By Emily Hemeyer

Bricaleur-ing, an explorative multi-media art show featuring female Saint Louis artists, many of whom engage community practice or collaborations opens at Fort Gondo on March 13^th. The exhibition will also include a two-week event hub. Events are scheduled to continue throughout the two-week occupation of the gallery include a new moon circle and potluck, quilting bee, an experimental sound co-lab, as well as a film screening featuring independent filmmakers presented by Chicago’s Nightingale Theater.

“Bricaleur-ing investigates how women make space both aesthetic and conceptual,” Sarah Paulsen, one of the show’s coordinators explains. “Interested in women art makers who use installation and craft traditions. A Bricaleur is a kind of person who pulls odds and ends together to make something.”

Paulsen and co-organizer Lyndsey Scott invite community members to make their mark on the Wonderjarden Quilt, as its constructed collectively during the week’s festivities, coalescing with Palm Sunday picnic on March 28^th to be photographed Kara Clark Holland, another artist engaging in questions of community in her work.

“I would definitely say that community arts in Saint Louis is a focus and is continuously growing . Though not everything in the show falls under this category here is a strong thread of this in Bricaleur-ing,” Sarah explains.

The show is coincidentally occurring during At the Crossroads, an unrelated community arts convening being held at the Regional Arts Commission the weekend of March 27^th .The Regional Arts Commission facilitates a yearly community arts training fellowship (CAT) program of which Paulsen and Scott are both graduates.

“Per capita, it seems Saint Louis has a lot going on in the community arts area,” says Paulsen. “Community arts in the art world is starting to be more discussed as a medium and way of practice. I’m excited by the community arts dialogue because it brings to life something that may not have always been celebrated. But I’m also slightly weary of when it becomes all theory and less action.”

Bricalour-ing will be at Fort Gondo, 3151 Cherokee Street from March 13^th – 28^th.