'The Beautiful Game'

Franklin Sirmans and Trevor Schoonmaker had some things in common: They both curated shows which integrated popular culture with contemporary art; they are about the same age, and they both have passion for a sport that is making inroads into American culture -- soccer (or futbol/football, as the rest of the world refers to it).

To coincide with The World Cup, the month-long football championship which occurs every four years, Sirmans and Schoonmker collaborated on an exhibit, 'The Beautiful Game: Contemporary Art and Futbol.' The exhibit brings together an international group of artists working in a variety of media around soccer, somewhat of an anomaly in the tradition-bound art world.

"The art world is really opening up now," explains Schoonmaker. "The work on display is as critically, artistically and intellectually acclaimed as any other work, but it's the thematics that some people have difficulty getting their heads around." Running simultaneously in four venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn, 'The Beautiful Game' will include a listening program of "soccer-related music"(coordinated by Piotr Orlov) and live feeds of the World Cup matches televised in some of the galleries.

"The heart of it is to create a dialogue beyond the regular contemporary art audience," says Sirmans, 37, whose high school team, New Rochelle High School, won the New York state soccer championship in 1987. "The exhibit allows us to get more people to look at art as a more dynamic activity and to understand the politics of why it is such a beautiful game."

Schoonmaker, 35, agrees. "The goal is to make contemporary art relevant to people's lives. And the easiest way to do that is to not force them into MoMA, but to curate shows on things that people are already interested in," he says. "Then art is not this scary thing that's a part of another class or culture, but accessible because it's about football."

The two are not new to this "dialogue" between art and things more popular. In 2003, Schoonmaker curated 'Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti' at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, while in 2001, Sirmans worked on 'One Planet Under A Groove,' at the Bronx Museum on the culture of hip-hop.

To further spread the word, the two have partnered with Major League Soccer, which sent out information on the exhibit to their youth leagues.

Both men have their bets on Brazil to take it all. Sirmans' rationale goes beyond the fact that the team has an amazing array of superstar players.

"There's a reason why [the Brazilians] play the beautiful game and we Americans do not," says Sirmans. "The team plays like a concert with each player contributing its unique style and beauty -- which is what art is all about, if you think about it."

'The Beautiful Game' runs from June 9 - July 22. Venues include Roebling Hall in Brooklyn and Chelsea, Brooklyn's Rotunda Gallery, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music