STATE OF THE ARTS: Pushing boundaries, retaining talent, expanding audience diversity key to bolstering the arts in St. Louis

In an effort to move beyond my usual gallery-going and suss out the real deal behind the St. Louis art scene and where it is headed, I turned to those who are much better acquainted with the subtleties of the shifting tides of the local art scene. The main questions are: what does St. Louis offer that an artist cannot find in other cities? How can we effectively retain talent? And, how can diversity be improved in the local art world? Paul Ha, director of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Ron Himes, founder and producing director of the Black Repertory Theatre, Roseann Weiss, director of community art programs & public art initiatives of the Regional Arts Commission and Rebecca Brogan, editor-in-chief of STL Sound all offered a few words from their distinct perspectives.

“The visual art scene seems to be really growing fast,” says Ha. “I think the catalyst was the Pulitzer when it opened in 2001, and then we opened in 2003, and the Kemper also opened in October with a renovation and expansion, and we’re waiting for the St. Louis Art Museum to break ground on their expansion. All the institutions are expanding, and that seems to be a great generator of activity.”

“I think the breadth of work that the various institutions and organizations present and produce is certainly a strength,” says Himes, “The range of theatre, the music organizations, the dance companies – there’s a broad range of work [being produced].” In addition to recognizing the well-known and well-established venues and companies,
Himes noted the emergence of many younger organizations that are introducing new ideas and taking new risks. “There are a number of young companies that bode well for the future,” he says, “the young companies are bringing fresh new ideas and new works with the larger old institutions continuing to do the work that they do.”

Weiss has also noticed the increasing participation of younger crowds, as artists and in the audience. “You have things like Boots on Cherokee, the White Flag Project, things the Contemporary is doing, New Music Circle, the music at Lemp – people are doing amazing things, particularly with younger talent,” she says.

Despite the expansion, collaboration and vitality of the past few years, Himes says audiences have not caught up with the innovation the artists are exhibiting. He says the challenge comes in being able to “cross fertilize audiences” – so that audiences that usually attend the bigger theatre company productions, for example, begin to step out of their comfort zones and add performances at mid-sized and smaller venues to their theatre experience. “The community as a whole needs to support the new work, the adventurous work, the risky work…it’s a matter of finding ways to get audiences to take more risks,” Himes explains. In a time when funds are stretched thin and the amount of money that audiences can allot to entertainment is becoming less and less, Himes believes this adherence to promoting the lesser-known arts and artists is something that should be addressed as a community issue.

One boon St. Louis can offer over cities whose arts scenes are more saturated is the ability an artist can have here to support her or himself through art alone. “You have a long way to go if you are a musician and you move to Nashville or Los Angeles or New York – you don’t get paid to play if you move to Nashville,” says Brogan. With the cost of living in St. Louis being lower than most places of comparable standards of living, “there are a lot of musicians that are able to work full time [as musicians] here in St. Louis.” The lower cost is also beneficial for audiences – “you can’t go to Chicago or New York and pay five dollars to see great live music,” Brogan notes.

Ha agrees that, while people will always move to explore other places and artists will want to be exposed to other art scenes, St. Louis has much to offer artists who decide to stick around. “It seems like more artists are staying in St. Louis. They see more opportunity to exhibit and sell their work,” he says.

“It’s a natural thing for artists to want to move on to bigger venues – you are always going to see a transition of people coming and going, that’s the nature of the arts,” says Weiss, but “we have an amazing pool of talent in St. Louis that is committed to staying here.” “Our hope with projects like Great Rivers Biennial,” which is a juried competition sponsored by the Contemporary and the Gateway Foundation that awards exhibition space and financial assistance to local artists, “is to get people to stay longer in St. Louis and help us create our scene,” explains Ha.

Of course, there is always room for improvement. “I think that there is a strong base of support for the arts in St. Louis,” says Himes, “I think that base really needs to be broadened, so we reach a point where we have bigger audiences, bigger donor bases, more diversity.” Diversity is one aspect where Himes sees a particular dearth. “Diversity is an issue across the board in St. Louis - not just in the arts – it’s in every facet of life in St. Louis. I think the arts have the potential to address it,” he says. Himes explained that, while many institutions do short-term outreach to encourage a particular population to visit a particular exhibit, there is a need for longer-term projects that ensure that those populations continue to come back to galleries and begin to increase their own participation in the arts. “There’s really no follow-up to see that that audience will continue to come to that institution to see other work and will continue to feel invited, that outreach needs to continue,” explains Himes.

Despite the sometime unflattering comparisons of St. Louis to bigger cities, there’s no need to fret too much. “I believe in my heart that we are in a huge and amazing location – there’s so much more than meets the eye”, says Brogan. Weiss concurs: “I think it’s a really great time – for people who want to get involved, they just have to scratch the surface.”

You can e-mail Tiffany Frye at tiffany.m.frye@gmail.com.