Courtney Paolicchi
Courtney Paolicchi

From Art Camp to CAM

Courtney Paolicchi is a Visitor Services Associate (VSA) at CAM who is passionate about contemporary art, long walks, and Florence and the Machine. A native of St. Louis, Courtney studied art history in McGill University in Montreal, and returned home to pursue a career in museum work. With…

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LEAP Middle School Initiative at work on Project Lost Island
LEAP Middle School Initiative at work on Project Lost Island

Project Lost Island

Cutting tools, rulers, pieces of cardboard, hot glue guns, duct tape—the CAM Education Studio is filled with art supplies of all sorts, laid out in different stations for each stage of the art-making process. Students crowd around long tables, enjoying their pizza and chattering excitedly in anticipation of…

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CAM VSA Autumn Wright
CAM VSA Autumn Wright

CAM Ambassadors

The first faces you see when you walk into CAM are those of the Visitor Service Associates. VSAs do more than safeguard the art—they are CAM ambassadors who are informed and willing to give you a ten-minute Spotlight Tour of one of the works on view. Far from…

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CAM VSA Gian Garma and Alice Nguyen on a Spotlight Tour.
CAM VSA Gian Garma and Alice Nguyen on a Spotlight Tour.

Shining a Spotlight

When you step into CAM, you often find yourself in the presence of the unfamiliar. This may induce wonder, mystification, a sense of the sublime, confusion, or all of the above. Even for the most sophisticated museumgoer, an encounter with contemporary art can be a disorienting experience. Sometimes…

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Dirt is ready for walking.
Dirt is ready for walking.

CAM Gets Dirty

Four large white plastic bags neatly line CAM’s loading dock. Each bag is tightly packed with dirt. Earthy scents fill the air. Outside, a forklift slowly moves another white bag from a flatbed truck and places it against the museum’s outer walls. A member of CAM’s install crew…

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The colors of Stephanie Syjuco's <em>Rogue States</em> flags are made more visible to visitors wtih color blindness with EnChroma glasses.
The colors of Stephanie Syjuco's Rogue States flags are made more visible to visitors wtih color blindness with EnChroma glasses.

In Living Color

Perched upon the front desk at CAM a pair of EnChroma glasses is on display. These lightweight glasses have a thick black frame with a pinkish lens, and allows those with color blindness to see more of the color spectrum. According to the National Eye Institute, about 8.5…

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A view of AP Portfolio Day from the pizza table.
A view of AP Portfolio Day from the pizza table.

AP Portfolio Day

“Do more of this,” Amanda Bowles says. She points at a small drawing in Alyssa Hesser’s sketchbook: Alyssa, a student at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School; Amanda, a co-founder of Monaco gallery in St. Louis, an artist with New York exhibitions to her credit, and one…

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Richard Garey as Mark Twain
Richard Garey as Mark Twain

An Afternoon with Mark Twain

We know him as Mark Twain. Richard Garey calls him “Sam.” Garey is an actor working mostly out of his Planter’s Barn Theatre in Hannibal, Missouri, the home of the young Samuel Clemens, who became known internationally as Mark Twain. Garey has played…

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Christine Corday's <em>RELATIVE POINTS</em> is minimalist in form and maximalist in concept. <em>Christine Corday: RELATIVE POINTS</em>,  installation view, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, January 18–April 21, 2019. Photo: Dusty Kessler.
Christine Corday's RELATIVE POINTS is minimalist in form and maximalist in concept. Christine Corday: RELATIVE POINTS, installation view, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, January 18–April 21, 2019. Photo: Dusty Kessler.

Conceptually Speaking

“Conceptually based” is a term that describes a wide number of artists’ practices, found in their bios and in reviews and articles about their work. It’s so common that it rarely gets much attention, rather, artists are noted for their focus on issues of identity (i.e. racial, ethnic,…

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<em>Bethany Collins: Chorus</em>, installation view, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, September 6–December 29, 2019. Photo: Dusty Kessler.
Bethany Collins: Chorus, installation view, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, September 6–December 29, 2019. Photo: Dusty Kessler.

Silent Songs

Artist Bethany Collins returns to CAM for an artist talk this Thursday. Museum staff is fortunate enough to get the opportunity to speak with exhibition artists prior to installation. We were doubly blessed this past summer to hear from both Collins and Stephanie Syjuco. Both are compelling speakers,…

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