Category: Events

Preservation Research Office is pleased to be one of the sponsors of Open/Closed: Exploring Vacant Property in St. Louis, the second annual St. Louis vacant property conference. This year’s conference offers a multi-day schedule that includes panel discussions, workshops, film screenings and activities in north city’s O’Fallon neighborhood.

Last year’s conference laid the groundwork of awareness of how vacancy affect St. Louis’ neighborhood quality of life, our sense of place and our economy. This year Open/Closed examines strategies of intervention that can transform vacant property into cultural and economic assets — including managed decline, historic preservation, landbanking, redevelopment, agriculture and arts programming.

Here’s the schedule at a glance:

Wednesday, April 18
Spanish Lake Premiere Screening
7:30 p.m., Location TBA

Thursday, April 19
Assembly Required: The Making and Remaking of St Louis
7:00 p.m., 2900 Sidney Street

Friday, April 20
DETROPIA Screening and Discussion
6:30 p.m., Soldiers’ Memorial

Saturday, April 21
Main Conference: Panels, Discussions and Keynote by Jay Williams
9:00 a.m., The Sanctuary, Red Bud at Rosalie avenues

Monday, April 23
Battle for Brooklyn Screening and Discussion
7:30 p.m., The Luminary Center, 4900 Reber Place

Check out the full schedule online: openclosedstl.org.

Open/Closed: exploring vacant property in St. Louis (April 18-23) will kick off with an exclusive sneak peek of the documentary film Spanish Lake. The screening will offer extended clips of the film in progress and will open the Shuttered Film Fest, a series of films focused on issues related to vacancy and urban change. Spanish Lake native and director Phillip Andrew Morton and producer Matt Jordan Smith will attend and lead an open discussion following the screening. Shuttered will feature four films and Open/Closed will present five days of panel discussions and presentations. Additional details to be released. Visit Open/Closed 2011 to review last year’s event.

Venue: Tivoli Theatre, 6350 Delmar Boulevard TBA
Date/Time: Wednesday, April 18 / 7:30 p.m.
Cost: FREE

Coverage by Thomas Crone for St. Louis Magazine: “Open/Closed Conference Gives St. Louis a Peek at Doc-in-Progress, ‘Spanish Lake'”

Friday, December 9, 5:30 – 7:30 PM

You are invited to attend an exclusive viewing of the exhibit <em>Sustainability and the Built Environment of the St. Louis Region</em> at the St Louis Artists Guild. Join exhibit organizers Dana Gray and Richard Reilly for lively conversation and artistic critique of artwork examining where we stand, as a culture of consumption, and where we may be headed in the future.

Also on view are photographic images by artist, Chris Jordan, from his series Running the Numbers. You will have an opportunity to learn about artists and designers juried in the exhibit, and perhaps see even yourself as an artist and agent of social change!

The St. Louis Artists’ Guild, is located on Big Bend, just north of Clayton Road, in Oak Knoll Park, St. Louis, MO 63105.

Click here to read a review of the show.

The Sustainability exhibit will be on view through January 6, 2012. St. Louis Artists’ Guild Gallery Hours: Open Tues. – Sun. Noon to 4 pm Closed Mondays & Holidays. Admission is Free! Holiday Hours: The Artists’ Guild will be closed December 24 to January 2. Regular Gallery Hours resume on Tuesday, January 3.

We are pleased to join the Landmarks Association of St. Louis and nextSTL in sponsoring a design charrette for the Pevely Dairy plant at Grand and Chouteau. The charrette takes place next Saturday, November 19, from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. Details appear on the flier here.

The Missouri Statewide Preservation Conference is next week in Joplin, but it’s not too late to register. Details and schedule here.

The next screening of Bill Streeter’s exciting documentary on St. Louis’ most beloved building material, Brick By Chance and Fortune will take place Tuesday, October 4 at 9:00 p.m. at Off Broadway (3509 Lemp Avenue). Buy tickets here.

The documentary includes interviews with many historians and preservationists familiar to readers of this blog: St. Louis Building Arts Foundation founder Larry Giles, B.E.L.T. author Toby Weiss, Vanishing STL author Paul Hohmann, Missouri Historical Society President Robert Archibald, historian NiNi Harris and Preservation Research Office Director Michael R. Allen.