By September, the fall arts season is in full swing around Grand Center Arts District with openings and shows that take place during September’s First Fridays event and throughout the month. Here’s a round-up of events you won’t want to miss:
Classes have officially begun at Big Muddy Dance Company, with a variety of offerings including Beginner Ballet, Mat Pilates, and Enhanced Mobility. Classes are designed to target all levels and are just $14 per session. Their dance season begins Nov. 14-15 with ‘A Christmas Carol.’
Opening Sept. 6: CAM’s fall exhibitions will feature Stephanie Syjuco: Rogue States and Bethany Collins: Chorus in the main galleries and Jonathas de Andrade: Voyeristico projected on the museum’s facade as part of CAM’s Street Views series. The upstairs education gallery features Margaret Keller: Botanica absentia, presented by Teen Museum Studies.
Opening Sept. 6: CEL presents a new exhibition Public Art, Public Memory: Who Is Missing? the work of three photographers from St. Louis, New York, and Paris that invites the audience to inspire thoughts about the value of diversity and reflect on who is missing.
The 2019-20 season kicks off with ‘An Evening of Ballet Stars 2’ on Sept. 28, a unique, one-night-only performance of new works and cherished classical ballet favorites by another outstanding selection of some of the country’s leading principal dancers from some of the most notable companies in the country.
Opening this fall, Carved Up Place is a solo exhibition featuring a series of work by Aida Hasanovic. Using personal experiences and contemplation as a point of departure, Hasanovic brings together and manipulates her surroundings to create a new version of reality.
The 2019-20 season kicks off Oct. 1 with Hello, Dolly and ends with the triumphant return of Hamilton!
Catch the live stage version of the hit movie ‘Shakespeare In Love’ at The Grandel Theatre through Sept. 15.
INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY HALL OF FAME & MUSEUM
On Sept. 21, head to the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum for the opening of ‘Stewart D. Halperin: One World – Five Decades and Six Continents’ and learn more about the photographer who once studied chimpanzees with Jane Goodall. The show is described as “a visual journey through time and space.”
Jazz STL is back in full swing starting in September. Be sure to catch American jazz saxophonist and composer Joshua Redman and his band, The Joshua Redman Quartet, for a 5-date stint at Jazz STL starting Sept. 25 with two shows a night.
Opening Oct. 10, Eric Nauman takes direct shots at the corruption on the world stage. He is directly questioning both the social values that lead to unrest and those that lead to apathy and complacency.
Join the youth theatre troupe for the start of their season on Nov. 17 for ‘It’s A Wonderful Life,’ a live radio theatre version that leaps to life from the original 1940s radio broadcast – complete with microphones, a diverse company of characters, and live sound effects.
Get #musicaltheatreAF with the always fun and hilarious New Line Theatre for their inaugural fall season production of CRY-BABY, the John Waters classic which starts Sept. 26.
Opening Sept. 6: Susan Philipsz: Seven Tears presents five immersive sound installations—including a specially commissioned work created for the Pulitzer. With around thirty prints, sculptures, and collages dating from the 1960s to the present, as well as a select group of works by other artists—spanning cultures and centuries—Zarina: Atlas of Her World is the first exhibition to highlight the art and objects that have inspired Indian-born American artist Zarina throughout her career.
SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART
It’s not too late to view M.C. Escher: Infinite Variations which is on view until Sept. 22, then, The Civil War Imagined and Real showcases an impressive selection of prints and artifacts from Sept. 28 – May 31, 2020.
SHELDON CONCERT HALL & ART GALLERIES
Six new fall exhibitions open Friday, Oct. 4 including Bea Nettles: Harvest of Memory, the first exhibition to survey Nettles’s fifty-year career; It’s Not You, It’s Me: A Declaration of Independence curated by fashion designer Michael Drummond; St. Louis, A Musical Getaway: Africa which features rare and beautiful African instruments drawn from The Sheldon’s Hartenberger World Music Collection; and Invent A Musical Instrument, a display of inventive musical instruments by students from over 30 area schools.
On Sept. 20-21, Stéphane Denève’s first concert as SLSO Music Director, Bienvenue Stéphane, is a joyous celebration. This season’s Artist-in-Residence Jean-Yves Thibaudet plays Ravel, and the SLSO plays Gershwin’s An American in Paris.
Stop by the newest area pop-up gallery on September 6 to view works by artist collective League of 32 Signs, and Stan Jones and Lyn Magee in their beautiful courtyard. This unique space is a beautifully restored private home that will only be open to the public during the First Fridays event – so you won’t want to miss out on this exciting art show.
Be sure to join us on the first Friday of every month for First Friday’s in Grand Center, a night of free art and community in Grand Center Arts District!