downtown west

Like so many other men and women at any number of coffee shops and cafés around town, the bearded man was intent at his laptop when we arrived at a Panera to chat about the City Museum, his pride and joy. But unlike any of the other people hard at work, Rick Erwin looked up and smiled, stood and shook hands. Erwin, creative director of the iconic, unique space in a converted turn-of the-20th-century building on Washington Street, once integral to the street’s halcyon days as nexus of the StL’s shoe and garment district, would argue that those days are, in fact, these days. Many of the unique pieces of ephemera that wouldn’t fit inside, or that wildly creative minds decided would look better on the roof, are atop a 13-story building. By wildly creative, we mean the oeuvre of the late artist—visionary, really—Bob Cassilly and his ilk. Erwin demurs. “I’m just fortunate to have such a team of creative people,” he says, not a touch of self-aggrandizement in his voice or body language. “Everything was in Bob’s vision,” he continues. “I had to lose my ego.” Erwin, now 46, had worked side-by-side with Cassilly beginning in 2005, and continued as museum manager for a few years after his mentor’s untimely death in September 2011—at the controls of a bulldozer while working at his next urban concept, Cementland—until Erwin assumed his present role. The museum occupies the first four floors; only the sky is above much of the urban playground. The planet’s most unusual workplace has been through several iterations of management and is now operated by Premier Parks, with fiduciary decisions in the hands of execs who have many years at theme parks, e.g. Six Flags, under their tool belts. For this and many other aspects of his job, Erwin is grateful: “I never had to put together a budget.” Accounting isn’t in his collection of brushes. In fact, he was studying for his master’s at the Art Institute of Chicago when he heard about an unusual opportunity right here in river city. Not that Cassilly would have bothered with a detail like posting it. During our interview with Erwin, both of us went off on tangents; your journalist’s notes are practically inscrutable, if not outright illegible. Erwin’s eyes sparkle as he pauses, grins, then says: “I even have the Bob mumble!” Meanwhile, his hands punctuate his speech. And it’s no mumble, by the way. He talks with unbridled enthusiasm and, yes, his lips move pretty fast. “I’m just so excited to share it!” Erwin says, arms opening wide. Alas, he hasn’t been able to find a suitable helicopter for the museum, and miles of bureaucratic red tape have prevented an actual NASA rocket from appearing on the roof. So far. Where else can you find so many installations, so much stuff to (take a deep breath)… “swing across, walk into, spin around, climb up, slide down, crawl under, jump over…” etc.? That’s quoted from citymuseum.org. &

A Reflective Experience

Laumeier Sculpture is bringing the work of renowned Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama to the StL. Opening Feb. 11, Narcissus Garden is an immersive sculptural installation that invites visitors to traverse pathways of nearly 1,000 mirrored spheres throughout Laumeier’s indoor gallery.