Theaster Gates and his students talk about Gate’s summer course through Washington University in St. Louis. During the class, students worked with Gates to rehab a house in Hyde Park and devise ways in which the house can be used as an arts hub for the neighborhood.

Community projects at the Pulitzer have always raised questions of sustainability. In understanding our institution’s ever-evolving role within the community arts of St. Louis, we are a catalyst, incubator, and (at our best moments) innovator. We work to enhance the already-impressive, effective, and inspiring work of our colleagues by bringing both the strengths of a cutting-edge arts institution dedicated to promoting the personal experience with all arts and social work practice. This means, however, that we are at risk of violating one of the founding principles of community practice by parachuting into a community then exiting quickly, without sustaining commitment to the communities with whom we worked. In principle, we are keenly aware of this and have attempted to balance our institutional identity with ethical community practice by forging partnerships with institutions that have the potential to carry the innovation forward. As this department is coming upon its fourth year, we are still in the process of learning what it means to “carry the innovation forward” and just how much continued support and involvement it might take from the “catalyst”.

Take Theaster Gates in Hyde Park for example. Theaster entered this community through our project, which was a collaboration between Holy Trinity Academy and Succeeding with Reading, a program that had existed at Holy Trinity Academy for a few years preceding Urban Expression, the Pulitzer-catalyzed program inspired by our exhibition, Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark. He was captured by the community—particularly, the kids—and became committed to arts-infused community development in the neighborhood. While our exhibitions changed (and the programs with it), we were able to stay involved by co-sponsoring the CityStudioSTL (Somethingness: Ways of Seeing and Building) with the Sam Fox School of Visual Art and Design at Washington University in St. Louis. In so doing, we are figuring out our institution’s role in ensuring that Theaster’s commitment to Hyde Park (through Rebuild Foundation) has a better chance at success. It’s a work in progress, but the brilliant work of Theaster, his employees, and the students of this summer class have provided another huge step toward fulfilling the potential of a beautiful, if neglected neighborhood and doing so by forging partnerships between existing community members and those from the outside. We’ll keep you posted as his work evolves.

A mock-up for the Urban Wave postering project depicts how the stylus hand image might look in a proposed location. Urban Wave members submitted mock-ups, such as this one, to stylus curator Matthias Waschek and artist Ann Hamilton for curatorial approval.

It’s almost go-time.

Tuesday night, I submitted the first fifteen mock-ups for the Urban Wave postering project: photographs of specific locations in and around Old North City, with images of Hamilton’s posters superimposed in the position of their proposed installation.

How did we get here? Last week, I visited the neighborhood (roughly the boundaries established by the Old North Restoration Group and a little north into Hyde Park) several times to make photographs and measurements. Regina Martinez, Emily Task and I did the initial exploration together, gloriously on foot in what felt like the first real days of fall. On return visits, I was generously assisted by Nathaniel Zorach, a partner in the continuation of Theaster Gate’s Urban Expression, a program which began as a Pulitzer initiative.

“So you’re allowed to just put stuff on any of these buildings?” Nathaniel asked me. For a young person, Nathaniel has an uncanny ability to be comfortable in khakis and loafers in almost any situation, and the back seam of his blazer was straining as he leaned across some weeds and broken glass to measure the boards blocking a particular window on Palm Street.

This has been an issue at the forefront of consideration throughout the planning of Urban Wave: How much permission do we need? Half of the buildings in that particular area are abandoned and, frankly, busted-up. Tempting to a person, such as I, who is eager to propagate (via glue and paper) some exciting imagery. But by talking to people like Nathaniel, who has been studying neighborhood politics and policies; Christine Holladay, Academy Director at Holy Trinity; Claire Wolff of Urban Studio Cafe and Sean Thomas of the Old North Restoration Group, we hope to have developed an informed perspective for how to implement our project with sensitivity to the neighborhood. In addition to that, we’ve carefully chosen sites  for their artistic appeal to maximize wonderment and curiosity during their installation.

And more good news?  We’ve attained curatorial approval, courtesy of Director Matthias Waschek. Enthusiastic approval, even. We start next week.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Organizers, visitors and participants talk about Art/Food during the event.

All afternoon this past Saturday, a crowd milled about the Art/Food tent trying local concoctions, such as South County honey,  Vanilla Cream Ale, and s’mores from a sun oven. In the video below, Chef John Judy, from L’Ecole Culinaire, describes the Gordon Matta-Clark gumbo that was served. For a full recap of the event, watch the video above.

With the dismantling of the folding tables, came the conclusion of Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark. If you’re ever feeling nostalgic, you can always visit the Transformation site and the web catalogue, which document the exhibition and the ambitious programs associated with it. What was one of your favorite parts of Urban Alchemy?

As we evaluate the achievements of the past few months, we’re also revving up for Ann Hamilton’s stylus. The Pulitzer will be closed for installation until July 9, the exhibition’s opening reception. (To be continued…)

Chef John Judy shows L’Ecole Culinaire’s recreation of Gordon Matta-Clark’s gumbo, which they served at Art/Food.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kathryn Adamchick, an Art/Food organizer, talks about how Art/Food relates to the work of Gordon Matta-Clark.

This is a the last week for Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark. As a special farewell to the exhibition, the Pulitzer has joined forces with Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis for a celebration of food and art on Saturday, June 5, 1-4pm, titled Art/Food.

Art/Food will offer dishes prepared from local food by local chefs from a few of St. Louis’ favorite restaurants. Organizations, such as Earthways Center and Slow Rocket Urban Farm, will talk about local food and offer interactive activities that demonstrate sustainable practices.

Admission is free, but there’s a suggested donation of five dollars, or flour, oil, and vinegar to go to St. Louis Campus Kitchen, a non-profit student organizations that feeds people in need.

For full event details, visit our event page.

Slow Rocket Urban Farm talk about their urban farm in South St. Louis. They will give a presentation on their work during Art/Food.

Here’s a shot of Robert Longyear sitting in his installation for Urban Evolution, discussing his work with visitors last Saturday. His friend Dickson Beall recorded a couple snippets of him describing working with kids at Craft Alliance, which you can view here.

This Saturday, May 29, at 1pm, Robert will continue the conversation and read his thought-provoking written piece “Seven Ten Split.” The talk will be held again at the exhibition, in the Woolworth Building (501 North Grand in Grand Center). As usual, there’s no admission fee. Just bring your curious minds and be prepared to look at bowling balls in a whole different light.

From Robert:

“We’re daring to be operatic, like maybe it’s time for us to address critically the fate of our neighborhoods – and if we’re going to be operatic about it -and if this is all about a principled response to the wider world, we all need a foundation.

Remember, there’s a bureaucracy to opposable thumbs.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

On May 15, the Pulitzer celebrated the culmination of Transformation with an art walk that showcased the work of each program. In the video above, visitors, participants and organizers talk about the different programs and locations for the Transformation Project Walk.

The Transformation Project Walk sites will be on view until June 5, as the Pulitzer staff prepares for a final Urban Alchemy event. Perhaps after that, we’ll have time to process the assorted layers of the T-series and all that happened during the Walk. As a Pulitzer camerawoman (we use a Flip), I try to focus on perspectives and moments that expose some of the big picture of events, some of which don’t always make it into footage. As I followed the site map on May 15, I saw a range of reactions. Here are a couple of times that stood out to me:

1. While riding the shuttle from Bruno David Gallery to Hyde Park, I met two people who came to the event to see what was happening in the North St. Louis neighborhood. One was a man, who rehabbed in Hyde Park in the 1980s. He had more stories than could fit into the ride, including the tale of how his house burned down. The other visitor was a woman who grew up in Hyde Park during the 1950s and went to Holy Trinity Catholic School. It was the first time she had seen her childhood home in years.

2. At the Woolworth Building, I saw James, an Urban Renewal participant, shake hands and talk with strangers about his chair, as if he regularly hosted a gallery. After an interaction with one man, James looked as if the breath was taken out of him. I asked him how he was, and he said he was moved by all the visitors’ compliments and that perhaps he’ll continue refurbishing chairs, since people liked his chair so much.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Juan William Chávez comments on Gordon Matta-Clark’s father, Roberto Matta, and one of Matta-Clark’s works in the exhibition Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark.

For May’s Frame of Reference, Juan Chávez, an artist and the director of Boots Contemporary Art Space, examined Gordon Matta-Clark’s A W-Hole House: Roof Top Atrium. As a panelist for “The City as Studio” and curator of Theaster Gates’ exhibition Dry Bones and Other Parables from the North, Juan has greatly contributed to Pulitzer activities in the last few months. You can read his post on the Urban Expression blog, which explains what he thinks of “the power of art.”

Frame of Reference is a series of in-gallery discussions on the first Saturday of every month. The Pulitzer tailors each set of speakers to engage visitors in conversation and to provide a range of perspectives on the art being displayed. The last Frame of Reference for Urban Alchemy will be June 5.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Panelist Paul Ha, Director of Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, explains his relationship with Food and that food and art have always gone together.

If you’ve been paying attention to our Transformation site, you know that tomorrow the Pulitzer is hosting “Food, Art, and Community,” its final panel discussion in the series fired by Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark. This week’s topic relates to Gordon Matta-Clark’s fondness for using cooking in his artwork and the legendary Food of 1970s SoHo . Panelists will discuss how combining art and food movements can lead to social progress. You can RSVP to this event on Facebook.

Everybody eats (See Sesame Street clip, ca. 1970s), and, as we should know by now, the way we get and eat food fundamentally defines our way of life. Drive-thru windows. Pre-packaged food. Devotion to convenience in the United States leaves cooking as a hobby rather than a part of being human.

Next Thursday evening, the Pulitzer will present “Food, Art, and Community,” its final panel discussion in the series fired by Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark. Panelists will talk about offsetting disengagement with what we gobble and how blending art with urban farming, farmers’ markets and food has the potential to strengthen whole communities. This topic was inspired by Gordon Matta-Clark’s use of cooking in his artwork and the artist-owned/run restaurant Food, which offered a “perpetual dinner party” to SoHo in the early 1970s.

This week, Rachel and I decided to highlight an example of art and food fostering fellowship in St. Louis by interviewing a founder of Sloup, a monthly soup dinner that donates its proceeds to artistic ventures. Below is my interview with Amelia Jones.
What is Sloup exactly? What is the rationale behind it?

Sloup is a monthly soup dinner that funds artists’ grants in greater St Louis. The idea is that it doesn’t take a super large amount of funding to bring art projects to fruition.

Can you relay the conversation that led to Sloup?

Sloup was sprung from visiting a soup dinner hosted by InCUBATE in Chicago. Very simply, we decided that this idea of a micro grant process could be applied to St. Louis.

What are the details that go into a dinner, like where does the soup come from?

We made the first soup ourselves. The second soup was donated by The Mud House, a local coffee shop. We are soliciting other restaurants and individuals to come make a soup and share something they are excited about, be it an ingredient in the soup or an element of their restaurant/organization/etc that is unique.

Who are the people who participate in Sloup?

Maggie Ginestra and I facilitate the dinner, but that is becoming an easier and simpler component since more people want to contribute to the actual dinner, by donating soup and bread and beverages. We’ve had local art organizations like The Urban Studio Café (who won out first grant) and individual artists like Jordan Hicks and Dave Johnson apply for the Sloup grant.

Can you describe what took place at the last Sloup meeting? What is the atmosphere like at a typical dinner?

We have had two dinners so far: one in February and one in March. We have had a little over twenty people attend each dinner. Sloup is a casual occasion. People start wandering in at 6pm or so and we try to hand out the proposals as the soup is being served. Since we have only had two Sloups, it is hard to say what is a typical dinner. At our last dinner we had Kimmy Sue talk about a project she is working on called Fresh Bread. Kimmy is donating bread, which she will screen print on with edible ink, to April’s Sloup as part of her Fresh Bread project. As more people begin to finish the projects the Sloup grant funded, more of the dinner will have a presentation element, where the artists and organizations will come back to Sloup and talk about the projects that they have completed.

Besides awarding money to artistic endeavors, what has Sloup accomplished so far, and what do you hope for the future?

We have started to connect different populations in St Louis and we want to continue to do that in, hopefully, bigger and bigger ways. When you hear the word “Sloup,” we want people to think about a great place to put ideas about food and culture in motion.

Update: Sloup, along with our friends at Urban Studio Cafe, were just featured on Marketplace! Check it out here.

Whew.  Our posting on 2buildings1blog this month has slowed, but our overall blogging activities are currently at full steam.  We’ve launched a website for Transformation – the community programming organized in conjunction with the Matta-Clark exhibition (which you can also explore online here).   A few highlights:

The Panel Series:  We’ve organized a panel discussion each month to explore topics related to Matta-Clark’s work within the context of St. Louis.  The key question we’ll address in each panel: “How do communities evolve and in what ways can their members guide the process?”  Within this online section we’ll feature interviews with the panelists, research info related to the topic, and full audio from the discussion shortly afterward.  I also attempt (key word) to live tweet each panel (http://twitter.com/thepulitzer).  The next panel just happens to be tomorrow (Oh! You’re in luck! And it’s free!).

Local Artists:  This is where the bulk of the blogging happens.  We’re documenting the three artist-run projects throughout the course of Transformation – hear updates from the artists, watch videos of the classes, even watch DIY videos to learn some of the skills yourself, and generally stay up-to-date as each project evolves.

Your St. Louis:  Definitely the most interactive of all the sections.  We’re posting candid interviews with St. Louis residents, to help paint a fuller portrait of the community.  Show us your St. Louis by adding photos to our Flickr group.  Show off your favorite route, by creating a custom Google Map for others to use.  We want to showcase what St. Louis means to those of us who live here.

Forum:  We’re hoping this section will grow into a place for discussion.  Want to expand on ideas you heard in the panel?  Want to ask an artist a question about their project?  This is the place to do it!

This website will continue to grow and shift as the programming grows and shifts, and as always, we’d love to get your feedback.  Leave your thoughts in the comments below!