The Luminary and The Partnership for Downtown are pleased to present the 3rd annual Post Performance Series, a series of free art installations and performances at the Old Post Office Plaza in Downtown St. Louis.  The Post Performances will pair innovative visual artists and musicians to create site-specific, one-time performances that are free and open to the public. For 2013, Josh Welker will be creating a modular installation based on the proportions and forms of the plaza that will shift each month throughout the summer. Designed as a collaboration between artist and curator, the installation, entitled “summer flat (she wore hot pants) 1,2,3,and 4,” consists of 80 to 100 individual painted wooden objects (some hollow squares, some beams) the curators will place around the plaza as they see fit – stacked or scattered; on their sides or flat. This changing landscape will be complemented by commissioned performances that feature some of the region’s best electronic musicians. The series will culminate in a collaborative set featuring all previous performers.

The performance is FREE, all ages and open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to bring seating and are welcome to bring food and drinks to the event (no glass please). The Old Post Office Plaza is located at the intersection of 9th and Locust in Downtown St. Louis.

FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS 

Saturday, May 25th from 7 to 10pm

Thelonious Kryptonite

DJ Nune

Mikey Wehling

Saturday, June 29nd from 7 to 10pm

Franco/Hill

Black James

Eric Hall

Saturday, July 27th from 7 to 10pm

Syna So Pro

Loose Screwz

Ou Ou

Saturday, August 31st from 7 to 10pm

Current: Collaborative electronic sets featuring all 9 previous performers

Whole City: St. Louis

organized by Works Progress
The Luminary Center for the Arts
Temporary Gallery at 2644 Cherokee Street, St. Louis 63118
May 4 – May 25, 2013
Opening Reception on May 4th from 7-9pm
Part of the How to Build a World That Won’t Fall Apart Exhibition Series

Whole City is a month-long project by Minneapolis-based public art and design studio Works Progress that will bring an unfamiliar eye to the City of St. Louis – asking inhabitants to talk about its identity as a place, as well as the creative life and aspirations of its residents – beginning with the question, What makes us whole?

Across the United States socially-engaged artists and designers are working with and within communities to shape and shift the experience of urban life. In some cases these social practices are central to building the collective identity of a place, strengthening connections and creating new opportunities for the expression of shared ideas, aspirations and culture. In other cases artists are working in the margins, purposefully destabilizing existing networks and power structures.

While artists helping to shape the identity and creative life of cities through their work is nothing new, there’s a growing emphasis on the economic and community development impact of artist-led placemaking efforts. In some cities, a shift in the focus of arts funding to this type of work has led to new sources of economic support for artists, and new demands on their artistic process and the work they create. Other cities have yet to see these funding strategies take root. In both cases, questions remain about the relationships between socially-engaged art-making, community and economic development, and the future of our cities. What kind of cities are we making together?

Using collaborative inquiry and reflection, Works Progress artists Colin Kloecker and Shanai Matteson will explore the landscape of socially-engaged art in St. Louis – specifically, the connections and disconnections that artists are making (and making visible) through their work, and will ask what it could mean for the future of urban life in the city and beyond.

Throughout the course of an intense one-week residency, Works Progress will visit a variety of art and engagement projects and the people behind them. The variety of perspectives shared through face-to-face conversation, short essays and other artistic contributions will be compiled into a free newspaper distributed onsite and put on display at The Luminary May 4th-25th, inviting collective self-reflection and fearless dreaming about what is and could be.

This exhibition and its contents will join a national conversation as Works Progress continues to explore the shifting landscape of socially-engaged art-making and urban development through the Whole City project in Minneapolis, St. Paul and other cities.

Schedule of Events

Whole City Tour 

Monday, April 29th

Tour Part One – 9AM-12PM (Meet @ The Luminary, 2644 Cherokee)

We will go to various stops along Cherokee including Fort Gondo, Blank Space, and C.A.M.P.; Perennial; and the Regional Arts Commission’s CAT Institute.

Tour Part Two – 1-4PM (Meet @ Rebuild Foundation, 3619 Blair Avenue)

During the second part of the tour, we will be visiting Rebuild Foundation, Old North Restoration Group and the 18th Street Artist Community.

Works Progress will join other socially-engaged artists, designers, community organizers and public practitioners for a tour of St. Louis focusing on projects and places where people are creatively remaining public life. Space is limited; to RSVP, email hellowholecity@gmail.com for details.

A Public Thing St. Louis

“What kind of city are we making together?”

Whole City Opening Event
Saturday, May 4th, 7-9PM  - The Luminary
Get to know the Whole City in new ways and pick-up your copy of the print publication featuring answers to the question, What makes us whole? and other St. Louis stories.

About Works Progress Studio

Works Progress is an experimental public art and design studio led by artists Colin Kloecker and Shanai Matteson. We create visual and performance art projects with and in public, engaging with a wide range of creative practitioners, field experts and communities in order to create art projects that are embedded within a particular place and that activate the creative capacities of the people who live, work and play there.

Whole City was organized for The Luminary as a part of the ongoing series How to Build a World That Won’t Fall Apart, exploring how artists and alternative arts organizations sustain themselves in times of social and economic instability.

The Luminary’s exhibitions are generously supported by the Arts and Education Council, the Regional Arts Commission and the Missouri Arts Council. The residency is supported in part by the Trio Foundation of St. Louis.

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A modest occupation

curated by Abigail Satinsky/threewalls
The Luminary Center for the Arts
Temporary Gallery at 2644 Cherokee Street, St. Louis 63118
March 15 – April 12, 2013
Opening Reception on March 15th from 7-10pm
Part of the How to Build a World That Won’t Fall Apart Exhibition Series

Economics, which Lord Keynes had hoped would settle down as a modest occupation similar to dentistry, suddenly becomes the most important subject of all. – EF Schumacher

Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art. – Andy Warhol

Artists and other creative people who organize their lives around the arts have long dealt with the problem, question, and opportunity of money (or lack thereof) in myriad ways by invoking the very same resourcefulness they’ve applied to making art. They have formed cooperative living and studio arrangements, started their own businesses, become grant-writing virtuosi, begged, stolen, borrowed, and even invented their own currencies. Thinking about one’s own artistic practice as a small business is even more urgent in today’s economy where there are few public arguments for governmental funding for the arts beyond economic revitalization (as seen in the NEA “Art Works” slogan) at the same time that private giving is on the upswing via sites like Kickstarter or Indiegogo.

There are now a network of artist-driven small businesses that commission works specifically for subscribers, using the models of Community Supported Agriculture or magazine subscriptions. Some are incorporated into nonprofits, others are stand-alone businesses for independent artists. Consumers often buy these works sight unseen based on an affinity with the spirit of the business or name recognition of the artists involved. But what about the art? How do we look at artworks made with the consumer in mind? Featuring works from art subscriptions across the country, this exhibition is an opportunity to look at these works as more than the byproducts of inventive business models. When viewed collectively, they evoke both the spirit of their distribution method and the art behind the network.

Featuring works from Alula Editions (Bay Area, CA) Art Practical Mail Art Subscription (San Francisco, CA), Community Supported Art Chicago, Community Supported Art Philadelphia, Community Supported Art Minneapolis, The Drop/NOLA (New Orleans), The Present Group (Bay Area, CA), Regional Relationships (Chicago), and The Thing Quarterly (San Francisco, CA), along with a special reading room in the window space by Silver Galleon Press (Chicago).

A risograph publication featuring essays and profiles from participating art subscription services designed by Working Knowledge is available for $3 + shipping. Edition of 250.

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Social Security, a group exhibition in collaboration with Cosign Projects, Los Caminos, Pig Slop, Proper Gallery and PSTL Gallery

November 30th, 2012 – February 1st, 2013

Opening Reception on November 30th from 7-10pm at a temporary exhibition space at 2644 Cherokee Street

Social Security is a constellation of 5 ‘gallery kits’ individually curated by area alternative spaces that have shuttered or shifted form within the past year, including Cosign Projects, Los Caminos, Pig Slop, Proper Gallery and PSTL Gallery. The exhibition will explore the tenuous landscape artist-run and alternative spaces inhabit and offer a glimpse into how the arts community is evolving in the present moment.  By literally creating “several spaces in a space,” the show will present a condensed insight into each curator’s point-of-view, as well as examining how they interact and shape the viewer’s conception of one another. Exploring the idea of social safety nets and the impermanence often built in to artist-led and alternative arts projects, the exhibition presents individuals, collaboratives, and a community retiring to an uncertain concept.

Formally, Social Security will consist of discrete exhibitions curated by the individual galleries in a series of “gallery kits” all arranged in a single space: Los Caminos will present a solo show with Bruce Burton; Cosign Projects will display a series of flags produced by Lauren F. Adams as the director of Cosign — a conceptual response to Cosign’s premise, formally united with Cosign’s other projects but also reflecting on what Cosign was, after the project was closed; PSTL has created a miniature gallery with a scaled survey of past artists’ work; Pig Slop will present a self-reflection on the span of the space consisting of drawings, objects and collaborative elements; and Proper Gallery will present a window display with Raleigh Gardiner and Evan Crankshaw echoing their previous status as a window-only gallery.

Gallery Kit is a project of artist, writer and curator Daniel McGrath, and is best known in its primary incarnation as Isolation Room, a kit curated by founders McGrath and Dana Turkovic in their St. Louis apartment that has presented work from Marcel Dzama, Ann Hamilton and Buzz Spector, Pablo Helguerra, Joe Goode and Ed Ruscha, among many others. Building on an ongoing interest in containment, the constructed room allows for the smallest possible collaboration between the gallery space, curator, artist and audience.

Social Security is organized by curator James McAnally for The Luminary as a part of the ongoing series How to Build a World That Won’t Fall Apart, exploring how artists and alternative arts organizations sustain themselves in times of social and economic instability.

Social Security will remain on view Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 12-6PM and Thursdays from 11AM-6PM through February 1st, 2013.

The Luminary’s exhibitions are generously supported by the Arts and Education Council, the Regional Arts Commission and the Missouri Arts Council.

Related Press:

Riverfront Times Review by Jessica Baran

St. Louis Beacon Interview by Nancy Fowler

St. Louis Public Radio Interview

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How to Build a World That Won’t Fall Apart, part 1

October 19th, 2012 – November 10th, 2012

Opening Reception on October 19th from 7-10pm at a temporary exhibition space at 2644 Cherokee Street

“For me, the fundamental question is to explore the possibility of maintaining spaces of play. To discover how to produce forms for the presentation of objects, forms for the organizations of spaces, that thwart expectations. The main enemy of artistic creativity as well as of political creativity is consensus — that is, inscription within given roles, possibilities, and competences.” –Jacques Ranciere

How to Build a World That Won’t Fall Apart, part 1 is a solo exhibition exploring labor as it relates to institutions, featuring the work of The Luminary founders Brea and James McAnally under their collaborative artistic identity US English. The exhibition was conceived in response to the ‘operaist’ worker movements of the 1970’s that posited the worker at the center of historical struggle, prefiguring successive transformations of economies, institutions, and forms of being. How to Build… takes place in a transitional moment for the organization and provides a space for introspection and experimentation, teasing out the collective identity of the institution through the work of its founders.

The exhibition initiates a season-long exploration into how artists and alternative arts organizations sustain themselves in times of social and economic uncertainty, with a particular emphasis on projects that have developed in relation to the current economic recession. The series will move successively outwards, from the individuals within an institution to global experiments in artist-led practice.

How to Build… will remain on view Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 12-6PM and Thursdays from 11AM-6PM through November 10th, 2012.

US English is the collaborative project of James and Brea McAnally, the founders of The Luminary and active artists, writers, curators and musicians in their individual practices. US English explores collective identity, spatial politics, and forms of protest through a diverse collection of text, sound, objects, events, and interventions, often initiating large-scale projects in public space. US English acts as both a pseudonym and a form of speaking.

The Luminary’s exhibitions are generously supported by the Arts and Education Council, the Regional Arts Commission and the Missouri Arts Council.

We have spent the last 9 months hosting trivia nights and cocktail
parties, partnering with local businesses, writing grants and running
a Kickstarter campaign and now it is time to make the next step: WE
ARE MOVING TO CHEROKEE STREET!

The Luminary is moving forward with plans for a new location at
2701-7 Cherokee Street. The 13,000 sq/ft complex in the center of our
favorite street will host an expansive gallery, reconfigured venue,
studios, workshop space, and housing for international
artists-in-residence. We will begin a complete renovation of the
building in late October of 2012 and plan to open to the public in
Spring of 2013. And since we just couldn’t wait another 6 months, we
will begin hosting our exhibitions in an interim location at 2644
Cherokee Street starting on October 19th, 2012.

For more information on the project, we have a detailed overview at
www.theluminaryarts.com/cc. Read up, share with your friends, help
however you can.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Capital Campaign: Phase 2

We have been able to get to this point through your support. The
funds we’ve raised so far will enable us to pay for the lease and
initial renovations. This is a major project that will involve
replacing many of the systems, stabilizing the structure, and putting
on a new roof. You continued support is necessary to be able to
finish the project and move in early next year. Please donate today
at www.theluminaryarts.com/cc to help see this project through!

FORM
We are happy to announce this great news just in time to celebrate
our 5 year anniversary! Please join us at our annual fundraiser, FORM
Contemporary Design Show on September 28th & 29th. Buy tickets at
www.brownpapertickets.com/event/262403 for the VIP night and a
special, limited dinner with Entre Underground, Sump Coffee, Urban
Chestnut, and Bitburger in which you take home the chair you sit on.

VOLUNTEER
Skilled (and unskilled) labor will be needed in everything from web
development to putting up drywall – interested in volunteering your
time + talent? Email brea@theluminaryarts.com and we will gladly let
you know about volunteer opportunities.

THANK YOU!
We are so excited to share with you the biggest news The Luminary has
had yet. A huge thank you goes out to everyone who pledged on
Kickstarter, volunteered, hosted a fundraising event or bought a beer
on our behalf. We could not have come this far without you and can’t
wait to see what the future holds.

On October 12th from 9am-6pm, The Luminary will host a special satellite location for the Creative Time Summit. We will be livestreaming the event with supplementary discussions and presentations from 12-1:30pm by area artists and cultural producers whose work intersects with the vision of the summit. Several of the presenters include artist and Chautauqua Art Lab founder Emily Hemeyer, artist and founder of The Proper Residency Angela Malchionno, artist Wonder Koch, Liz Deichmann and Brigid Flynn of MAPS, and Dayna Kriz from Rebuild Foundation.

The event is free and open to the public. Coffee and tea will be provided, with additional limited refreshments available.

About the Creative Time Summit

To advance its mission of positioning the voices of artists at the center of public discourse, New York City-based public arts organization Creative Time will bring together an international group of over 30 presenters—including artists, curators, visionaries, and activists—to discuss how their work engages pressing issues affecting our world and to provide a glimpse into the political implications of socially engaged art. This year’s conference, curated by Creative Time Chief Curator Nato Thompson, is titled The Creative Time Summit: Confronting Inequity. Presentations will respond to recent upheavals in the international political and economic climate by focusing specifically on the topic of wealth inequity across the globe and the ways in which it erodes democracy. Keynote speakers include renowned cultural critic Slavoj Žižek and multimedia artist Martha Rosler.

The event is free and open to the public and will be held at The Luminary Center for the Arts, 4900 Reber Place, St. Louis, MO, 63139. RSVP’s are encouraged by contacting info@theluminaryarts.com with a subject line of CREATIVE TIME.

2012 Summit Schedule

9:00 – 9:15 AM
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Nato Thompson, Chief Curator, and Laura Raicovich, Director of Global Initiatives

9:15 – 9:30 AM
Performance
Pablo Helguera

9:30 – 9:50 AM
Keynote Presentation
Martha Rosler

9:50 – 10:50 AM
Section 1: Inequities
Malkia Cyril.A.P.D (Los Angeles Poverty Department)
Joia Mukherjee
Škart
Taring Padi
Jodie Evans and Suzanne Lacy

10:50 – 11:00 AM
BREAK

11:00 – 11:55 PM
Section 2: Occupations
Leonidas Martin
Tidal Magazine
Mosireen
Rabih Mroué (Video)

11:55 AM- 1:25 PM

Lunch and Breakout Sessions

1:25 – 1:35 PM
Welcome and About the Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change
Anne Pasternak

1:35 – 1:55 PM
Keynote Address

1:55 – 2:00 PM
Presentation of the Prize
Elizabeth K. Kabler

2:00 – 2:20 PM
Presentation by Prize Recipient
Fernando García-Dory

2:20 – 2:30 PM
Break

2:30 – 2:50 PM
Keynote Presentation
Slavoj Žižek

2:50 – 4:00 PM
Section 3: Making
Michael Rakowitzda Projesi
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
Invisible Borders
Hito Steyerl
Otolith Group
Open Call Winner – TBC

4:00 – 4:10 PM
Break

4:10 – 4:25 PM
Performance
Rebel Diaz

4:25 – 5:25 PM
Section 4: Tactics
Jeff Chang
Steve Lambert
Laura Poitras
BijaRi
Josh MacPhee

5:25 – 5:35 PM
Closing Remarks
Anne Pasternak and Nato Thompson

On September 17th, The Luminary presents acclaimed producer and songwriter Washed Out for a special off-site show at Plush. Long adored and critically lauded in the blog world, Ernest Greene (aka Washed Out) first came to prominence in the summer of 2009 after unassumingly posting a handful of bedroom-recorded tracks to his Myspace page from his family home in the seclusion of the tiny rural city of Perry, Georgia. Along the way Washed Out inspired a legion of devoted supporters, followers and imitators before seemingly wilfully slipping back into obscurity again-just as the project was beginning to leave the internet ghetto behind in favor of bonafide real world success. Released on July 11th/12th (through Weird World in the UK/EU and Sub Pop in North America, respectively), debut full-length Within and Without is a summer record to span the seasons; a collection of songs as comfortable sound-tracking moments of peaceful relaxation as they are lighting up a party, and a strikingly mature next step from a uniquely focused, sincere artist. Local electronic duo CaveofswordS will open the show.

Doors open at 8pm. Show at 9pm.

Tickets are $15adv/$17dos and are available online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/267952.

The Elevator Music Series is presented in part by 88.1 KDHX, Urban Chestnut Brewing Company, The Royale, and Local Harvest.

FORM 2012

We are proud to announce the third annual FORM Contemporary Design Show  on September 28th and 29th. The annual furniture, functional object and architecture show has quickly developed into one of the central independent design events in the nation, promoting contemporary design in an exciting, accessible format. FORM 2012 will expand again to inhabit 20,000 sq/ft of the Ely Walker Building on Washington Avenue in Downtown St. Louis as a part of St. Louis Design Week.

FORM is also The Luminary’s annual fundraiser, so join us for the VIP Preview gala to help raise necessary funds for our many programs and events. Find out more about the event at http://formdesignshow.com.

Friday, September 28th, 2012 7pm-11pm

VIP Preview Night | Buy Tickets

The event will include a silent auction for exclusive items from the designers, complimentary food and drinks, DJ and Keynote Address from Karrie Jacobs, founding editor of Dwell Magazine, contributing writer to Metropolis, Travel + Leisure and many more.

Saturday,  September 29th, 2012 10am-4pm

General Admission | Free and open to the public

Experience cutting-edge contemporary designs and take part in Panel Discussions and Presentations at 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm. Details coming soon! The general admission day is both an exhibit and a market place. Some exhibitors will have items for sale, others will be available for consult. Come and be inspired!

Saturday,  September 29th, 2012 6pm-9pm

Reserved Seating | Buy Tickets

To Celebrate the end of FORM 2012, we will host a Community Dinner at the Table that was built by designers during the show. Tickets are limited to 35 people and will include:

• Cocktail hour with exhibitors
• Family-Style dinner by Entre Underground, Sump Coffee and Urban Chestnut Brewing Company at the community table
• The chair you sit on – yes, we’re serious. Your dinner ticket will include a well designed chair.

The cocktail hour will begin at 6pm and dinner will be served at 7pm.

]]> http://theluminaryarts.com/exhibitions-and-events/form-2012/feed/ 0 http://theluminaryarts.com/elevator-music-series/11-5-why/ http://theluminaryarts.com/elevator-music-series/11-5-why/#comments Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:04:12 +0000 director http://theluminaryarts.com/?p=2187 On 11/5, The Luminary welcomes WHY? to the Elevator Music Series. Originally the moniker of Yoni Wolf, WHY? started as his own artist persona and eventually grew to include additional members with the 2005 release of Elephant Eyelash. Now with three LPs as a band, WHY? is still founded on Yoni Wolf’s witty, culturally aware rhymes, but has a cast of permanent members that includes Yoni’s brother Josiah Wolf, as well as Doug McDiarmid. These gents create some of the most unconventional and experimentally charged hip-hop by employing the more grand elements of rock, patient pauses of folk and flourishes of pop.

WHY? is set to release a new five-track EP, Sod in the Seed, on August 14 as a precursor to a new full length titled Mumps, etc. that will be released October 9. Naturally, these will both be released on Yoni Wolf’s Anticon label that has been the band’s home since its inception.

Doors: 7:30pm. Show: 8pm.

Tickets are $12adv/$14dos and are available at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/264205.

The Elevator Music Series is sponsored in part by 88.1 KDHX, Urban Chestnut Brewing Company, Local Harvest and The Royale.