Monks from the Mid-American Buddhist Association chant on Vesak Day. Listen to them and members of other Buddhist temples at the Reflections of the Buddha opening reception.

As you readers may have noticed, there hasn’t been much to read here recently, but I assure you the Pulitzer staff and its partners have been busy the past three weeks. Much has happened since Dreamscapes concluded with KDHX DJs emitting dreamy sounds throughout the galleries. Everyone has been developing programs, events, catalogues, docent trainings, and community connections as part of our next exhibition, Reflections of the Buddha.

As I write this, senior curator Francesca Herndon-Consagra is working with art handlers and registrars to configure awe-inspiring statues and thangkas in relation to the Ando building (quite a humbling experience, they might say). These works date from the second to the twentieth century and were created in Afghanistan, China, India, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Tibet. If you would like a sneak peek, visit the Reflections of the Buddha web catalogue holding page and download the gallery guide. Witness the works in person by attending our opening reception next Friday, September 9, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

Since Reflections of the Buddha showcases  works born from the culture and philosophy of Buddhism, the Pulitzer decided to partner with Buddhism specialists in the St. Louis community and beyond for several programs and events. As a complement to the opening festivities, at 6 p.m., members of the Buddhist Council of Greater St. Louis will share an opening chant, featuring examples of Buddhist traditions living in the St. Louis area.

Donald Sloane, a member of the Mid-American Buddhist Associate explains, “The monks from the Thai Temple will begin with the opening lines of a blessing of the Buddha in Pali, the language closest to that of Gotama Buddha. The Thai monks represent the original tradition of Theravada. The monks will continue the chanting in English. Next the Heart Sutra will be chanted, first in English, led by the community from MABA, and then in Chinese, led by those from Fo Guang Shan. The Heart Sutra is from the Mahayana tradition and a teaching from Guanyin, who is represented in the exhibition.”

Members of the Buddhist Council of Greater St. Louis will also lead meditation workshops at the Pulitzer and be available on the third Saturdays of the month along with docents to discuss works from the perspective of Buddhism. There will be information about these and all of our programs at the opening and on our website by next Friday.

We’ve decided to change our header. Let us know what you think.

Just kidding–I’ve been rummaging in a folder called “2005 Beginnings of Blog” and discovered what look to be mock banners for 2b1b. Take a look here at a template from 2005 for the layout. Legend has it that there was a Pulitzer blog before 2buildings1blog and that it was actually the first art museum blog ever. (I’ll let you know once I find the evidence, but I’m pretty sure it’s true.)

As we prepare to celebrate the Pulitzer’s 10th-year anniversary this fall, the Pulitzer staff has been thinking a lot about how it’s changed over the years–the development of programs, exhibitions and web presence. This blog has been a wonderful tool to keep track of what the Pulitzer has been doing  since July 12, 2005, the day of its first post.

Introduction: Read introductions from Emily Rauh Pulitzer and senior curator Francesca Herndon-Consagra about the exhibition. Download a checklist of all the works featured in Dreamscapes.

Exhibition: Explore the works in Dreamscapes, beginning with a beautiful mosaic of installation shots. Click on works to see additional images and artist quotes. Click on “The Space” for a map of the galleries, and see how the works are placed within the Ando building.

Events & Programs: Stay up to date on what’s happening at the Pulitzer and see what has already happened in conjunction with this exhibition.

Community Projects: Learn about the social work programs related to Dreamscapes. The Pulitzer is partnering with Beyond Housing, an organization that offers an array of services to the St. Louis community.

Exhibition Blog: Click on categories to see blog posts related to what you want to know about, whether that’s programming, particular artists, or social work projects.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Find out more about Swoon and this video on Saint Louis Art Map.

Bob McCabe, Morning Host for KWMU, reads during A Marathon Metamorphoses.

“…how does one communicate the experience of an ephemeral two day reading in our exhibition space?” our director, Matthias Waschek asked today in his very first blog post for the Pulitzer. He is, of course, reflecting on last year’s marathon reading of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which has so far been the only event of its kind in our building.

To capture the experience, a local videographer video taped the almost twenty hours of reading in the Lower Gallery. He then edited the footage down to eight minutes, which includes a shot of each of the seventy-four readers. You can now watch the video and read Matthias’ reflections on it on our A Marathon Metamorphoses blog.

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.

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.

We were gathered to explore the world of art, the world of architecture: their intersections, their motivations, their repercussions, etc. More specifically, we gathered to explore the Pulitzer’s current exhibition, Urban Alchemy, and the Pulitzer itself–the building, the space, the light. After brief introductions and explanations, we did what we came to do: we explored.

With notebooks in hand, teens and adults alike slowly wandered through Tadao Ando’s carefully calculated space. We observed records of Matta-Clark’s work and his work itself. Photographs of walls with chunks removed–looking in, looking out. Pieces of walls, pieces of roofs, their layers and layers of shingles made visible by cross-sectional slicing. We looked at garbage made into a wall and pictures of subway cars covered in graffiti and line drawings of a house and its roof and its pieces. We pondered. We scribbled notes in our notebooks. We noticed there were no placards on the walls explaining the art. We asked questions. We looked closer (but never got closer than two feet). We stepped back and took in the larger picture. We sat and stood and leaned and squinted and smiled.

When we came together near the end of our time in the Pulitzer, we shared our thoughts and writings. The art made us think about more than just cutting up buildings with a chainsaw, more than squishing garbage together to make a wall. The space, the art, the light, the sounds, and our overall experience triggered much more. We wondered and wrote about what makes art art, what constitutes “modern” art, and the importance of the art’s arrangement. We were inspired to recall old memories, to wonder about the back stories of objects, to write poetry. One young writer was even inspired to design clothing based on what she had seen.

During our brief stay, we didn’t draw any conclusions. We didn’t score each piece of artwork. We didn’t give the exhibition a grade. But we were inspired by the art, by the space, by our peers. And we wrote. We created our own art. And we were satisfied–pleased.–Paula Davis

Pulitzer visitors talk about Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark.

Thank you for sharing, everyone.

We beseech you too, dear readers, to tell us what you think of Urban Alchemy, in the galleries and online, here in this very blog’s “comments” and on our Urban Alchemy Facebook group, and wherever else you want to talk about it. As they say, “We want to hear from you!”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Manager of Community Engagement Lisa Harper Chang describes ideas behind outreach programs for the past exhibition, Ideal (Dis-) Placements, and for the upcoming Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark.

Looking back on last Spring’s Let’s Look and Staging Old Masters, Lisa Harper Chang considers the transformative power of art and how it will again be harnessed for the highly anticipated Urban Alchemy. The Pulitzer has already begun partnering with schools and artists for this exhibition, which opens October 30, and is planning a series of panel discussions on themes in Matta-Clark’s art. You can learn more about these and other exciting new programs on our budding website Transformation.

Transformation, tangible and abstract, was the essence of much of Matta-Clark’s work. With Garbage Wall, he reaped castoffs of everyday life and made them functional, visually compelling, and community building. He fried Polaroid pictures in Photo-Fry, intersecting the transfiguration that occurs in cooking, in film development, and in artistic creation. For Food, an artist-run/owned restaurant, Matta-Clark and his SoHo peers turned dinner into performance and a common space for neighbors. Most notably, he asked spectators to reevaluate the way they view architectural spaces, by cutting parts of buildings away.

Matta-Clark’s activism through creative acts easily relates to the activities on Transformation. For the site’s “Your St. Louis,” St. Louisans will be asked to relay stories and offer photos of their urban landscape and to perhaps, by learning what others have to share, further understand and value their city. In “Local Artists,” read how Robert Longyear and Jenny Murphy use art as a way to foster community, empower youth, and prompt questions about the value of discarded objects. Hear from North St. Louis’ Holy Trinity students on how they see their community as opposed to how it’s defined by outsiders.

Matta-Clark strived for inclusivity in his work. Besides being a resource on how art can foster community, we hope St. Louis residents will feel free to contribute to Transformation, in online discourse and “Your St. Louis” projects.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the video above, Director Matthias Waschek describes how community engagement is incorporated into the Pulitzer’s primary identity as an arts institution. This is the first in what we plan to be a series of “From the Director” clips in which Matthias presents topics unique to the Pulitzer.

If you have a question, please feel free to leave it in a reply. We want to know what you want to know.