As 2024 winds down, we reflect on another milestone year for the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis and celebrate more major steps taken towards a thriving arts and culture scene. Impactful grantmaking, investing all ARPA for the Arts dollars back into the sector, enticing arts tourism to our region, being the catalyst for an influx of murals throughout the city, and more – it has been a historic year.
In 2024, the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis distributed more than $9 million total grant dollars in St. Louis.
We did this – and so much more – thanks to the commitment of our Board of Commissioners, the expertise of our staff, the passion of our partners, and the support of people like you who understand the value and vibrancy of an inclusive, collaborative arts community.
Check out our 2024 Impact Page to see the full scope of how the money was allocated and to share in this year’s success for St. Louis.
More than 100 passionate arts and health advocates attended the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis’ inaugural Arts + Health Symposium this past October. The symposium featured a variety of speakers focused on the relationship between the arts and health.
A variety of speakers shared their knowledge, including medical and neural researchers who explore the effects of creativity on the body and mind to local arts agency leaders who are actively using this information to grow across sectors.
The symposium ignited exciting and necessary conversations for our city. From the presentations to the one-on-one conversations, the room was full of positive energy and incredible minds.
In a post-symposium survey, 98 percent of attendees said they would recommend this event to others.
“I hope you keep doing events like this –– on this topic or others. There is a lot of information out there, and there are many areas where the arts cross with other (better funded) topics, which helps us all,” said an Arts & Health Symposium attendee.
Collectively, we explored the transformative power of creativity and renewed our commitment to highlighting the importance of linking the arts to health outcomes.
Sheila Suderwalla focused on race-related trauma during her presentation, “Healing Through Creative Self-Expression: Addressing Race-Based Traumatic Stress.”
“I am grateful to the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis for championing healing arts, specifically how we can heal individually and collectively through creative self-expression,” said Sheila Suderwalla, Artist First Executive Director.
Head here to find recorded plenary presentations and view each speaker’s slides from the symposium.
St. Louis Natives Highlight City Museum Founder Bob Cassilly in New Documentary, “Concrete Jungle Gym”
Bob Cassilly is a St. Louis native sculptor and entrepreneur whose work can be found built into the foundation of the city, from the climbable sculptures at Turtle Playground in Forest Park to the iconic City Museum. Though many residents and visitors have seen Cassily’s work, not everyone knows his story.
But that is about to change.
After three years of interviewing, editing, and filming, St. Louis native documentary filmmakers Mike Gualdoni and Zach White recently finished “Concrete Jungle Gym,” highlighting Cassilly’s life and his journey in creating the City Museum.
Mike Gualdoni and Zach White at Rootwad Park, a hidden gem where some of Bob Cassilly’s work can be found.
“Handmade is something I think a lot about with this project. When you look around at a city, it is truly handmade, and what Bob did was handmade,” said White. “He took pieces of buildings slated for demolition and recreated them into his own kind of city –– City Museum. I think that could only happen in a place like St. Louis because of the rich architecture and history.”
One of Gualdoni’s earliest memories of the City Museum was visiting with his fifth-grade class. Before that, both Gualdoni and White remember seeing Cassilly’s work outside of the Saint Louis Zoo.
“I have a memory of going to the zoo and climbing on all those little critters outside of the entrance,” said Gualdoni. “I played there a lot as a kid, and I had no idea until way later in life, that was all [created by] Bob Cassilly. He has been a part of our lives forever. We just never knew it.”
“Concrete Jungle Gym” was the opportunity to make Bob Cassilly a household name. Using old newspaper articles, St. Louis Post Dispatch records, and Google, they set to work researching the best people to interview for the documentary.
“When interviewing someone, they would mention someone else we needed to talk to, and then that person would mention someone,” said White. “Everyone we spoke with had stories that made it into this project that we wouldn’t have otherwise known from just strictly research.”
Through researching Cassilly and interviewing those close to him, Gualdoni and White say they felt his spirit take over the project and even different aspects of their lives.
“After almost two years of editing, we started to feel like he was helping us. His frantic work pace was showing up in the flow of the documentary,” said Gualdoni.
“Sometimes in my everyday life, I see parallels to stories we heard during filming,” White added. “I bought a house during this project and worked on it and found myself asking ‘Well, what would Bob do?’”
The Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis (RACSTL) proudly supported “Concrete Jungle Gym” with a grant in 2023.
“It takes a lot of money and investment to produce something like this, and the RACSTL grant was great for getting license fees covered, travel expenses for Zach and additional crew,” said Gualdoni. “It was nice to have the freedom to be able to do what we needed to do without having to sweat or worry.”
“Having the [RACSTL] grant and being able to go as far as we did with the documentary is really special,” White added. “Hopefully [the documentary] has a great impact for the city, showing the broader appeal of what is going on in St. Louis, not just with City Museum but with all that Bob was doing with his work.”
“Concrete Jungle Gym” makes its world premiere at the St. Louis International Film Festival on Nov. 10 at 4:00 PM. Tickets can be bought here. Though St. Louis is a big part of this documentary, Gualdoni and White want to share Cassilly’s story with the world.
“It is a very St. Louis story, but it’s also got a broader appeal. The world is so worried about getting permits and signing documents, just to put up a shed. There is a place and time for that kind of thinking, but it hinders a lot of necessary progress the world needs,” said Gualdoni. “I think the world could benefit from Bob’s way of thinking and that is what makes [the documentary] have that universal appeal.”
New National Study Emphasizes the Crucial Role of COVID-19 Relief Funding for the Arts in St. Louis and Ten Other Cities
The Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis (RACSTL) is featured in a new report from SMU DataArts, Federal Recovery Funds for Local Arts and Culture: Tactics from 11 Creative Communities. The report examines how Local Arts Agencies (LAAs) distributed federal relief funding to arts and cultural organizations across 11 geographically diverse cities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The insights gleaned in this analysis demonstrate the responsive and nimble ways LAAs like RACSTL operated throughout the pandemic. The report spotlights RAC’s targeted distribution of funds to low-income communities to replace lost revenue and is accompanied by an online case study detailing the allocation of $10.6M in arts relief funding within St. Louis.
“Once again, St. Louis City residents have spoken [and voted], setting the stage for the arts to continue to be a priority in our region. While some of the municipal and federal ARPA compliance and reporting requirements are cumbersome, RAC is committed to shouldering the administrative burden. We want our region’s creatives to use these dollars to create art that will help our community heal and grow,” said Vanessa Cooksey, president & CEO of the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis.
The report identifies key tactics that were commonly employed by 11 municipalities to distribute a cumulative $100 million of relief funding efficiently and fairly to artists and cultural organizations that are vital to the economy, civic and social engagement, and quality of life. Several common practices emerged in three areas:
Advocacy: LAAs advocated most effectively for federal relief funds through both grassroots efforts and partnerships across government agencies in other sectors.
Process: Many LAAs streamlined applications and reporting requirements to deliver funds as efficiently as possible.
Equity: Distributing funds fairly and equitably included considerations around geographic distribution and prioritizing service to the neediest communities.
“Times of crisis can mobilize communities to focus and act on priorities. In re-distributing federal COVID-19 relief funding, these agencies prioritized equity, removing barriers to funding, and filling gaps in support and recovery opportunities locally,” explains SMU DataArts’ Associate Director for Research, Daniel Fonner. “This report attests to the variety of ways that our local arts agencies play a key role in serving in their communities.”
Along with RACSTL, the other communities and LAAs the report studied are:
Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs (Atlanta, GA)
Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (Chicago, IL)
Cuyahoga Arts & Culture / Assembly for the Arts (Cuyahoga County/Cleveland, OH)
Denver Arts & Venues (Denver, CO)
Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs (Houston, TX)
Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture (Los Angeles County, CA)
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (New York City, NY)
Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture (Phoenix, AZ)
Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council (Pittsburgh, PA)
City of Seattle Office of Arts and Culture (Seattle, WA)
The report was prepared with support from Bloomberg Associates, a philanthropic consultancy that advises cities around the world and is a part of Bloomberg Philanthropies. Bloomberg Philanthropies encompasses all of Michael R. Bloomberg’s giving and works to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people.
Multifaceted and adaptive local St. Louis artist and RACSTL-grantee, Mee Jey, uses an array of mediums and approaches that all circle back to one main theme: community.
Through her art, Mee Jey invites the community to let go and take part in different forms of creative expression. Her approach comes from her experience in small villages in rural India, where she says, visual art, singing and dancing is not just for artists, they are a part of everyday life.
“When I say everyday life, that means everyday life. We celebrate certain days of the month, and we sing songs about those certain days of the month. We make a lot of murals or floor paintings or small paintings on paper and leaves – and that drawing, painting, singing, dancing is just everyday thing,” Mee Jey said. “I never saw it art out of life, in a white cube space, in a very sanitized, very controlled, formal space.”
Making art accessible, part of everyday life and part of community is a huge part of Mee Jey’s practice.
One of Mee Jey’s many community projects is Artologue: Art for All, which she started with her husband in 2013. It is focused on logging travel through art and this project encourages people to dive deep into their imagination to create something of fantasy.
“I had to devise different ways to tell people things like, ‘You can’t use a brush; you have to paint with your hands,’” said Mee Jey. “This helps them let go of the idea of art being a very delicate, very professional activity. It encourages them to do it in whichever way they feel.”
Her latest project is a striking nine-by-thirty-foot art piece titled “Nadee/Nadi” (the word ‘river’ in Hindi/Sanskrit) made from upcycled fabric, which she is using her RACSTL Artist Support Grant to finish.
Mee Jey in her home studio with her latest work, Nadee/Nadi.
“Having financial support from a RACSTL grant goes a very long way,” said Mee Jey. “Whether you are an artist or not, in any career, getting financial support means they see promise in you, they trust that you will do justice to the opportunity you have been given, and I just really appreciate that.”
Some of Mee Jey’s other recent works include a public sculpture feature colorful cables titled “US: United Sapiens” which was co-created with community members and Veterans Community Project staff and volunteers and “Cape of Continuity”, a community-based participatory performance commissioned by Pulitzer Arts Foundation where more than 70 community members helped complete the cape.
As for artistic influences, Mee Jey has quite a few who inspire her with their use of materials and scale, as well as inclusion of community – Louise Bourgeois, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Sheila Hicks, Olafur Eliasson and Anish Kapoor are among some of her favorites.
Mee Jey was also a 2020 graduate of the RACSTL’s Community Arts Training (CAT) program, which trains artists and community members to create and sustain arts programs that promote positive social change.
“When I heard [the CAT cohort] talk about how they approach their own community based on their gender, sexual preferences, religion, politics, or creative interests, I gained a broader understanding of American culture,” Mee Jey said. “Throughout the one year we spent together, I could see how to employ more than one approach in my own practice, which has enriched many of my recent projects.”
Around 2014, she developed carpal tunnel from drawing extremely large-scale fine line pieces and her doctors suggested she stop drawing, but Mee Jey views what are seemingly setbacks or challenges as opportunities and creates ways to work these constraints into her practice.
“I am very adaptive, because every challenge that I face, I direct my practice accordingly, so I don’t fight with things,” Mee Jey said. “I see it more as a hint.”
This mindset carried her from drawing to sculpture. In this new practice, she was utilizing resin and hard metals but with a new pregnancy, her doctors recommended she move away from these materials, moving her to start using repurposed fabric.
“Every challenge that I faced, I took as ‘Okay, time to move on, time to develop a different approach to my own practice,’” said Mee Jey.
Though her approach changes the central idea is the same, community engagement and storytelling guide the art.
“I think every time I’m faced with a challenge, I try to see it as a sign of the direction I should develop myself in, rather than hitting a wall,” Mee Jey said. “My practice is very, very adaptive. It is all rooted in my cultural understanding of material life, community, creative expression, and storytelling.”
In the spirit of community, Mee Jey also welcomes anyone to drop by her home studio to donate fabric and materials they are no longer using. You view her current work and upcoming projects on her website and keep up with her on Instagram.
