Whole City

Whole City

May 4th -
May 25th 2013

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?

Opening Reception:
Saturday, May 4th, 7 - 9PM - The Luminary

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?”
Monday, April 29th, 5:30PM – Meet @ Gateway Arch
 Grounds
What makes us whole? How are we making things better? Or worse? What’s love got to do with it? Bring your questions about art, creativity and city life to the Gateway Arch for this Open Space conversation. Topics will be defined by the questions of participants. The resulting discussions will be shared in the Whole City exhibition and publication.

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.

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.