jealousy. The dysfunctional lovers’ tale is represented in a painting now on display at the Pulitzer, Joachim Wtewael’s Cephalus and Procris (The Death of Procris).

Amy: Hannah, you’re the recipient of a Kress Interpretive Fellowship at Art Museums, a jointly shared appointment between the Pulitzer and the Saint Louis Art Museum. What exactly does this fellowship involve–who are you working for, and what are your specific duties?

Hannah: The Kress Interpretive Fellowship is for the training of a young museum professional as a museum curator or educator of European Art. The fellowship is for one year, and as you mentioned, it’s a shared appointment between the Pulitzer and SLAM, so I’ll be working at the Pulitzer from May to November before heading to SLAM.

At the Pulitzer, I’m working closely with Director Matthias Waschek, Community Engagement Manager Lisa Harper Chang, and Visitor Services Manager Courtney Henson, to implement “Exploring Art” for the Old Masters exhibition. I will not only provide the art historical context for each work, but I’m also working to create a meaningful dialogue in which participants learn through their visual experiences as a group and also alone.

Read the rest of this entry »

In two weeks, the Pulitzer will be hosting a poetry event focusing on the theme of Light. This June 25th event will be different from any other poetry event we’ve done in the past and it is all due to a “happy accident” that occurred during the Water poetry panel back in early December 2007.The Water poetry event was set up as a panel format, where four poets would direct their thoughts to a public audience. Due to a huge snow storm, that audience was brought down to just ten people. There was never any discussion of cancelling the event and in the moment it was decided that we would arrange chairs in a wide circle and have the audience and poets sit and discuss together. As the evening wrapped up, all of the participants, both poets and non-poets alike decided this new, more intimate setting allowed for better discussion and was overall a great success.

Planning for the June 25 poetry event, it was decided that we would continue to test this new round table discussion format. Working with the Poetry Foundation out of Chicago, we have invited four out-of-town poets (Joseph Donahue, Albert Mobilio, and John Yau) along with some local writers. As always, the subject of Light relates to the current exhibition at the Pulitzer- Dan Flavin: Constructed Light. The discussion will be recorded and will then be available for download on the Pulitzer’s and Poetry Foundation’s websites.

Last week was the “Poetry at the Pulitzer” event we organized in collaboration with the Poetry Foundation.   The poets who took part – John Yau, Andrew Joron, Cole Swensen, and Arthur Sze – were here to discuss the relationship of water in visual art and poetry.  Unfortunately, that same night we experienced the first bad winter weather of the season…which impacted the amount of people in attendance.   Luckily, we’re flexible (one of the nice things about working here), and the configuration was quickly changed from a panel discussion behind a table to pulling the chairs in a big circle with everyone discussing together — poets and visitors — and passing the microphone around.  It was such a success that we are considering duplicating this format for future poetry events.  We also recorded it – I’ll keep you posted if that ends up going online.

Here are some photos from the evening:

Here’s a little activity for you: go to the website of the Poetry Foundation and do a search for poems that include the word “water”. Or better yet, just click this link. The archive turns up an incredible 839 poems. There’s “Home-Thoughts from the Sea” by Robert Browning, “The River of Bees” by W.S. Merwin, “Humidifier” by Louis Gluck…and on and on. The results make for an interesting electronic anthology. How real are the affinities? That’s the kind of question some writers will be taking on at the Pulitzer on December 6. Along with the Poetry Foundation, we’re presenting an event at which writers Andrew Joron, Arthur Sze, Cole Swenson, and John Yau will discuss just what water might have to do with poetry. Talk could go from Homer to who knows…maybe, from the 839, Robert Creeley’s “The Pool” (take a look).