St. Louis, MO – Emily Rauh Pulitzer, Founder and President of the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, and the Foundation's Board of Trustees have announced the program of events scheduled to celebrate the opening of the Foundation's home in St. Louis’s Grand Center in October 2001. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Tadao Ando, the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts' building is Ando’s first structure in the United States intended for public use.
Previews for the St. Louis community will be held throughout the month of September 2001. In these pre-inaugural events, residents of St. Louis will have an opportunity to experience the interaction between Ando’s extraordinary light-filled architecture and the works of art displayed, which include pieces specially commissioned from American masters Ellsworth Kelly and Richard Serra, as well as a selection of significant works from the collection of Emily Rauh Pulitzer and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr.
The official opening celebration will begin on Saturday, October 13, when Tadao Ando, in a rare public appearance, will deliver a talk about his vision for the new building. Following the lecture, Ando will join in a panel discussion with Richard Serra and Ellsworth Kelly, to be moderated by PFA Board Member Angelica Zander Rudenstine, the Program Officer for Museums and Conservation at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in New York. Using their experience of collaboration on the PFA project, Ando, Kelly and Serra will discuss the relationship between contemporary art and architecture, a subject that will be a focus of the Foundation's future work.
The Foundation seeks to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of the visual and built arts. Integral to its mission is the experience of the building, which provides a tranquil place for contemplation, enjoyment and study. As James N. Wood, Director and President of The Art Institute of Chicago and a member of the PFA Board, explains, "One of the great strengths of America's cultural institutions is their remarkable variety. The opening of the Pulitzer Foundation adds a new and distinctive voice to this extraordinary company. There is no single or preferred way of experiencing the art of our time or that of the past. I am confident that the Foundation's contribution will be both subtle and essential."
During the opening weekend, three related exhibitions will be on view at other arts sites in St. Louis. Two of these will be at the Forum for Contemporary Art: Robert Pettus: Ando Constructed: Photographs of the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, and New St. Louis Architecture. The Saint Louis Art Museum will present the exhibition Tadao Ando: Architect, with an installation designed by Ando himself.
"We look forward to celebrating with St. Louis and with arts institutions throughout this city," says Laurie A. Stein, Director of the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, "and to facilitating understanding about the Foundation building, Tadao Ando’s architecture and other significant new buildings that are under way in St. Louis."
The opening weekend will also demonstrate some of the ways in which new collaborations among local institutions can enhance the experience of contemporary art and architecture in St. Louis. Through the Contemporary Art Partnership (CAP), a new educational initiative created jointly by the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, the Forum for Contemporary Art and the Saint Louis Art Museum, docents will initiate discussions with visitors about contemporary art and will generate new ways of looking and learning. "One of our goals is to facilitate innovative programming," states Emily Rauh Pulitzer. "With the creation of the Contemporary Art Partnership, the PFA is proud to join with the Forum for Contemporary Art and the Saint Louis Art Museum for a unique endeavor that fills a vital need in the St. Louis art community."
Through CAP, volunteers from the St. Louis community will receive six months of focused training in the fields of contemporary art and architecture by attending lectures and exhibitions and participating in discussions with art and education professionals. The volunteers will then serve as contemporary art docents, leading tours and discussions with visitors at the Forum for Contemporary Art, the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts.
"This partnership is exciting because it offers visitors, tourists and members of the St. Louis community a 'one-stop shopping' resource for contemporary art and architecture," says Susan Lee, CAP coordinator. "All three institutions participate equally to provide information about contemporary art in St. Louis."
"By working together to develop the docent program, these three institutions will provide visitors with a fresh understanding of contemporary culture through contemporary art and architecture,” states Betsy Millard, Executive Director of the Forum for Contemporary Art. "The contrasts and similarities among our three institutions will help to illuminate this understanding."
