The Gallery at RAC Presents: Evocation

September 14, 2017

Categories Press Releases

 ST. LOUIS (September 14, 2017) – The Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis (RAC) presents Evocation, an interactive exhibition to remember, imagine and inspire a better St. Louis. Featuring a host of local artists, the exhibition is a component of RAC’s cultural planning initiative, EVOKE , which invites the community to engage in dialogue about the value of creativity in their lives and its relevance to issues that make St. Louis a better place to live.

EXHIBIT NAME:                Evocation

FEATURING:       Dr. Amber Johnson, Erin McGrath Rieke, S. Jewell S. McGhee, Select Maps from the St. Louis Map Room

CURATOR:          The Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis

DATES:                Opening Reception: Friday, September 15th, 6:00 – 8:00pm

EVENTS:              Friday, October 6th, 6:00 – 8:00pm
                             Friday, October 13th, 6:00 – 8:00pm
                             Friday, October 20th, 6:00 – 8:00pm
                             Friday, October 27th, 6:00 – 8:00pm
                             Thursday, November 2nd, 6:00 – 8:00pm

 All events are free and open to the public.

Evocation continues through November 2nd.

GALLERY HOURS:             Monday – Friday               10am to 5pm;
                                            Saturday & Sunday          12pm to 5pm.

LOCATION:         The Gallery at the Regional Arts Commission (RAC)
6128 Delmar Blvd. 63112 (across from The Pageant)
Free parking behind The Pageant or metered street parking

EXHIBIT DESCRIPTION:
An interactive exhibition that asks viewers to join us in remembering and imagining a better St. Louis.
This exhibition is a part of Evoke (https://evoke.racstl.org/), a larger cultural planning initiative which invites the region’s residents to engage in dialogue about the value of creativity in their lives and its relevance to issues that make St. Louis a better place to live.

The planning process is guided by a five-member Planning Committee of Commissioners appointed by the Mayor of St Louis and County Executive, and an advisory group of 20+ civic, cultural and community leaders who represent multiple sectors — business, education, arts and culture, philanthropy and other areas of our community.

The goal is to reflect the deep diversity of the St Louis region in a process that will range from large town hall meetings, surveys, roundtable discussions and individual interviews, to quiet chats over coffee, and will invite people to share what keeps St Louis stuck, what makes it dynamic, and how the arts can make our region more creative, cohesive and civically engaged.

This initiative to plan for the cultural future of St. Louis is finally here, it’s happening, and needs everyone’s participation. Be a part of EVOKE St. Louis, and let your voice be heard.

Evocation is open to the public for viewing through Thursday, August 24.

About the Justice Fleet
The Justice Fleet, the work of Dr. Amber Johnson, is a mobile network of experiences that foster community healing through art, play, and dialogue. Housed inside of box trucks, each mobile exhibit ventures into various neighborhoods to engage community members in discussions about implicit and explicit bias, social justice, and empathy. The first exhibit in production engages community members in a dialogue about Radical Forgiveness—the profound notion that we don’t have to live with fear, pain, hostility, or injustice because we have control over the way we perceive, understand, and act. Radical Forgiveness is a fluid and deliberate process that allows us to heal the wounds from injustice. Additional exhibits include Radical ImaginationBlack Girl Magic, and Transfuturism.

About Divinemoira Studios
Divinemoira Studio was founded by Erin McGrath Rieke in 2010, to utilize the unique power of the expressive arts to better communities around the world. As an organization founded on the social business model, Divinemoira Studio curates works of art and design in digital formats, interactive and experiential installations, gallery exhibitions, as well as produces non-profit events and public speaking engagements. Divinemoira Studio represents and cultivates the careers of local, national, and international artists that share the studio’s mission of: “Art. Inspiration. Hope.” The love art. The passion to inspire. The purpose to provide hope. The ever-growing collaborative group of artists come together and share their work with a portion of all proceed benefitting the communities they live within. Divinemoira Studio seeks to inspire others to find their own artistic souls: to “Be Inspired.”

About the St. Louis Map Room
The NYC-based Office for Creative Research, in collaboration with COCA, took over the gymnasium in the now closed Stevens School from March 3–April 9, 2017 to create The St. Louis Map Room: a community space for exploring and creating original, interpretive maps of the city. These maps are currently on display throughout the community.
Free and open to the public, visitors were invited to explore present and historic civic data using maps as instruments. Interactive projections allowed viewers to overlay these community maps with census data, historic city-planning maps, live policing data, and more, to understand how the community has been shaped by acts of mapping.

The St. Louis Map Room was a collaborative project between The Office of Creative Research and COCA in partnership with the St. Louis Public Schools, and with generous support from the Regional Arts Commission, PNC Arts Alive, and the Missouri Humanities Council.

About the Regional Arts Commission www.racstl.org
The Regional Arts Commission (RAC) is at the forefront of efforts to transform St. Louis into a more vibrant, creative and economically thriving community by elevating the vitality, value and visibility of the arts. It is the largest annual funder of the arts in the region, and since its inception in 1985, RAC has awarded more than 7,000 grants totaling over $100 million to support nonprofit arts, individual artists, cultural organizations, consortiums and programs. Directed by a board of 15 commissioners appointed by the chief executives of St. Louis City and St. Louis County, RAC is a pivotal force in the continuing development and marketing of the arts in the region. Visit www.racstl.org for more information, or follow us on Facebook at Regional Arts Commission or Twitter @RACStLouis.

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