Museum Blue: A Virtual Rebirth

Museum Blue, with its cobalt blue floors and its unique space, served as a hub for contemporary art and conversation in the St. Louis community for over three years. Featured artists were asked to respond to and activate the space for their exhibitions or actions, and in that way the physical space was integral to the idea of Museum Blue. However, now, in a world disrupted by a global pandemic, physical spaces are best avoided. To respond to this moment, the Museum will be reopening in a virtual-only format, thus creating an “unrestricted curatorial content generator.” But what exactly does it mean to be a virtual exhibition space? 

We often think of art-viewing as something that best happens in person, and for good reason. Interacting with art can be a visceral and emotional experience. There is a reason why people travel to spend whole days in museums looking at object or installation with their own eyes. How, then, does Museum Blue seek to make a qualitative experience for the viewer in a digital space? The answer is process, dialogue, and curation. 

The new Museum Blue will be curated by Lauren Cardenas and Michael Behle. They see this new forum as an opportunity to widen, expand, and even democratize the process of art viewing, and to focus in on the act of curation. As Behle points out, both iterations of Museum Blue have been unique opportunities. The former for its physical properties, but the virtual space “really creates possibilities that may not ever be considered if we were in a traditional white cube. How can art be experienced? Where? Why?” He continues, “So, we depart from the past, as we aren’t using a dedicated physical space that sets up the same parameters for every artist. The old Museum Blue, its blue floors and odd architectural foot was curious, but constant. The new model removes that constant.” 

On the transition from physical to virtual space, Cardenas stresses, “that (physical) space harbored community and allowed for the pushing of boundaries. The only way to move forward was to revamp the project and think outside the box altogether. The pandemic brought on an innovative approach that pushed the conversation. As we move forward, we will be more methodical about our curation . . . We are taking our time to select and curate, create a relationship with these individuals, and hopefully foster new relationships.” 

The first two artists to be featured at the new Museum Blue are Stacie Johnson and Leslie Friedman. While adapting from a physical to a virtual space certainly requires reimagining on the part of the curator, so it does on the part of the artist as well. When asked about how she envisions a virtual exhibition, Johnson expressed, “I am not sure yet, but feel lucky that we can continue making decisions through the duration of the show. I’ve never had an exhibition where I wasn’t cramming up until the last minute, installing, and then a total slowdown afterwards while the show was up. This feels opposite. I am still just brainstorming and will engage with the ideas throughout the show. It’s odd but refreshing that this time it is not so much about the finished product, but the process.” 

The artist will also create a correspondence between them in order to fill the social and networking void left by not meeting and installing in person, as well as additional materials to further help the viewer engage with their work and processes. As Friedman explains, “Stacie and I have talked about mail correspondence as a way of interacting between the works. We have even talked about sending time-lapse video of the making of our pieces. We might have interacted more during the hanging of the show, but this time there is more emphasis on the making of the works.” 

We may see then, with its emphasis on process, dialogue, and curation, a virtual exhibition space has the opportunity to focus on the artwork in its holistic entirety. Spectators are accustomed to interacting with a finished work, but often in a white-box situation they are not privy to the making of that product. The virtual exhibition has the opportunity to become a package of information and not just a sole object, recorded in posterity for anyone to view regardless of geography, time limitations, or accessibility barriers that might keep people from interacting with art and ideas.  

In an effort to create a physical link, the curators of Museum Blue send the artists a MB tile of blue plexiglass laser cut with the show information. It is a tangible token of the exhibition and acts not only as an identifier, but also creates continuity and community. In a way this also gives a nod to the innate physicality of art while creating the virtual new space. As Behle says, “I will always prefer to see artwork in reality (if that is how it was meant to be experienced), but in the moment, we are adapting. Adapting so that a conversation, content, and general discourse around contemporary art goes on.” 

Ashley Ray, 
freelance writer specializing in 
the humanities and international affairs
ashannray@gmail.com