Arts Interview With Nancy Kranzberg

Gina Grafos, Director of Visual infrastructure for the Kranzberg Arts Foundation, stopped by to talk with Nancy about the happenings around the galleries associated with The KAF, including the exhibition "Lost Library" by Stan Strembicki at the High Low Literary Arts Center.  Also discussed was the new KAF space, Sophie's Artists Lounge. Gina Grafos For the exhibition “Lost Library” at the High Low, Stan Strembicki photographed books from a flooded library in the Lower Ninth Ward — a historic, Black neighborhood hit hard by the storm — that were scattered in a field. For three years, Strembicki visited the location every few months and documented the books as they decayed. One of the Photographs from "Lost Library"  Sophie’s Artist Lounge and Street art gallery is an immersive art lounge servicing up high fidelity audio-visuals with a cocktail-focused menu.  You can Immerse yourself in their street art gallery and listen to Resident DJs provide the music. Open Wednesday- Saturday from 5:00 PM- 1:30 AM w/ St

Melissa Wolfe, Curator of American art at the St. Louis Art Museum, stopped by to talk about the new exhibition, Art Along the Rivers, which runs October 3rd, 2021 until January 9th, 2022.  Other happenings at the museum are also discussed. Melissa Wolfe joined the Art Museum in 2015 as curator and head of the Department of American Art. She oversaw an extensive reinterpretation of the museum’s American art galleries that opened in 2016. Melissa Wolfe Melissa previously was curator of American art at the Columbus Museum of Art, where she has worked for 14 years on a succession of important exhibitions, catalogues and collection development. Her projects “George Bellows and the American Experience” (2013), “George Tooker: A Retrospective” (2008) and “In Monet’s Garden: The Lure of Giverny” (2007) were awarded significant funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Henry Luce Foundation and Terra Foundation for American Art. Wolfe received undergraduate degrees from Stephens College in Columbia, Mo.

Independent artist Alicia Piller, stopped by to talk with Nancy about her exhibition, Unearthed: Time Keeping Mound City, at Craft Alliance, which runs through October 23rd. Los Angeles based artist, Alicia Piller was born and raised in Chicago and received her  Bachelors in both Fine Arts (Painting) & Anthropology from Rutgers University in 2004. While  working in the fashion industry; living a decade in NYC and three and a half years in Santa Fe,  NM, Piller cultivated her distinctive sculptural voice. Continuing to expand her artistic practice,  Alicia completed her MFA focused on sculpture and installation from Calarts in May of 2019.   As a method to locate the root of human histories, Alicia merges the new and discarded,  experimenting with a wide range of materials to construct large scale works that mimic forms  of cellular biology. Piller envisions historical traumas, both political and environmental, through  the lens of a microscope. Piller’s mixed media practice is as much about materiality a

Jess T. Dugan stopped by to talk about their new photographic exhibition, Currents 120: Jess T. Dugan, on display at the St. Louis Art Museum from September 17th, 2021 through February 20, 2022.  Also talked about is their career in general, and the exhibition/book To Survive on this Shore, among other topics.  Jess T. Dugan Jess T. Dugan (American, b. 1986) is an artist whose work explores issues of identity through photographic portraiture. They received their MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago (2014), their Master of Liberal Arts in Museum Studies from Harvard University (2010), and their BFA in Photography from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (2007). Dugan’s work has been widely exhibited and is in the permanent collections of over 40 museums, including the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the International Center of Photography, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the St. Louis Art Museum, the Museum of Cont

Jack Lane, Co-founder and Executive Producer of Stages St. Louis, stopped by to talk with Nancy about the History of Stages, as well as the 2021-2022 season, which includes "Jersey Boys" and "The Karate Kid (The Musical)."  Jack Lane was an actor in New York when he heard Co-Counder Michael Hamilton talk about his dream to found a theater troupe in St. Louis, and together they made that dream come true 35 years ago. Stages Co-Founders: Michael Hamilton (left) and Jack Lane (right) STAGES opened in 1987 with a budget of $50,000 and a part-time seasonal staff of eight. Today, the company employs a full-time staff of 25 overseeing a budget of $4.7 million. During the performance season, an additional 150 actors and crew members bring the productions to life. To date, STAGES professionals have produced 103 musicals, with nearly 3,400 performances, playing to more than one million patrons. The STAGES audience includes patrons from a spectrum of ages and socio-economic levels from more than 238 cities located in 3

Sara Burke, Founder of the City Studio Dance Center and Katherine Dunham Dancer, stopped by to speak with Nancy about her career as a dancer, including her work with the legendary Katherine Dunham.  She also shares two writings she has done recently, “I Bear Witness To” and “Musings on Creativity.”  Sara Burke at the City Studio Dance Center “Sara Burke is the owner and director of The City Studio Dance Center in St. Louis, Missouri which she founded in 1986.  Sara is a choreographer, dancer, dance instructor, photographer, and author and arts diversity consultant.  Sara consults for local dance companies and works with young dancers helping them start Company’s.  Sara relishes her role as “mentor”.   She has danced around the world. One of her biggest goals and accomplishments was to learn Dunham Technique from the legendary Katherine Dunham.  She studied with Miss Dunham in East St. Louis in the 1970’s and danced with the Dunham Company.  Sara’s experiences studying and dancing Dunham Technique changed he

William Roth, Founder and Artistic Director of the St. Louis Actors Studio, stopped by to talk with Nancy about the upcoming season of St. Louis Actors Studio, which is housed in the Gaslight Theater.  William Roth William Roth's acting career began in 1972 at the Theatre Guild of Webster Groves—where his dad had acted in the mid-60s—in a performance of South Pacific, in which he had a horrible case of stage fright, refused to sing and choose instead to dance behind the curtain. Twenty years later, after a six-year stint in the Marines and other distractions, he moved back to St. Louis from California and performed in a student-directed one-act festival at the University of Missouri-St Louis. He then returned to the Theatre Guild of Webster Groves to get his picture on the wall with his father, playing Clive in Alan Ayckbourn’s Season's Greetings. Over the past 20 years he has appeared in countless Shakespeare productions, including: Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, Comedy of Errors, Titus Andronicus

Chris Hansen, Executive Director of the Kranzberg Arts Foundation, stopped by to talk with Nancy about the upcoming Music at the Intersection festival happening in the Grand Center Arts District (September 10th through 12th, 2021).  They also discuss the Kranzberg Arts Foundation's works and venues in general. Chris Hansen Music at the Intersection celebrates St. Louis’s rich and diverse musical heritage. From Jazz to Blues, Soul to Hip Hop, and everything in between this festival will highlight over 60 acts on six world-renowned stages over three days throughout Grand Center’s Arts District. The mission statement of the Kranzberg Arts Foundation is... "Through the development of artistic venues, studios and workspaces, short and long-term residencies, and community-based programming, the Kranzberg Arts Foundation provides essential infrastructure for the arts to thrive in the St. Louis region. Taking an arts-based approach to community development, the Foundation ensures we are aligning our investments with

Andrew Wanko, Public Historian for the Missouri History Museum, stopped by to talk about the exhibition St. Louis Sound. Andrew Wanko St. Louis just can’t stay quiet. The region has produced legends who are on a first-name basis worldwide, like Ike & Tina, Miles, Chuck, and Nelly. It’s been home to the “Velvet Bulldozer” Albert King, the “Black Venus” Josephine Baker, and the original “king” of pop music, Scott Joplin. And don’t forget world-class songwriters like John Hartford, Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and Willie Mae Ford Smith. Few cities anywhere can claim so many leading lights in such a wide range of style. St. Louis Sound examines contributions to American popular music. This exhibit serves as your introduction to that music—it can’t cover everything, but inside you’ll find familiar tunes, deeper cuts, and a new musical outlook on the city you love. So lend the city your ears.

Cynthia Prost, President and CEO of the Arts and Education Council of St. Louis, stopped by to speak with Nancy about the organization and its works. Cynthia Prost The Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis is a unique asset in our community. The Arts and Education Council is our region's only united arts fund supported by private contributions from individuals, corporations, foundations and institutions committed to the value and benefit of the arts to our community. The Arts and Education Council serves as the base - the root, if you will - through which funding, training and collaboration happens for nearly 100 arts organizations that enrich the cultural landscape of St. Louis each year. Arts and Education Council grantees not only produce and present great art, they also maintain viable, impactful arts education and outreach programming for K-12 students throughout the bi-state area. Research continues to show that children who participate in the arts enjoy greater academic success, higher self-

Carrie Houk, Executive Artistic Director of the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis, stopped by to talk with Nancy about the festival details for 2021, which runs August 19th through the 29th.  Carrie Houk This year's theme for the festival is "The Moon and Beyond," and features an outdoor performance of "The Glass Menagerie," Williams’ greatest, most famous, and most personal play.  The performance will be at the  actual site that inspired the writing of the play, The Tennessee, at 4633 Westminster Place in St. Louis.  Performances are August 19, 20, 21, 22, 26, 27, 28, 29 at 8:00PM.  Other topics covered include panel discussions and a walking tour of sites in the Central West End associated with Tennessee Williams. About Tennessee Williams:  Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tennessee Williams’ renowned work reflects his two decades of coming of age in St. Louis, and his creations range from the famed classics, to adaptations for film and opera, to dozens of newly discovered plays and writings that have

Susan Barrett, President of Barrett Barrera Projects, stopped by to talk with Nancy about the projects they are involved in. Susan Barrett               A piece from Freedom is for Everybody Among the topics discussed is the exhibition Freedom is for Everybody, an exhibition of work by Swedish-American artist Michele Pred. In her artistic practice, Pred uses sculpture, assemblage and performance to uncover the cultural and political meaning behind everyday objects, with a concentration on feminist themes such as equal pay, reproductive rights, and personal security. As Pred’s work implores us, now more than ever we must raise our voices to protect the freedom of all bodies, especially those historically disempowered.    Sculptural pieces from a series titled Power of the Purse include vintage purses emblazoned in neon with phrases culled from the current social resistance movements, such as Time’s Up (2018) and call us to both reflection and action. In this context, the vintage mid-century purses become symb

Wassan Al-Khudhairi, Chief Curator of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, stopped by to talk with Nancy about the museum and one of the current exhibitions, Stories of Resistance.  Stories of Resistance explores artistic forms of resistance from across the world. Through visual narratives, artists amplify and bring to focus the multitude of conditions that ignite and inspire people to resist. The exhibition activates the entire museum space, inside and out, with video, photography, drawing, sculpture, painting, and installation. Presenting narratives from many social, political, and geographical spaces, the artists include: Bani Abidi, Andrea Bowers, Banu Cennetoğlu, Torkwase Dyson, Emily Jacir, Glenn Kaino, Bouchra Khalili, Candice Lin, Jen Liu, Guadalupe Maravilla, Tuấn Andrew Nguyễn, Trevor Paglen, PSA: (Jen Everett, Aida Hasanović, Simiya Sudduth), Wendy Red Star, Dread Scott, Kemang Wa Lehulere, and Wide Awakes (Maryam Parwana, Combo, Otherward). St. Louis serves as an ideal platform for Stories of

Keith Watson, owner and operator of Arkadin Cinema and Bar, is an attorney by day, and a connoisseur of film by night.  He stopped by to talk with Nancy about this new business. Named after a film by one of their favorite filmmakers, Orson Welles, the Arkadin is a microcinema in the heart of Bevo located at 5228 Gravois Ave.  The cinema shows a mix of cutting-edge indie and foreign fare, timeless classics, and cult favorites in a cozy, comfortable setting. There is a full bar stocked with wine, beer and creative cocktails. You can pick up a drink — and a bag of popcorn, of course! — to enjoy during the show and come back to the lounge after the film to engage in a lively discussion of the weird, wild, wonderful film you’ve just seen over a beer or two. Due to COVID-19, they are currently partnering with their neighbor, The Heavy Anchor, to run safe, socially-distanced outdoor screenings under the stars on their backlot. Some examples of films that have already been shown are… Purple Rain, Rear Window, Indepe

Tom Ridgely, Producing Artistic Director of St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, stopped by to talk to Nancy about the  American Ballet Theatre's ABT Across America Tour.  The St. Louis performances of the tour will happen July 14th in Shakespeare Glen in Forest Park. The performances are presented in partnership with Susan Sherman, COCA and St. Louis Shakespeare Festival. This summer, ABT will bring 20 acclaimed artists to St. Louis for two performances as part of the company’s cross-country road trip, ABT Across America, traveling to 8 U.S. cities this July. These unique outdoor presentations are among the first live performances for ABT in over a year. American Ballet Company, Designated by an act of Congress as America’s National Ballet Company, is recognized as a living national treasure. Since its founding in 1940, ABT annually tours the United States, performing for more than 300,000 people, and is the only major cultural institution to do so. For 81 years, ABT has appeared in 45 countries and has perfor

Monika Weiss, who is an internationally known multimedia artist, stopped by to talk with Nancy about her work and her life.   Monika Weiss Artist portrait, 2019. still from video interview: Adam Hogan and Laura Stayton In a multidisciplinary practice that encompasses video, film, performance, sound, drawing and sculpture, the Polish-American artist Monika Weiss moves between the political and the poetic to explore questions of the body, history, and gendered violence. Her work is intimately engaged with processes of witnessing and remembering as it attends to traumatic histories, thier transmission, and commemoration.  Weiss frequently employs her own body to navigate the aftermath of different traumas, raising questions of how one can articulate these without enacting further violence. The female body does not only become a vehicle of expression, but also forms a key site from which an affective politics may emerge, through touch, vulnerability, and the visceral. Her mixed-media, embodied practice foregroun

  Cassie Brand, Curator of Rare Books for Washington University in St. Louis, stopped by to speak with Nancy about the Olin Library and the Rare Books Collections at the University.           Cassie Brand: Curator of Rare Books                            Olin Library at Washington University Cassie Brand has been Curator of Rare Books at the Washington University Libraries since 2017. She enjoys sharing rare books with others through outreach programs, teaching classes, and curating exhibits. Her research focuses on the intersection of the book as a physical and cultural object and on the histories of book collecting and libraries. Cassie received her library degree from Indiana University in 2011 and is currently working on a PhD. Cassie’s dissertation, which is in progress, is tentatively titled “How Books Became Rare: The History of Special Collections in America 1880–1940.”  Among the topics discussed is the rare copy of the Declaration of Independence held in the library's collections. When the Julian

Dan Reich, Curator & Director of Education at the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum, stopped by to talk with Nancy about the mission of, and the happenings at, the museum.  After 22 years at the museum, Dan Reich will be retiring soon.             Dan Reich.                                          A photo from the museum's archives, depicting a Dachau Death March. Among the topics discussed is the upcoming expansion of the museum.  Set to open in mid-2022, the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum will quadruple the space of the existing facility to 35,000 square feet. The new facility will fuel the Museum’s mission to preserve the legacy of the Holocaust, teach about the Museum’s many purposes, and empower visitors to make the world a more tolerant place by rejecting all forms of hate, racism, and bigotry.   An artist's rendering of the upcoming expansion, set to open in mid-2022. Also discussed is the moving story of Ben Fainer, Holocaust survivor and co-author of "Silent for Sixty Year

Tom Ridgely, Producing Artistic Director of St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, stopped by to talk to Nancy about the 2021 festival its adjustments due to Covid. The Festival this year includes a main stage Shakespeare in the Park performance of King Lear, which stars Tony, Grammy & Emmy winner André De Shields and is Directed by Carl Cofield.  King Lear will run June 2nd through June 27th in Shakespeare Glen in Forest Park. Also discussed, is the 2021 touring production of Othello, and the Shakespeare in the Streets program, which will focus this year on The Ville neighborhood.  Shakespeare in the Streets is a "grassroots theatrical experience that invites St. Louis neighborhoods to tell their stories. A Festival-selected creative team leads the neighborhood in developing an original play based on one of Shakespeare’s works—a play with themes that reflect the community’s character." Nancy and Tom also discuss the history of the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival.    

Kristin Fleischmann Brewer, Deputy Director of Public Engagement for the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, stopped by to speak with Nancy about the exhibition Chloë Bass: Wayfinding, which is open now through October 31st at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation.    Chloë Bass (b. 1984) created Wayfinding, an installation of sculptures inspired by public wayfinding signage. Bass designed a set of more than thirty signs placed throughout the Pulitzer’s outdoor spaces. These works are organized into four sections. Each is anchored by a billboard posing a question that explores human emotions ranging from compassion and desire to anxiety and loss. Accompanying sculptures include archival images and statements written by the artist that encourage private reflection in public space, intensifying everyday moments.   Wayfinding also includes a site-specific audio artwork narrated by the artist and local collaborators.  Click here to learn more about CHLOË BASS.