Contemporary - Pulitzer

The Pulitzer: New Design (!!!)

We've mentioned it for a few weeks (months) now, but the brand-new re-designed Contemporary and Pulitzer blog is finally here.  Cue the parade and marching band! 

Our blog has been in existence for a little over two years now, and was definitely ready for a much needed makeover.  A couple of issues have surfaced over the years, mostly confusion over the fact that two separate institutions are co-writing this blog.  We're hoping the redesign helps with this.  We're also wanting to incorporate more video (which will be done via YouTube) and our Flickr accounts (which will be updated more regularly).  Another big change, is our blog also has a new name.  To further emphasize the fact that we're two very different art institutions coming together to share and write on one blog, our URL is named 2buildings1blog (or twobuildingsoneblog, this will take you there too).  Once you're on the new URL it's business as usual, but we thought not hyphenating our institution names would help alleviate the confusion that we're one museum.  The Contemporary-Pulitzer blog will remain intact until our contract with Typepad runs out (a few more months) so you have plenty of time to update your blogrolls and bookmarks (or add us if you haven't already!).  But from now on, go to our new URL to read all our latest posts. 

So here it is....
http://2buildings1blog.org/

Contemporary: The Beginning of the End

Things at the Contemporary may seem to be winding down after the closing of Katie Holten: Paths of Desire and Shoot The Family yesterday.  However, this is just the beginning of the end, as our hard working staff begins the ever strenuous process of deconstructing the exhibitions.  View the photos below to see what they have been up to.  As sad as it is to see these wonderful pieces get boxed up and put away, it is also exciting to know that Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes will be opening in one mere month.  For more information on this exhibtion, click here.  (Christine)

The Pulitzer: More "Water" in the Press

For your Friday afternoon reading pleasure:  the West End Word had a really nice feature yesterday on the Water exhibition.  Take a look here.

For my Friday afternoon reading, I'm going to look through this packet of information that was put together for our gallery assistants.  They've been reading it to get some background on the different works in the show.  All the gallery assistants are really knowledgeable about each of our exhibitions, and do a really good job of answering questions our visitors have about the art.  I need to be sure that I can do the same.... (Rachel)

Contemporary: Kiss the Summer Farewell

It's time to kiss the summer goodbye - at least at the Contemporary it is.  Tonight we are hosting our last Select Night of the season.  Cole Root, our Event Operations Manager, has decided to take on the challenge of pleasing the crowd tonight with his selection for the DJ, VJ, visual appearance of the performance space, and the omnivorous fare provided by our caterer.  By my estimation, Select Nights have welcome more than 6,400 visitors to the museum over the course of the last two years (this is definitely an estimate, for those who want the true-to-the-test numbers, let me know and I'll further my research).  It's been a fun program - helping the museum to broadcast its whereabouts and its programs to the masses in St. Louis, and elsewhere. 

Additionally, our summer exhibitions close this Sunday. The next time you'll see us open, we'll have major sculptural pieces by Maya Lin filling our galleries and new programs and events designed to connect St. Louis to contemporary art. I'll be happy to provide updates on the de-installation of Katie Holten's tree, and the installation of Maya Lin's work throughout the next weeks. I'll also be happy to share insights from new staff members - we've recently welcomed Laura Fried as Assistant Curator, Katrina Hallowell as Program Assistant - and soon we will welcome Anthony Huberman as our new Chief Curator. Until then, schedule one last visit to see the current exhibitions and prepare to welcome new work in contemporary art very soon. (Jennifer)

The Pulitzer: Print Booklet

One of the many things we're working on after the opening of Water is the free booklet that will be provided at the front desk when visitors come see the exhibition.  This booklet has to wait until the exhibition opens, so we can include installation views of the artwork in the galleries, since this is such a key aspect to all of our exhibitions. 

We now have all the photography completed, and it looks great.  We have a big meeting tomorrow with our print company to discuss layout options and how the content will fit in with the images.  Here's a peek at one of the installation views that Robert Pettus took of the exhibition, that will most likely make it into the booklet (Rachel):