Around Grand Center in 240 Minutes

Greetings, fellow traveler. Much like Phileas Fogg, this evening, we attempt to complete a journey the so-called experts predict can never be accomplished. With passport in hand, we shall circumnavigate the entirety of Grand Center between 5 and 9 p.m., hitting all fifteen of the participating galleries. Ah, how the Grand Gallery Walk excites the blood! Now, to strategize: Where do we begin? The Sheldon (3648 Washington Boulevard; www.grandcenter.org), where six separate shows open, including Clifford R. Martin: Navy Photographer and Herb Snitzer: Jazz Photographs from the Last Years of Metronome (that's Clark Terry pictured), might be a fortuitous point of departure. We can drive southward to the Saint Louis University Museum of Art, then sweep toward the Greenberg Van Doren Gallery and the Grand Public Art Plaza before racing the wind to the Bruno David Gallery. If our timing is keen, we should be at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts as darkness falls; all the better to enjoy the projection of RD Zurick's film, Movie Lights, on the smooth exterior of the Pulitzer. With at least six stamps on our Grand Gallery Walk Passport, we'll be eligible for a prize drawing at the Sheldon. But the real prize is the race itself! And it's all free, which pleases my parsimonious nature. Onward, hale fellow, to victory! But first, a quick pit stop may be in order; I've had quite a bit of coffee today.
Fri., May 16, 2008