The Center for Aesthetic Research (CAR)

The Center for Aesthetic Research (CAR) is an art presentation and education organization specializing in time-based media, performance art, and music. Offering a comprehensive introduction and rigorous analysis of artistic media, our mission is to demystify and democratize contemporary performance art while maintaining the highest degree of artistic innovation and excellence. 

CAR’s activity is comprised of two core components: presentation and education. The synthesis of art presentation and education provides a powerful format by which to explore the fundamental aspects of artistic media and an experimental process that fosters growth and understanding within the community. 

Our planned activity includes events related to contemporary abstract and non-traditional music, historical recreations of avant-garde performance, classes and workshops on new music, philosophy, electronic art and circuit design, as well as our flagship intermedia presentation platform, Fulcrum, that features video synthesis and image processing, kinetic sculpture, and many aspects of performance art.  

Curatorial strategies that are experimental and innovative provide the fundamental instrument by which we organize our activity. Our programs are organized with a hands-on approach that often finds concept and technique being directly utilized by our curators in order to create new forms of art presentation. Above all, we strive to create an organization that is based in a commitment to provide truly creative platforms for artists to thrive.

Operating as a true multidisciplinary organization, our approach to community building is unique and intentional. Through the creation of collaborative systems that integrate the fields of music, art, and education, our programs re-imagine how an art organization can function within a city and as a community. 

The School of the Center for Aesthetic Research (SCAR)

The School of CAR is an ambitious initiative serving as the education component of the Center for Aesthetic Research. While the organization as a whole advances multiple branches of public outreach, including performances, presentations, and exhibitions, the School of CAR is a central part of our overall mission. In an effort to blur the lines between art presentation and education, SCAR is fully integrated into every aspect of our programming. It is a place where exhibiting artists and performers can share their craft through lectures and workshops, as well as teach classes and provide rigorous instruction.  

The goal of SCAR is to fill a critical gap in arts education within the St Louis region. To satisfy this important social need, SCARs educational programming features a diverse curriculum of courses, lectures, artist talks, and workshops that focus on aesthetic experience in an attempt to synthesize history and contemporary practice in unique and novel ways. It is important to us that this curriculum is offered in the public domain, with tuition costs at a mere fraction of those offered in private liberal arts institutions, without, however, sacrificing the quality of education. Indeed, we propose that minimizing bureaucracy and superfluous overhead can significantly emphasize the essence of education, as well as reach broader audiences across diverse social strata.

We intend to cultivate in students a valuable sense of historical consciousness which is not merely theoretical but can also make a decisive impact on the significance of practical work. Indeed, the inverse is also true — no true theory can develop where the powerful educational aspects inherent in art practice are absent. We think it of vital importance in our time especially for artists to learn to think for themselves — to develop this in practice, and as a practice — and not passively accept pseudo-theoretical and fashionable trends as a means to navigate their practice.