By AU(STL) Director, Brad Edwards

Effective Monday May 2nd,  I will be stepping down as Director of Art Underground (STL). This has been a plan that we began implementing almost a year ago, and I will be replaced by an incredibly passionate and gifted leader.

I am wired as a chronic “starter” of things, and starting AU(STL) has been one of the most exciting and fulfilling endeavors I’ve ever worked on. When Hannah and I threw our first “wine and art party” almost three years ago (has it really been that long already?), we had no idea what glorious monster had been born. As we have progressed through the crawl, walk and run stages (stumbling frequently along the way), we have been blessed by incredible relationships that have opened our eyes to a realm of beauty and meaning that is nothing short of humbling and awe-inspiring.

We have now grown to a point that my leadership is simply not as effective as some of those who have become involved on our team. I am surrounded by incredible artists and creative catalysts who continue to teach me how much I have to learn, and I would be a poor leader indeed if I did not recognize that the future of Art Underground (STL) is staring me in the face. I firmly believe that the goal of every leader is to replace him or herself, and – surprise! – it works.

This change is bittersweet, and I don’t know that the full weight of it has hit me yet, but it is nothing but positive and something I had hoped would happen from the beginning. We have always worked to establish and communicate a mission and vision that is specific enough to inspire, but general enough to involve anyone who seeks to create a “St. Louis that ought to be.” Thus, it is with great joy and pride that I introduce the man who is going to lead AU(STL) to the next level.

Brian Simpson
Brian is the very definition of a Creative Catalyst. As a manager in the Key Client Solutions Group at Wells Fargo, he has the organizational development skills to hone and focus the AU(STL) vision into increasingly concrete and practical application. An accomplished world traveler and art-lover, he’s an aspiring entrepreneur heavily invested in creating a St. Louis that “ought to be.” He and his wife, Lauren, have been avid guests of Entrè:Underground several times, and his appreciation for “things done well” transcends multiple cultural mediums. Brian is an extremely passionate life-long learner, eager to take up this challenge.

The end of the Quarterly and the beginning of our  relationship with Entre, is the perfect opportunity to make this transition. While I will still be around to help if needed and participate with AU(STL) as a photographer, this feels very similar to ripping off the proverbial “band-aid” and making a quick transition will best serve AU(STL).

So with this, I sign off. I am forever indebted to the artists and creative catalysts who have made this all worth it; to City Church for putting their money where their mouth is and providing us with a very usable budget; to all the volunteers who have donated valuable time and resources to a fledgling vision; to the Lafayette Square neighborhood for unparalleled community support from residents and businesses alike; to Phil and Becca Woods for repeatedly opening their home to a couple hundred complete strangers by hosting the Quarterly; to the AU(STL) Leadership Team (past and present) who have invested their passion into this vision; to my wife, Hannah for having almost infinite patience with my schemes; and to Jesus for demonstrating love that gives worth and meaning to all our creative efforts.

We are excited to announce 3x3x3, a collaboration between Art Underground (STL) artists Michael Bolton (Acrylic), Amy Woods (Watercolor) and Brad Edwards (Photography).   The show will be May 28th @ 6:30PM at Urban Chestnut Brewery in Midtown Alley (more on this amazing business soon).

Everyone knows that there is an interpretive facet to the creative process, but nothing demonstrates that quite so starkly as having the contrast side-by-side. As Art Underground (STL) has grown, plateau-ed, changed, stabilized, grown again, etc. we have seen a huge diversity of style, emphasis, character, and interpretation that covers just about every point of the spectrum in fine art.

But what happens when those artists collaborate for the specific purpose of demonstrating the unique stylistic differences between those artists? To attempt to answer that question, we came up with 3x3x3.

3 Artists.

3 Images.

3 Interpretations.

To say that we 3 have different styles is a bit of an understatement.  Michael Bolton is an established local contemporary abstract painter whose non-representational style focuses on diverse color fields and incredibly deep textures. His work has been featured in a variety of online and print locations, as well as hundreds of homes across the country.

Amy Woods is a more traditional, representational and award-winning watercolorist, whose work focuses on architectural and organic subject matter. Her work has been purchased to adorn the set of Gilmore Girls, as well as the covers of novels.

I (Brad Edwards) am a proud urbanophile and my photography reflects this love for anything and everything St. Louis City: her architecture, her people, her culture.  While my initial foray into photography began as a necessity, to create branding and content for Art Underground (STL), it quickly grew into a passion of its own.

To start this incredibly daunting task, the three of us sat down and went through my entire body of work. Each of us picked a single image that we wanted to see in the show. Amy’s choice was to make me go out and take a new photo, so that I had to create new work for the show as well. Both Amy and Mike are currently in the process of reinterpreting those three images in light of their own style and emphasis. We will end up with 3 versions of each of 3 subject matters, by 3 different artists (hence “3x3x3”).

Other than that, we have a lot of ideas, but not much concrete. I’m hoping to write about and visually document the entire process. We will be adding a 4th “surprise” photo image on the night of the show, which Mike and Amy will paint live (once again, in their unique styles and mediums).

So keep an eye out for more details as May 28^th approaches!

Attention artists and creative catalysts. It’s that time again and AU(STL) is looking for local talent to feature at
Entre:Underground’s next dinner, April 29th and 30th!  In addition to participating in this AU event, being a Featured Artist qualifies you to be sponsored by Art Underground (STL) on events you do in the St. Louis area.  This includes assistance with advertising and PR, networking and educational opportunities, and the invitation to join a community of people seeking to “create a St. Louis that ought to be.”

If you are an artist, or know one who would be interested in this opportunity, please send the following submission requirements to AU Submissions (submissions@artundergroundstl.org) no later than Tuesday, April 12th at noon. We will confirm your submission and notify you of our decision that week.

[SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS]
If we do not receive complete information for the following categories, your submission will not be considered.  Feel free to simply copy/paste this format and replace the descriptions with your information.

• Full Name
• Contact Information
  • Email Address
  • Physical Address
  • Daytime Phone Number
• Bio and Work Description – 50 words or less. This may describe the artistʼs background, materials, and stylistic distinctions. This will be included in the slides for display at the event.
• Digital Samples - This depends significantly on the type of work, but some kind of example needs to be submitted for application and (if accepted) marketing. Pictures, videos, writing samples, etc. must be submitted with Bio and Work Descriptions. Also include the following information with each sample.  This information will be plugged into AU(STL) labels for exhibiting your work:
  • Title
  • Size/dimension
  • Value/cost (optional)
• Acknowledgement of Fees – Presenting your work will require participating as a guest at dinner for both evenings.  The usual fee is $60 per person, per evening, but Entre is offering a significant discount for artists and will only charge $45 for both evenings. We will not charge a commission for any works sold at the April dinner.

[OTHER DETAILS]
For more information about Entre or their Underground Dinners, please see our detailed description of this new opportunity.

• Attendance at both dinners is mandatory, and an unparalleled opportunity to build relationships with a group of people who have a strong appetite for art.
• Additional guests and beverages (optional) are full price.
• Set-up for the show will take place either the day of the event or the night before. We are still working some of these details out, so be flexible.
• All art must be either free standing, able to display using easels or some other means of your design. We will not have the ability to hang on any walls because we are using borrowed space.

by AU(STL) Director, Brad Edwards

A couple weeks ago we announced the death of the Quarterly.  What we didn’t say was that we were discussing a potential collaboration with St. Louis’s original “underground restaurant,” Entre:Underground. They’ve been featured on CNN, and are locally beloved by the Riverfront Times.

From their website:

“On August 30th, 2008, 32 people came and ate at a secret location. Five courses and multiple bottles of wine later, a movement had begun.”

The founder/owner and “Clandestine Chef” (his first name is John) has a vision for the culinary arts that transcends the mere sense of taste, they seek to cultivate an experience that excites all five senses.  Their creative (and often unorthodox) approach seeks to involve their guests in this inextricably relational process. Quite simply, they are accomplishing in the culinary world what Art Underground passionately pursues in the visual arts.

So what does this mean? What does this transition look like? Rather than featuring 3 or 4 artists at each Quarterly, we will feature 1 artist at each of their monthlyunderground dinners (click here to receive invitations to RSVP and attend). In addition to showing their work to a guaranteed audience of 50-100 guests in a single weekend, artists will have an opportunity during the cocktail hour to describe their work in great detail and answer questions. Afterwards, the featured artists will enjoy a phenomenal meal (a work of art in itself) along with the rest of Entre’s guests! Thus we will accomplish roughly the same degree of opportunity for emerging artists to get quality exposure!

From an organizational standpoint, we will also benefit in the following ways:

1. We will no longer have to pay for and solicit for donations of food and drink…
2. We do not have to find, secure and set up a new space for every Quarterly, and…
3. We will have more time and resources for developing the community aspect of AU(STL) after artists get their foot in the door.

This last piece is particularly exciting because it means more opportunities to collaborate, develop and grow as a “community of artists and creative catalysts.” It has long been a struggle for us to continue affording opportunities to artists once they’ve show in a Quarterly, because we are perpetually busy planning for the next one. No longer. Right now, we are hard at work retooling our Call for Art to accomodate this new opportunity.  We hope to issue it in the next couple days, so keep an eye out!

Photo by Brad Edwards

by AU(STL) Director Brad Edwards.

We’ve been quiet lately. Silent even. We wish that weren’t the case, but the last several weeks have seen some significant changes and developments for the future of Art Underground (STL). We’ve come to realize that we, as an organization and as a community of artists, have come to a crossroads where we can no longer continue on the path we’ve been so long walking upon and must choose one of 2 directions.

Since our inception, we’ve always been about two things: St. Louis City and her artists.  The art is inextricably linked, but the creators of that art, the people and relationships that give it life, have been the priority.  I firmly believe that what makes the Quarterly so unique and helpful to artists in this city is it’s undeniably relational emphasis. We have art shows in people’s homes, and that very space infuses the event with a certain quality.

As we’ve grown, so has the Quarterly. At it’s height, we had over 250 people attending by word of mouth alone. This is nothing short of miraculous. But as we’ve grown, it has been harder and harder to maintain that relational emphasis, that community. Not only is it harder for an artist to connect to 250 people in a meaningful way, but our leadership and volunteers quickly became burnt out by trying to juggle and maintain all the details and logistics that come from putting on such an epic undertaking: food, drink, dishes, volunteers, set up, clean up, temporary occupancy permits and city inspections (don’t even get me started on that again), marketing, collecting donations, etc. And all that doesn’t even include jurying and installing the artwork! It’s exhausting for anyone and unsustainable for an all-volunteer run organization.

Then, as we were finally looking at having a break with the 2011 Spring Quarterly, something came up.  The venue we were planning to use was suddenly unavailable 2 days before we issued the Call for Art. Through no fault of theirs, it just wasn’t going to happen. Our leadership team hit a breaking point, and we realized we couldn’t do this anymore. We desperately need a system, a more stable foundation upon which we can continue to grow as a community and as an organization.

So where does that all land us? We aren’t quite sure yet. We’ve been doing a lot of brainstorming and game-planning, but we don’t have anything locked in yet. We’re talking with other organizations to possibly partner with, getting invaluable feedback from our artists and putting everything on the table to reassess our efforts. What we do know is this: the Quarterly in it’s current form, is dead. It is not sustainable, nor is it serving artists the way it did when we first started. We aren’t sure what form (frequency, size or format) it will take, but things must change for the sake of both the City and her artists.

This is both exciting and challenging for me personally, because we are  moving in a direction that is based significantly less on my  original designs and intentions, and far more upon the community that has grown around that original vision… which of course is what I had hoped for all along! Yet it is very humbling because I am no longer in control of this living, breathing community that has been instilled with a life of it’s own.

Thank you all for your dedication and friendship to Art Underground (STL). We will keep you updated on all the developments as they come, and please feel free to speak into them as they come!

The Fall Quarterly was once again a huge success! Our first Quarterly at the Abbey on the Park was almost exactly one year ago, so it was exciting to see what things have changed and what have stayed the same… Thanks to everyone who came out, check out some of the pictures below!

By AU(STL) Director, Brad Edwards

The air is crisp, the leaves are just starting to turn, and St. Louis is bracing herself for another cold winter (it’s the humidity).  That means it is once again time for the Fall Quarterly! The Summer’s installment was huge.  With 11 artists, 39 peices of artwork, around 300 attendees and $2000 in art sold, it was our biggest yet.  However, we’re going back to our roots.

After much discussion, we realized that what makes the Quarterly truly unique (and what earned usthe Riverfront Times’ “Best Nomadic Art Show” award) is holding it in a home.  There is something extremely comfortable an welcoming about viewing art where someone lives that makes the whole feel incredibly different.  Thus, we are going to simplify and focus on the little details that makes the Quarterly so relaxed, enjoyable and accessible.  Don’t get me wrong, the Summer Quarterly was a blast! But it wasn’t necessarily that specific part of our character that makes us so unique.

Thus, we are returning to the much-loved and historic Abbey on the Park in Lafayette Square (1505 Missouri Ave. #2E, 63104).  Please RSVP via Facebook so we can plan appropriately for food and drink.  We will be featuring the work of 3 stellar artists who have never shown in St. Louis before!

Jeremiah Clark (Digital Media)
Jeremiah specializes in video and digital media.  A recent graduate of Greenville College, he now calls St. Louis home.  His work especially focuses on process, and specifically the process that an artist goes through in producing his or her art.

Johnny L. White (Photojournalism)
Johnny is a commercial and editorial photographer specializing in portraiture and documentary photojournalism.  Originally from Atlanta, the style and direction of his work has been influenced by more than ten years as a staff photojournalist at various newspapers from North Carolina to Florida and Missouri (to include the St. Louis Post-Dispatch).  His Mexico series was born out of a need to let loose. He was not on assignment,  nor did  he have any sort of deadline, much less an idea of what he wanted to shoot. He was simply traveling with two friends through several cities in Mexico during one of their most celebrated times of the year, Dia de los Muertos, looking for inspiration, good light and good food. His work speaks to the success of that venture.

Amy Woods (Water Color)
Amy is a self taught artist currently living in St. Louis, Missouri, but not after a winding path stretching from Youngstown, OH to Virginia Beach, far down to San Antonio, and then west for a long hiatus in Los Angeles before finding herself back in the mid-west where it all began.  Her style is unapologetically traditional, but with a nuanced hint at abstraction that is continually fresh and clearly influenced by her diverse travels.  Her work has adorned the covers of novels, the set of Gilmore Girls, and everywhere in between.

The Essentials…
Where: 1505 Missouri Ave, #2E, 63104
When: Saturday October 23, @ 6:00PM
Why: Clearly, you didn’t read the Riverfront Times…

By Brad Edwards

If you haven’t heard the news yet, we were just dubbed “Best Nomadic Arts Show” by the Riverfront Times!!!  This is a huge honor, and extremely unexpected.  The write-up was very well done, and the wonderful people at RFT captured the essence of what we’re about very well! Thank you RFT!!!

From AU’s inception, this has been one beautiful accident.  We never set out to start a non-profit, much less make any kind of “best of” list.  We simply noticed a need and did our best to help out some friends.  While I have since discovered a love of photography (it’s near-impossible to be surrounded by artists and not be inspired by their passion), I was never an artist myself.  Yet we were quickly surrounded by people, artists and non-artists, who also love this beautiful mess of a city and wanted to be part of a very simple vision and organic initiative.

So thank you, to everyone who has been a part of Art Underground.  Artists who have shown (and especially those who have stuck around and helped us not make fools of ourselves!), volunteers who have slaved to bring creative and tasty food for the Quarterly, administrators who keep us structured and organized (Hannah Edwards, Sarah Guidry and Rock Star/Graphic Designer Russ Mohr, I’m looking at you especially), City Church for giving time, money and space to help us pull it all off, and the businesses like Schlafly and Park Avenue Coffee who have graciously donated their products for our events.

The reason I am most excited about making the “Best of” list, is how it will help the artists we love to serve.  This gives us some serious independent validation and legitimacy that emerging STL artists can use to build their resumé and seize opportunities outside of Art Underground.  As an organization that has never sought to exist for it’s own sake, we are most excited about what this does for the city.  We hope this serves as an testament that anyone can recognize a need and do something to help their community.  I don’t care if it’s fixing cars, picking up someone else’s trash, tutoring kids, throwing a party, cultivating your art/craft or starting a non-profit for _______.  Find your passion and use it to make your city a better place.

See you October 23rd at the Fall Quarterly (more details soon)!!!

Last week the amazing venue we were having donated for our use hit an electrical snag in their construction, and it was possible their air conditioning might not be up and running in time for the Quarterly.  Rather than risking a miserably hot show, we’ve spent the last several days tracking down an alternative space somewhere in St. Louis to hold the Quarterly.  We found it.

It’s incredible.  3141 Locust (Unit 2B on the floorplan, map here).  With 5,300 square feet in one room, it was the location of this year’s “Pins and Needles Alternative Fashion Show” May 17th, 2010.  It’s less than a block away from The Fountain on Locust and Anatomy of Style.   The developer, Jassen Johnson of Renaissance Development Associates (RDA), has almost single handedly transformed the Midtown Alley neighborhood from the dilapidated skeleton of St. Louis’s automotive industry into one of the fastest growing destinations for creative and design professionals and entrepreneurs.  We participated in their annual Midtown Alley Streetfest last year, and will do so again on August 20th this year.

Working in “alternative spaces” like this can be a real challenge sometimes, but it is unlike anything else in St. Louis.  Everything else will remain unchanged, and we will once again showcase some of the most exciting fine art work that St. Louis’s creative culture has to offer!