Panelist Juan William Chávez talks about the art experience provided at Boots Contemporary Art Space, an alternative art space in St. Louis, MO.

Tomorrow at 7:30pm, the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts will begin its panel series related to the work of Gordon Matta-Clark, alongside its current exhibition Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark and tailored programming entitled “Transformation” (tour the show’s mind-blowing catalogue for a primer). The basic question posed in these conversations will be, “How do communities evolve, and in what ways can their members guide the process?”

Tomorrow’s “The City as Studio” will focus on how art spaces and creative acts invigorate urban neighborhoods, spotlighting examples of this happening in St. Louis. Panelists include Juan William Chávez, Theaster Gates, Mary Jane Jacob, Luis Croquer, and Christy Gray, all of whom have exceedingly impressive bios you can read on the event’s webpage. The intention, though, is that the panelists won’t be the only ones comparing notes, and that the occasion will provide an arena for all attendees to contribute thoughts on revitalization.

We hope you’ll join us tomorrow and for future panel discussions. For more information on upcoming events at the Pulitzer and to subscribe to our e-newsletter, please visit www.pulitzerarts.org.

Here on Saint Louis Art Map, we’re launching a video series, “Catching up with ______,” in which I visit St. Louis Art Map spaces and ask people there, “What have you been working on?”

Let us begin with words from Nicholas Kania, an intern at Boots Contemporary Art Space.

Nicholas Kania, an intern at Boots Contemporary Art Space, describes recent art shows he’s worked on at Boots.

In conjunction with the contemporary artists featured in White Flag Project’s current show, PRETHUNDERDOME, a Delicious account was created to catalog all of the websites we could find that address end-of-world subjects (delicious.com/whiteflagprojects). The result is a database ranging from science-based theories to apocalyptic predictions to straight-up crazy websites that verge on inadvertent satire. For example, one page actually cites Elizabeth Taylor’s eight divorces as proof that the end is near (http://www.raptureready.com/time/marriage.html). Others, such as a website titled “10 Disasters That Could End It All At Any Given Second” (http://botw.org/articles/endworld.html), are a bit more seriously alarming.

As we rapidly approach December 22, 2012 –  the date that marks the last day of the ancient Mayan’s cyclical calendar — you can assume that this genre of website will increase exponentially in number and popularity. On White Flag’s account, there are 54 tagged websites spanning the vast gamut of 2012 prophesies. These predictions include a shift in the earth’s magnetic poles, alien invasions and a positive spiritual awakening of the masses. Cynics who dismiss the prophesy as another empty threat a la y2k can at least look forward to some killer parties come December 21 of 2012. Even Stephen Hawking has succombed to end-of-world fever, and threw a party himself the day the Large Hadron Collider was switched on (http://scienceray.com/physics/is-it-the-end-of-the-world/).

So long as our Delicious account isn’t terminated due to suspicious activity, you’re welcome to browse the bookmarked sites at delicious.com/whiteflagprojects. Select highlights include: the choose your own apocalypse game (http://sdn.slate.com/features/endofamerica/default.htm), a photo series of personal bomb shelters (http://www.good.is/post/picture-show-waiting-for-the-end-of-the-world/), and an article about a seed vault in Norway created in advance of global crisis (http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1882288,00.html).

PRETHUNDERDOME will be on view until December 19th. You can find more information on White Flag Projects exhibitions and events at whiteflagprojects.org.

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.

Chess has been taking the St. Louis art world by storm for the last few months. First there was the Marcel Duchamp: Chess Master exhibition at the St. Louis University Museum last summer, curated by Bradley Bailey. And then a few weeks ago there was a chess event at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. If you just can’t get enough,  stop by the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum this Wednesday, October 14 at 6 pm for a unique event featuring chess, roulette, chance, and Duchamp.

Marcel Duchamp was an avid chess player and continually probed the boundaries between chance and choice, luck and skill, in his work. For this event, co-sponsored with the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis in coordination with the 2009 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship held in St. Louis this year, a game combining roulette and chess will be played in the Museum’s atrium by the newly-crowned Women’s Chess Champion and a special guest. The game, which was inspired by Duchamp’s idea to combine the ultimate game of strategy–chess–with the ultimate game of chance–roulette, was developed for the event by Jennifer Shahade, two-time US Women’s Chess Champion, author of Chess Bitch: Women in the Intellectual Sport, and coauthor of Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess, and chess and art scholar Larry List. The players will spin the wheel to determine which piece they move.

This event will be followed by a gallery talk on seminal works by Duchamp in Chance Aesthetics, led by Bradley Bailey, Saint Louis University assistant professor of art history, co-author of Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess, and curator of the exhibition Marcel Duchamp: Chess Master.

In conjunction with saintlouisartmap.org, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum is producing a new bi-weekly podcast. Each episode features interviews with curators and artists talking about local arts exhibitions and programs with the show’s host and a student from Washington University.

The first episode of fall 2009 features a discussion with Meredith Malone, curator of Chance Aesthetics, opening at the Kemper Art Museum on Friday, September 18.

CLICK HERE to listen and subscribe >>
More info on Chance Aesthetics >>

This Friday, June 12 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm the Regional Arts Commission is hosting a Tweet-up in conjunction with its opening of its Time Well Spent exhibition, followed by an afterparty at Eclipse, the rooftop bar at the new Moonrise hotel. As far as I know, this is the first visual arts event in St. Louis that directly incorporates Twitter and social media–and although I tweet (@kemperartmuseum) old-school, from my desktop instead of some fancy-pants mobile device, I am still curious to see how this will work and what the audience interaction will bring to the event.

RAC has also provided a handy tool on its website called Arts Tweet St. Louis, a rolling compendium of tweets from arts organizations around town, and a great way for those unfamiliar with Twitter to “dip your toes in,” so to speak, given the ability to follow some tweets and see what the tool is all about without even having to sign-up and login to an individual account.

As always you can find a whole lineup of more local arts events coming up this weekend through RAC’s ArtsZipper calendar; but, if you do happen to be on this end of town please feel free to stop by the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, which is just around the corner from RAC and the Delmar loop, and open until 8 pm on Fridays. In addition to the permanent collection gallery we have two special exhibitions on display, including the work of Rirkrit Tiravanija called Chew the Fat — a video installation featuring interviews between Tiravanija and a dozen of his prominent artist friends. For a preview you can watch the video trailer on our YouTube channel, or read a recent interview excerpt between Tiravanija and Yoko Ono published in Artforum.

Please feel free to leave any of your suggestions for upcoming arts events in the comments…

I’m definitely marking my calendar for this one – Reviving Antiquity at the Saint Louis Art Museum sounds fantastic (there’s also a brief article about it here).

I think it’s great when museums open up the door to the “behind-the-scenes”.  I feel like I get a fuller understanding of the institution I’m visiting, and all that goes into making it work.  Plus, I’m always amazed at the attention to detail  that goes into the conservation and registrarial professions – plus, they usually have the best stories, especially around install time.

Here’s hoping some documentation of this exhibit will also find it’s way to the web for those who aren’t in town -  MoMA did a great job of this a few years ago with the site they put up for the conservation of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.

Boot Print Senior Editor Tim Ridlen, is a Guest Blogger for Art 21.

Tim Ridlen (St. Louis native) is an artist and writer who has recently relocated to New York City from Chicago. Tim holds a BFA in Studio Art and a BA in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is currently pursuing his MFA at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College (expected 2010). At the same time, he is the Senior Editor of Boot Print, a publication out of St. Louis, MO, a New York City correspondent for Bad at Sports, and has recently written reviews for New City in Chicago.