Unless you’ve been under a rock, you  know that the largest annual gathering for the field of printmaking is happening right now in St. Louis. Yesterday, I met one of the out-of-town speakers for the SGCI Conference next to Bruno David Gallery across from the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts.

Swoon, a Brooklyn-based artist, has been installing print murals around town for the conference, and the Pulitzer worked with her to install the one yesterday in Grand Center. Swoon (Caledonia Dance Curry) is the recipient of the Community Engagement Award and is giving a talk today for the SGCI Conference at 4:30pm at the Chase Park Plaza.

We’re also very pleased to announce the Pulitzer’s very own Senior Curator, Francesca Herndon-Consagra, is being awarded with the title Honorary Member of the Council by SGCI. Read about Francesca’s extensive achievements on the conference website.

This Saturday at 1pm, Bill Wischmeyer, Architect of Record for the Pulitzer building, will share his personal knowledge of Tadao Ando’s St. Louis achievement for the second Exploring Art: Dreamscapes and Ando’s Architecture. Last month, Emily Pulitzer explained her vision of the building and the realization of that dream. Co-founder of Los Caminos, an apartment gallery on Cherokee Street, and a Pulitzer docent, Francesca Wilmott recaps that discussion here:

Speaking in front of the reflecting pool, Emily Rauh Pulitzer shared the lively deliberations that occurred between her and Tadao Ando, as well as artists Richard Serra and Ellsworth Kelly, whose work was commissioned for the building. Unlike the commissioning process in the United States, Mrs. Pulitzer explained, Japanese architects do not traditionally involve clients in each stage of their planning. However, Mrs. Pulitzer held to her vision, and together, she and Ando developed an art sanctuary that fulfilled both their aesthetic and practical needs.

Tadao Ando has discussed the tensions that often accompany a collaborative process, noting that: “Working collaboratively with such uncompromising artists was incredibly demanding. However, the numerous changes and modifications made with each visit to the construction site have given the works a vitality and reality unique to this place. For me, the exciting collaboration with these artists has provided a rare and stimulating opportunity to reconsider the architecture and to rethink what it means to create.” Ando made one such modification upon viewing Richard Serra’s plan for Joe, the enormous Corten-steel sculpture that occupies the outdoor courtyard. Rather than constructing wide vertical windows along the wall that looks onto Joe, as initially planned, Ando felt that narrow horizontal windows would better frame the sculpture from within the building.

Read the rest of Francesca Wilmott’s post at 2buildings1blog.

Francesca Herndon-Consagra, Senior Curator at the Pulitzer, describes Dreamscapes, which opened on February 11. For a longer version of this introduction, visit dreamscapes.pulitzerarts.org.

Do dreams mean anything? Are they just erratic firing of synapses, or do they actually tell us something about ourselves and our experiences? What was going though Philip Guston’s head when he painted Dark Room, and what is it that makes something surreal, nightmarish or simply dreamy? Over the next few months, the Pulitzer will investigate the significance of dreams and art through its current exhibition Dreamscapes.

It’s been almost a month since the Dreamscapes opening reception, and the Pulitzer is just beginning to scratch the surface of the dream-themed exhibition. As many of you art enthusiasts in St. Louis know, the Pulitzer typically has two exhibitions per year, and in the time that an exhibition is on view, the Pulitzer, as part of its identity as a “laboratory”, investigates themes in the exhibition through customized events and programs.

For the duration of Dreamscapes, the Pulitzer is offering free public programs, every Saturday at 1 p.m., which include art-making, storytelling and discussion-based tours among other activities. Next month, we’ll add dream matrices to the mix, and as usual, our team of social workers will test how art can empower people and build community, beginning with The Dream Journal Project (find out more here). 

On April 7, senior curator Francesca Herndon-Consagra will moderate a panel discussion, in which psychologists from different traditions interpret artworks as they would dreams. (Apparently, stairs in dreams have been interpreted in many ways.) You’ll be able to see an archive of this and all Dreamscapes happenings on an interactive Dreamscapes web catalogue, where you’ll also be able to virtually explore the exhibition in the Ando building.

If you haven’t seen the exhibition yet, this Saturday is a great opportunity to do so, since the curator will lead visitors on a journey through the building:

Saturdays at 1 p.m.

Gallery Talk with Senior Curator Francesca Herndon-Consagra
March 12, 2011
Senior curator Francesca Herndon-Consagra takes visitors on a walk through the exhibition. Experience the shuffling and reassembling of pictorial themes and fictions that evoke a journey from one dream to the next. At the same time, learn about the artists and the thought behind each work’s composition.   

Social Dream Matrix
April 9, May 14 and June 11, 2011
Art therapist Shelly Goebl-Parker and artists Hap Phillips and Nita Turnage lead social dream matrices. The act of dreaming is normally a solitary one. Through social dream matrices, it becomes a shared experience, building a small temporary community when participants enter a dream matrix together. Sharing dreams in this way enables the discovery of new meaning and significance in dreams. The dream matrices are followed by art making as a way to reflect on newfound discoveries, reflections and inspirations

Frame of Reference
Every first Saturday of the month
Members of the St. Louis community from diverse backgrounds, from psychologists to poets to art historians to social workers, talk about their favorite work of art from their personal perspectives.

Dreamtime Storytime
Every fourth Saturday of the month
In conjunction with the exhibition Dreamscapes, the Pulitzer hosts Dreamtime Storytime, a series in which writers, artists, readers and dreamers share stories related to dreams to people of all ages. Among others, storytellers include librarians from the St. Louis Public Library and members of the literary arts center StudioSTL.

Exploring Art: Dreamscapes and Ando’s Architecture
Every third Saturday of the month
During these open tours, docents encourage group discussions on how the artworks on view and architecture relate to one another as well as how the visitors individually relate to the exhibition. Space is limited. RSVP to Visitor Services Manager Courtney Henson at chenson@pulitzerarts.org.

The Pulitzer will announce additional event details on www.pulitzerarts.org as Dreamscapes continues.

The Pulitzer is open and free to the public Wednesdays from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Pulitzer is located at 3716 Washington Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63108.  For more information about the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, visit www.pulitzerarts.org or call 314-754-1850.

Internationally-known photography icon Larry Fink will give a free gallery talk on Saturday, February 19 at 11 a.m. at the Sheldon Art Galleries in conjunction with the exhibit, Larry Fink: Attraction and Desire – 50 Years in Photography. This overview of work by Fink includes over 120 photographs spanning his 50-year career and runs through May 21.

Visit www.thesheldon.org for more details about this major retrospective.

The last few weeks at Laumeier have been a duel between incandescent warm and bone-chilling cold.  The cold of course is the 105 acres of frozen tundra that has become territory for the brave and adventurous.  The warmth has been the increasing luminescence in the indoor galleries as Chief Preparator Nick Lang and crew have been installing ten quirky sculptures by Jessica Stockholder, most of which radiant warmth and light when their tail-like electrical cords are plugged into the wall.

On Saturday, February 12, Laumeier Sculpture Park will host the opening reception for Jessica Stockholder: Grab grassy this moment your I’s.  If you love contemporary art, if you enjoy sculpture, if you want to see a lamp, a coffee cup, a shower curtain or a music stand in an entirely new way—don’t miss this exhibition!  The parking lot and sidewalks are plowed, the sun is supposed to be shining so get out of the house and come inside the galleries for a great show and good times.  The member’s preview and artist talk begins at 4 PM with the public reception running from 5-7 PM.

With generous support from Alison and John Ferring, Laumeier, in collaboration with TOKY Branding + Design, St. Louis has produced an artist’s book that pairs images of Stockholder’s work with interpretive poems by St. Louis poet Mary Jo Bang.  You can purchase this unique publication on Saturday and have both the artist and poet sign your copy.

The Sheldon Art Galleries announces the opening of five new exhibits on February 18 with a wine and hors d’oeuvres reception from 5 – 8 p.m.  New exhibits include  Larry Fink: Attraction and Desire – 50 Years in Photography and two related exhibitions by German-born painter Max Lazarus.  For a complete listing, visit www.TheSheldon.org/galleries.asp or RSVP for the opening on Facebook!

The Pulitzer will be closed tonight due to weather conditions. sound waves: Hip Hop has been rescheduled for this Saturday, January 22, to be included in the stylus Finale-A Sounding. DJ Needles, Jingo and Fallout will perform between 7:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. For the full schedule of the day, visit our main website

DJ Needles describes what he’ll be playing at tomorrow’s sound waves: Hip Hop.

Tomorrow night, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., is our second to last sound waves (the grand finale is on Saturday), and from the buzz so far, I anticipate the KDHX/Pulitzer series heading out with a bang.

sound waves: Hip Hop will feature DJ Needles, known also as James Gates, spinning hip hop and music that has inspired hip hop, illustrating the rich history of the genre.  He has been deejaying for over sixteen years and has opened for national acts, such as De La Soul and the Roots. In accordance with the sound waves twist, his beats tomorrow will interplay with Ann Hamilton’s installation stylus, and he will choose music based on how  it flows with Shahrokh Yadegari’s sound component.

Also especially for Hip Hop night, interdesciplinary artist Stan Chisholm/18andCounting has designed limited edition posters, “remixes” of our original sound waves posters, which were designed and printed by All Along Press.

A recent graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, Stan has been a heavy-hitter in the St. Louis art and music community, through projects like “MoneyBags” and his own deejaying gigs. As to the reasoning behind the poster, Stan says, “My primary intent was to skew the language normally associated with the art forms and practices we’re most familiar with.” Gallery assistants will be raffling off these posters at the front desk.

Ruckus Roboticus, “Here We Go” (Live), Grease Records

This Saturday is the closing of Ann Hamilton’s stylus, and there’s a lot on the schedule for the day. For one thing, Ruckus Roboticus, a deejay and performer, will be playing grown-up-friendly children’s music from 1pm to 3:30pm. Below are some words from Chris DeVille, a writer and fan, about the bot and what to expect on Saturday.

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Ruckus Roboticus is an entertainer of many stripes, and he’ll show most of them Saturday when he plays the closing reception for Ann Hamilton’s stylus.

“Play” is the operative word whenever Ruckus steps behind his extensive technological rig. The Dayton native, born Dan Haug, brings a youthful zest to his work, from his award-winning DJ mixes to his production work for TV networks such as Nickelodeon and MTV.

Then there’s “Playing With Scratches”, his 2008 debut album for Grease Records. The album found Haug building funky sound collages to tell a story about the wonder and confusion of childhood-think Girl Talk with more obscure samples but just as much playful ingenuity.

His cartoonish flair captivated kids but also struck a chord with grown-ups-everyone from Spin to NPR piled on the accolades, and stars like Bloc Party and Vampire Weekend lined up for remixes…--Chris DeVille

Read the rest of this post at 2buildings1blog.

For the exhibition stylus–a project by Ann Hamilton–the Pulitzer has invited many different groups to activate the interactive installation: the St. Louis Symphony Chorus, Webster University dancers, Shape Note Singers, librarians , all the musicians and DJs associated with sound waves, to name just a few.  With “stylus” as the exhibition’s title and Hamilton’s history with knitting, it seemed obvious that knitters be added to the list.

The Pulitzer invites all of you knitters to join in the biggest knitting circle St. Louis has ever seen on January 8, 2-5pm, at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. Onlookers are welcome too. This event is free and open to the public, and visitors may come and go freely.

Please read about how this event was developed and ties in with Ann Hamilton’s work on 2buildings1blog.