ArtSounds: Blues and Bling November 19

As part of its mission, the Sheldon Art Galleries strives to connect the visual and performing arts through music-based exhibitions and programs.  In the spirit of this mission, the galleries present ArtSounds: Blues & Bling, Thursday, November 19 at 7 p.m.

This interactive music and art event features a new, blues-based composition by Sheldon executive director and composer Paul Reuter,  performed by acclaimed jazz and blues singer Kim Massie.  The music will take place throughout the galleries’ five main spaces - allowing visitors to create their own unique composition as they make their way through the space.  The music is inspired by the Legends of St. Louis Blues Music exhibition, currently on display.

All proceeds from the event benefit Sheldon Art Galleries exhibits and educational programs, and tickets include cocktails, hors d’oeuvres by Triumph Grill, offering a sneak preview of a new restaurant set to open soon in Grand Center.  Visit http://www.thesheldon.org/artsounds.asp for more details.

Blues Panel Connects Music and Art at The Sheldon

The Sheldon Art Galleries brought music and art together in the History of Jazz Gallery on October 20 with “Musicians and Makers,” a panel discussion on the history and impact of St. Louis blues music on the larger world. The standing room only event coincided with the current exhibition on view in the gallery, Legends of St. Louis Blues Music.

Moderated by Dr. Johnathan Smith, Ph.D., St. Louis University Department of American Studies, the panel included Bob Koester, founder of Delmark Records and Jazz Record Mart in Chicago, KDHX programmer Art Dwyer, Charley Taylor of the St. Louis Blues Society, and Kevin Belford, author of Devil at the Confluence.

The panel discussion is just one of many events that the Sheldon Art Galleries will host in conjunction with the exhibit this year.

• Art Organization: Chris Peimann, Sheldon Art Galleries

Frank Noelker to Give Free Talk at Sheldon

Beautiful, poignant and often unsettling, Frank Noelker’s  photographs of animals have enthralled viewers for over 20 years. Of Animals: Photographs by Frank Noelker is a retrospective of images from his Captive Beauty, Portraits and Farm Sanctuary series.  The exhibit opens Friday, June 12 at the Sheldon Art Galleries and runs through September 5.

A Lunchtime Lecture in Photography will be given by Frank Noelker on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 11 a.m. in the Gallery of Photography. Admission is free.

Noelker works in the tradition of the “Concerned Photographer” – documentary photographers who use their images to invoke and inspire social change. His black and white and color photographs of animals in captivity and in sanctuaries do much to make us think about our relationship to the natural world.

• Art Organization: Chris Peimann, Sheldon Art Galleries

New Works By Teresa Miller Installed at Sheldon

The Sheldon Art Galleries recently installed new works by Teresa Miller in the lower-level Ann Lee and Wilfred Konneker gallery. The exhibition runs through September 5, 2009. Miller’s works are evocations of dreams created in three dimensions with photography and collage. The images that she creates: butterflies emanating from a head, gems spilling from a mouth, ribbons crying from eyes, fruit dripping from a nose and a profusion of flowers growing from an ear seem at first to be playful and lighthearted, but despite their colorful presence, can also evoke nightmares.

• Art Organization: Chris Peimann, Sheldon Art Galleries

Sheldon Exhibition Extended, Cindy Towers at NEXT

Don’t miss two newly installed paintings by Cindy Tower, Jarvic, 2006 and Christmas, 2005, in Cindy Tower: Riding the Rubble Down in the Nancy Spirtas Kranzberg Gallery at the Sheldon Art Galleries. The exhibition has been extended through May 16, 2009.  The switch was made because two of Cindy’s paintings in the Sheldon’s original exhibition were juried into two important exhibitions in Chicago in conjunction with Art Chicago and the NEXT Art Fair.  NEXT is an international showcase for emerging artists, with commercial galleries and non-commercial organizations participating from all over the world.  NEXT includes works from both commercial and non-commercial arts organizations. Tower’s work will be featured with other artists at the Bruno David Gallery booth # 7-8113 between May 1 and May 4, with a preview reception on April 30. Visit the NEXT Art Fair website.

Cindy Tower was also invited to participate in the exhibition Partisan, curated by Mary Jane Jacob, executive director of exhibitions at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, mounted in conjunction with Art Chicago® 2009. Partisan is a special exhibition of works by artists that explore social and political ideas.  The exhibition will initiate a “dialogue about art, activism and social change,” and will “…provide a critical and challenging space of thought provoking and project-oriented works within an art fair context.” Art Chicago, the annual international fair of contemporary and modern art, brings together the world’s leading emerging and established galleries. Art Chicago is open to the public from May 1 – 4 with a preview reception on April 30. Visit the Art Chicago website at www.artchicago.com.  Congratulations Cindy!

• Art Organization: Chris Peimann, Sheldon Art Galleries

Sheldon Hosts Lunchtime Lecture in Architecture

The Sheldon will host a free lunchtime lecture in architecture with art historian and curator Carol Grove, Wednesday, March 25 from noon- 1 p.m. in the Bernoudy Gallery of Architecture.  Grove will discuss the current Sheldon Art Gallery exhibit, “Symbols of Collective Memory: A Photographic Survey of Missouri Courthouses,” on display at The Sheldon through May 30.  Visit The Sheldon’s website to learn more about the exhibition.

A special discounted lunch will be available at William Shakespeare’s Gastropub immediately following the lecture.