Class It Up

Scenario 1: You watch PBS to flex your knowledge about Gothic cathedrals and you’re down with Jan van Eyck, but your art education ended at Impressionism and you’re clueless about contemporary art. You simply never took those classes. Scenario 2: Your spouse/girlfriend/partner keeps trying to get you to “do something cultural.” You wonder why a Rams game doesn’t count. And you don’t know a thing about art, so you’re afraid museums might be boring. You simply can’t imagine becoming “cultural.” Here’s a solution for everyone: Enroll in the three-part series Contemporary Art 101 beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday, October 18, at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (3750 Washington Boulevard; 314-535-4660). For $10 per session (and just $8 more for a brown-bag dinner if you’re hungry), you can get a crash course in art created since 1970 -- from materials and methods to meanings and movements -- with Susan E. Cahan, a professor of contemporary art at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and Contemporary Art Museum curators Anthony Huberman and Laura Fried. There will be no slide tests and no papers, attendance at all three lectures is not mandatory, and each class will be way more exciting than an audio tour. Make your reservation at www.contemporarystl.org. The series continues on Thursday nights through November 1.
Thursdays. Starts: Oct. 18. Continues through Nov. 1, 2007