Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
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With a mission of presenting the best recent visual art and ideas, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis is the leading venue for contemporary art in St. Louis, Missouri. This non-collecting museum is located at the corner of Spring Avenue and Washington Boulevard, right next to the The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. The Contemporary is recognized nationally for the quality of its exhibitions and education programs. It is dedicated to making St. Louis a great place for people to live and work by providing a wide range of education and outreach initiatives to make the arts available to new and diverse audiences in the community.
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[edit] History
The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (formerly the Forum for Contemporary Art) was founded on the Mississippi riverfront in 1980 by a group of community leaders in order to introduce visual arts programming and cultural activities into the downtown core.
On September 19, 2003, the Contemporary opened its new 27,200 square foot building in Grand Center, an arts and entertainment district in midtown St. Louis. Since then, the Contemporary has sought to fulfill its mission and expand its high quality artistic and educational programs in order to better serve the St. Louis metropolitan area.
[edit] Architecture
After a nine month process, the Architect Selection Committee of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis named Brad Cloepfil, principal architect of Allied Works of Portland, Oregon, as the selected architect for a new building located at 3750 Washington Boulevard. The building has a 25,200 square foot interior and a 2,000 square foot courtyard.
The building consists of two levels and features a long, curved, site-cast concrete wall with a steel mesh overlay. The gallery space was designed with an intentional vacancy that is meant to achieve meaning through the art itself. The building is defined by a simple order of upper and lower concrete walls, which interweave through the building and site to blur the boundaries between exterior and interior. This provides a diversity of exhibition spaces that invite the public to engage in the presentation of new work.
[edit] Programs
Emerson Visiting Critics and Curators Series With generous support from Emerson, the Contemporary is able to offer the Emerson Visiting Critics and Curators series. Since its introduction in 1999, this program has brought contemporary art scholars, writers, and curators to St. Louis to conduct studio visits with local artists, thereby giving the city's finest artists the opportunity to have their work reviewed by our country's leading players in contemporary art. Several of the local artists involved in this program have received national recognition and opportunities to show in leading museums and galleries as a result. The Contemporary also invites the general public to attend a free lecture in St. Louis, which is given by these nationally-known art scholars, writers, and curators. This series not only aims to serve the needs of individual artists and to provide educational opportunities the general public, but it is also a part of the museum's continual effort to help St. Louis gain more recognition in the contemporary art world.
Great Rivers Biennial The Contemporary strives to bring audiences the best contemporary art from around the globe, but in this growing city one does not have to look far to find talented and innovative artists. This is why the Contemporary has developed the Great Rivers Biennial award and exhibition, which attempts to strengthen the St. Louis art community by providing local emerging artists with an excellent opportunity to propel their careers forward. A panel of national jurors selects up to three artists to receive a grant of $20,000 each and the opportunity to exhibit at the Contemporary. In this way, the Great Rivers Biennial serves emerging artists of St. Louis by offering them exposure and experience—both crucial to achieving success in the realm of contemporary art. The Great Rivers Visual Arts program is generously funded by the Gateway Foundation.
Open Studios Another way the Contemporary seeks to provide local artists with recognition is by hosting the annual City-Wide Open Studios, a weeklong celebration of local art. This exciting event invites artists in the St. Louis metropolitan area to open up their studios to the public for a weekend, allowing the community the unique opportunity to experience art being created in many of St. Louis' most diverse and energetic neighborhoods. The Contemporary holds an opening exhibition and preview party, in which participating artists can display one piece of their artwork in the museum. Members of the public can come view these representative pieces in order to determine which studios they are interested in visiting. During the weekend, artists open up their studios and have the opportunity to discuss their artwork with members of the public. Artists who wish to participate but who do not have studios in the metro area can display their work in an alternative space. This provides the community with a one-stop spot where they can see a group of artists in one place. The week wraps up with the Starving Artist BBQ, where participating artists and members of the community can continue the conversations sparked during the weekend.
Youth Education Programs An essential aspect of elevating the community’s art awareness is education, most importantly youth education which is fostered at the Contemporary through various programs such as Fusion, Contemporary Art Reach and Emerson New Art in the Neighborhood. These are all programs dedicated to exposing students to modern art in an accessible and fascinating manner.
Embracing Technology Since the summer of 2005, the contemporary has been recording curator’s comments, interviews with artists and collectors, and staff picks in order to create its own podcasts for each of its exhibits. A new approach to the audio tour, podcasts allow audio access to exhibits over the internet. These recordings can be downloaded on to the computer and then onto an iPod or MP3 player and used when viewing the exhibit. The podcast is also invaluable for those who are unable to make it to the museum but still wish to learn about the exhibitions.
[edit] Exhibitions to Date
2007 Past Exhibitions:
Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes
Katie Holten: Paths of Desire
'I Remember Heaven: Jim Hodges and Andy Warhol
Contemporary Project Series 2007: Slater Bradley
2006 Past Exhibitions:
Larry Krone: Artist/Entertainer
Janaina Tschape: Melantropics
Contemporary Project Series 2006: Michael Paul Britto: Dirrrty Harriet Tubman
Centering on the Grand
Selections from the Contemporary’s Flat Files
Contemporary Masterworks
The Collectibles
2005 Past Exhihibitions
Great Rivers Biennial 2005-2006
Cindy Sherman: Working Girl
Girls’ Night Out
Dzine: Punk Funk
Ruby Osorio: Story of a Girl (Who Awakes Far, Far Away)
Alexander Ross: Survey
Contemporary Project Series 2005: Katharine Kuhric
2004 Past Exhibitions
Yoshitomo Nara: Nothing Ever Happens
Laylah Ali: Paintings and Drawings
Contemporary Project Series 2004: Danny Yahav-Brown
Keith Piper: Crusade
New Video, New Europe
Great Rivers Biennial 2004
Michael Lin
William Pope L: eRacism:electronica
Polly Apfelbaum: Crazy Love, Love Crazy
Yun-Fei Ji: The Empty City
2003 Past Exhibitions:
A Fiction of Authenticity: Contemporary Africa Abroad
2002 Past Exhibitions:
Art Cache: The Contemporary’s Art Auction
Terra Incognita: Contemporary Artists’ Maps and Other Visual Organizing Systems
Staging: Janieta Eyre, Julie Moos, and Zwelethu Mthethwa
[edit] ArtLink
Artlink is an organization that partners the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, the Laumeier Sculpture Park and the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis. Its goal is to offer opportunities for young St. Louis art enthusiasts to get involved. Special events and opportunities are catered towards the mid twenties to thirties crowd--including happy hours, fundraising events and special discounts.
[edit] External links
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