Brian's work is inspired by and questions American society's live-to-work mentality. He is concerned with the cultural and environmental effects of this obsession, as well as the physical and mental health ramifications. In 1931 distinguished economist John Maynard Keynes published a short essay, Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren, where, among other ideas, he states that by 2030 the standard of living would be dramatically higher; people, liberated from want (and without the desire to consume for the sake of consumption), would work no more than fifteen hours a week, devoting the rest of their time to leisure and culture. His work envisions a world where his prediction has come true.

In 2015, the Saint Louis Visionary Awards were relaunched by an independent committee of women to celebrate the numerous contributions and achievements of women who work in or support the arts in St. Louis. From established working arts professionals and arts educators to emerging artists and community impact artists, each year's honorees are truly "visionary".

This years award ceremony happens Monday, April 29, 2024
6:00 - 8:00 PM at The Sun Theater, 3625 Grandel Square St. Louis, MO 63108.

Moraa, is a passionate artist specializing in fashion and textiles, drawing inspiration from her rich cultural traditions. With seven years of experience in the Kenyan fashion industry and an MFA in Fibers from SCAD in Savannah, GA. Moraa’s expertise lies in preserving traditional practices through her innovative textile explorations. From her early exposure to fabrics in her mother’s boutique, she developed a deep fascination with colors, textures, and drapery. Moraa’s work is a tribute to her ancestors, recreating the textures, shapes, and emotions associated with traditional body adornment practices. Through unconventional textiles, she simulates skin, hairdos, and beaded jewelry, transforming forgotten traditions into unconventional yet beautiful textile surfaces, challenging negative perceptions, and celebrating the beauty of her heritage.

 Vanessa Rudloff, Arts Relations Manager for ANGAD Arts Hotel stopped by to speak with Nancy about the institution. ----

The ANGAD Arts Hotel is a unique hotel experience with room colors based on Mood, and art everywhere. They also feature art exhibitions, concerts at their rooftop bar, and great food. -----

Roland Burrow and Sara Kerr stopped by the studio to talk about Roland's art, and about the gallery that represents him, McCaughen and Burr, where Sara Kerr is a dealer. ----- 

McCaughen and Burr was founded in 1840 and is the oldest continuously operating art gallery west of the Mississippi River. Throughout the years, the gallery has been instrumental in helping to establish St. Louis as a major venue for Artists. From the Westward Expansion to the present, McCaughen and Burr has been integral in the advancement of the Missouri Art Scene.

Roland Burrow was born in 1981 in St. Louis, Missouri. From a very early age, Roland began to utilize his artistic ability. Wherever he traveled, he carried a sketch pad and pencil documenting his everyday subject matter of living in Ferguson, Missouri. Roland attended McCluer High School in St. Louis, where he began his formal artistic training. In 1999, Roland enrolled in the Fine Arts Study Program at the University of Missouri – St. Louis (UMSL) and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Fine Art Studies. Roland has exhibited in many galleries across St. Louis. He has held residency at McCaughen & Burr Fine Arts since 2017. Roland’s work has been sold into major museum collections as well as personal collections, including traveling collections.

Roland looks to the Renaissance artists Michelangelo and Caravaggio to draw inspiration.  He also has immersed himself in the works of the Harlem Renaissance painters. You can see the influence of both of these movements as Roland delicately melds the two together to create his own unique style.

Gina Grafos, Chief Curator of Visual and Literary Art for the KAF, stopped by to speak with Nancy about the various endeavors of the foundation. Subjects include the various galleries, exhibits, and projects within the KAF.

Rebekah Scallet, Artistic Director for the New Jewish Theatre in St. Louis, stopped by to talk with Nancy about the theatre, her career and the upcoming season which starts near the end of March 2024.

Rebekah Scallet is a stage director, educator, and arts leader. She is currently the Artistic Director for the New Jewish Theatre in St. Louis, and is the past Producing Artistic Director for the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre.  She believes in a theatre that is imaginative, interactive, and accessible for all, and one that can and should play a role in bringing communities together and making them stronger.

Stephanie Weissberg, a curator at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, stopped by to speak with Nancy about the Pulitzer and the current exhibition, Urban Archaeology: Lost Buildings of St. Louis.

About Urban Archaeology: Drawn from the rich collection of the National Building Arts Center (NBAC), Urban Archaeology brings together salvaged architectural elements from landmark buildings, residential homes, and neighborhood institutions built in St. Louis between 1840 and 1950. The artifacts on display represent important histories of material innovation, labor, and the everyday lives of the people who inhabit the city. The exhibition sheds light on the city’s history, revealing complicated legacies of power, wealth, and neglect that shape our experience of the built environment and daily life. By studying St. Louis’s architectural past, Urban Archeology encourages us to imagine new ways of building, keeping, knowing, and inhabiting places.

Located in Sauget, Illinois, the National Building Arts Center emerged in response to the rapid economic decline and widespread demolition the city experienced beginning in the 1950s. NBAC has worked over four decades to salvage and preserve significant parts of condemned buildings that would otherwise be completely lost, amassing the largest and most diversified collection of building artifacts in the United States. Urban Archaeology is the most extensive public presentation of NBAC’s collection to date.

Judith W. Mann, the senior curator of European art to 1800. Since joining the museum in 1988, she has reinstalled the collections of Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and 18th-century European painting and sculpture three times, and organized two major international exhibitions. In 2022, the museum will organize a major, international exhibition curated by Mann that examines the art of painting on stone, a practice that flourished in Europe—particularly Italy—in the 16th and 17th centuries. In 2015, the Association of Art Museum Curators and the American Academy in Rome awarded Mann the Samuel H. Kress Foundation AAMC Affiliated Fellowship in order to allow her to continue her research into painting on stone in Rome.——-

Mann curated “Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi: Father and Daughter Painters in Baroque Italy,” which opened at Rome’s Palazzo Venezia and later was seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Saint Louis Art Museum, as well as the 2012 exhibition “Federico Barocci: Renaissance Master,” which was presented at the Saint Louis Art Museum and the National Gallery, London. In recognition for her scholarship relating to the Barocci exhibition and catalogue, Mann received the Association of Art Museum Curators’ Outstanding Monographic Exhibition Award. She holds a graduate degree and doctorate from Washington University.

Danny Williams became The Rep’s Managing Director in January 2022.  An experienced arts administrator, Danny has expertise in nonprofit accounting, senior management, and organizational development.  Prior to joining The Rep, Danny worked at The Public Theater in New York, where he served in various roles since 2006. Most recently, as Senior Director, Finance and Administration, he managed the daily and strategic financial operations of the $50 million nonprofit organization, successfully launched an organization-wide intranet, partnered with the development team to achieve fundraising goals, and collaborated on long-term financial planning and analysis, including cash investment strategies, budget analysis, and project management.  Noteworthy and favorite productions include Broadway productions of Fun Home, Eclipsed, Hamilton, and Hair along with Off-Broadway productions of Here Lies Love, Into the Woods, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, White Noise, and Rock Bottom.  

Independent artist, Melody Evans, stopped by to speak with Nancy about her life, art, and works. 

Melody Evans studied for four years at the San Antonio School of Art and Craft and started her career as a potter but soon moved into making sculpture, large scale installations and drawings with collage and digital manipulations. This change coincided with her pursuit of a Master’s degree in the influential area of Northern California.  Evans studied with nationally acclaimed artists Robert Brady and Stephen Kaltenbach, and has received numerous awards in her career; including first place in the National Visions in Clay

Will Henton stopped by to speak with Nancy about his life, works and about the arts scene in St. Louis.

Will is a Senior engineer / Thermal Lead for both F-15 and AV-8B programs specializing in avionics cooling distribution analysis, avionics thermal qualification testing, and overall aircraft thermal environments.

Pianist Adam Maness stopped by to speak with Nancy about the goings on in his life and his work. 

Open Studio is an online collection of online lessons on jazz performance and theory.

 As Open Studio's Creative Director, Adam Maness develops the curriculum of all of the courses, in addition to teaching his own popular course like Magic Voicing System, Piano Fingering Independence and more. Adam is a versatile pianist, arranger, composer, and producer whose performances, original compositions, and arrangements have been featured on numerous recordings and on national and international radio and television broadcasts.

Adam co-hosts the Open Studio podcast "You'll Hear It" with Peter Martin.

Adam leads his new dynamic modern string orchestra Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! aims to celebrate the beauty and diversity of the popular song. This joyful collection of musicians never stops seeking out new ways of exploring the timeless songs that make up our shared musical identity.

Bree Maniscalco, Executive Director of Cinema St. Louis, stopped by to speak with Nancy about the organization's happenings including the St. Louis International Film Festival, which runs Nov 9-19th this year.

The festival kicks off on Thursday, November 9th, celebrating 50 Years of Hip-Hop with a tribute to the Hi-Pointe Cafe's pivotal role in shaping hip-hop's history, showcasing the city's significant influence in its evolution. Attendees will be treated to a cocktail reception, engaging conversations, and a special screening of the 1990 film, "House Party," directed by East St. Louis’ own, Reginald Hudlin. 

CSL’s Executive Director, Bree Maniscalco, shared, "As we celebrate our first festival at the Hi-Pointe Theatre, we wanted to pay tribute to the Hi-Pointe neighborhood and honor those who made Hip-Hop what it is today. Mondays at the Hi-Pointe Cafe holds a special place in many people’s hearts, and we’re looking to bring it back to kick things off in style for this year’s Fest.”

This year's festival promises a variety of exclusive events, screenings, enlightening post-film Q&A sessions, and illuminating masterclasses dedicated to addressing industry-relevant topics. SLIFF received an impressive 2,419 submissions, marking the festival's 32nd anniversary with record-breaking enthusiasm. SLIFF's dedicated team of programmers, hailing from diverse backgrounds, meticulously curated a selection of 278 films that underscore the transformative power of cinema.

An American poet and artist, Sally Van Doren is the author of four poetry collections, Sibilance, (LSU Press 2023) Promise, (2017) Possessive, (2012) and Sex at Noon Taxes (2008) which received the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets. Her poems have been featured by NPR, PBS, The Poetry Foundation, American Life in Poetry, and Poetry Daily, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her poetry has appeared widely in national and international publications such as American Letters and Commentary, American Poet, Barrow Street, Boulevard, Cincinnati Review, Colorado Review, Crazyhorse, december, Lumina, The Moth, The New Republic, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry London, Southern Review, Southwest Review, Verse Daily and Western Humanities Review. Her ongoing poetic memoir, The Sense Series, served as the text for a multi-media installation at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. ------

As a practicing visual artist, Van Doren formalized her training at Hunter College and The School of Visual Arts in New York. She has had solo exhibitions at Furnace Art on Paper Archive and other venues and participates in group shows regularly. Her work is held in distinguished private and corporate collections, including a print commission for each guest room for the Hotel Downstreet in North Adams, MA.  Her art appears on the cover of The Difference is Spreading: Fifty Contemporary Poets on Fifty Poems (UPenn Press 2022) and in literary magazines such as The Nashville Review and 2River. ------

A graduate of Princeton University (BA) and University of Missouri-St. Louis (MFA), Van Doren has taught poetry workshops for a variety of educational institutions, among them the 92nd Street Y, the St. Louis Public Schools, Washington University in St. Louis, the St. Louis County Juvenile Detention Center and Scoville Memorial Library. She curated the Sunday Poetry Workshops for the St. Louis Poetry Center and serves on the board of the Five Points Center for the Visual Arts in Torrington, CT. A native St. Louisan, she works from her studio in West Cornwall, CT. -------

Established in 1846 by civic leaders and philanthropists, the Mercantile exists today as a vibrant community and cultural asset. It is the oldest library west of the Mississippi and the grandparent of St. Louis cultural institutions. ------

The task of the Mercantile Library as a research library is to make its collections, which have come to concentrate on Western Expansion and the history, development, and growth of the St. Louis region and of the American rail and river transportation experiences, available to the widest number of local and national users. -----

Franki Cambeletta/Co-Founder-Owner of the Haunted Garage podcast stopped by to speak with Nancy about the podcast and the related Horror Film Festival at the Hi-Point on Oct 5-7. 

Haunted Garage is a paranormal podcast dedicated to transportation. Focusing on haunted cars, trains, busses, motorcycles and beyond. ------

Sabine Eckmann joined the Kemper Art Museum as curator in fall 1999 and also regularly teaches seminars in the Department of Art History & Archaeology in Arts & Sciences. Eckmann, a native of Nürnberg, Germany, is a specialist in 20th and 21st-century European art and visual culture with a particular focus on the intersection of art and politics, ranging from exile art and cold-war aesthetics to European post-unification art. Other research interests include avant-gardism, new art forms, media, critical theory and cultural studies.

Art Saint Louis is a nonprofit community art organization and gallery dedicated to enriching lives through the creative activity of our region’s contemporary visual artists. Through exhibition, education, and exchange they connect and inspire our community, and multiply the economic and cultural vitality of our region. ------

Art Saint Louis Gallery, 1223 Pine Street, St. Louis MONow in their 38th year of operation, they continue to cultivate an appreciation for the role that visual art and artists play in the community. ------

Brian Vaccaro graduated from Webster University in St. Louis in 1996 with a Bachelor's Degree in Music with an emphasis in Jazz Studies. He continued his education at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville where he earned a Master's Degree in Music in Guitar Performance in 2000. Since completing his studies, Brian has been active as an educator as well as a performer. He has taught a variety of jazz and general music courses including Jazz History, Jazz Ensemble, Guitar Ensemble, Rock History, Private Guitar Study and numerous others at Lindenwood University, Southwestern Illinois College, St. Louis Community College, Grand Center Arts Academy and St. Charles Community College.

In 2010, Brian received the Outstanding Adjunct Faculty award from St. Louis Community College at Meramec. Brian is now Executive Director of the 501c3 organization "St. Louis Classical Guitar". He has also performed and recorded with many of the top musicians in the St. Louis area. "Going Through the Motions", the debut album by the Brian Vaccaro Trio, was honored to be included in the "Notable Releases of 2011" list by noted critic and author W. Royal Stokes. Brian currently performs in and around the St. Louis area.

Independent artist and founder of the St. Louis Neon Museum, Deborah Katon, stopped in to talk with Nancy about her multimedia work, the museum, and neon, in general. 

The Neon Museum features contemporary sculpture alongside historical signage and vintage ads. The museum is located at 3537 Chouteau Ave. and is available to rent for special events. Tours are also available.

Stefanie Kirkland, Director of Programming for The Sheldon, stopped by to talk with Nancy about the goings on at The Sheldon, including various programs and exhibitions.

Carrie Houk has spent her professional life as an actor, casting director, producer and teaching artist. Educated at HB Studio in NYC and the Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University, she began her acting career at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and from there worked in NYC, LA and Chicago. She has cast over thirty films, numerous television shows and countless national commercials and has worked with directors Steven Soderbergh, Robert Altman, Alexander Payne, Howard Franklin, among others. She started her casting career in Chicago thirty five years ago and from there settled back in St. Louis to raise her daughter. She has produced two films and the critically acclaimed production of Tennessee Williams’s “Stairs to the Roof” directed by Fred Abrahamse. Adjunct professor of casting and acting at Webster University, Houk has also taught at Washington University and Columbia College Chicago.