Arts and Culture

St. Louis singer Neil Salsich gained national attention this year performing on “The Voice,” the NBC show that pits singers against each other for a record deal. St. Louis Public Radio’s Chad Davis spoke with Salsich about his time on the show, his musical roots and his band the Mighty Pines.

The Regional Arts Commission gets most of its funding from the hotel-motel tax. With tourism down since the outset of the pandemic, a new marketing campaign aims to raise the profile of St. Louis as an arts destination.

East St. Louis musician David Dee, a longtime fixture on the Midwest blues scene, has died. His musical resume was long. He performed with his vocal group David and the Temptations in the 1960s and later played with Howlin’ Wolf and Albert King.

“Confluences,” an exhibition of Faye Heavyshield’s work at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, includes new pieces that reflect on Cahokia Mounds and the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

Opera Theatre of St. Louis will present three short operas, all by artists of color who’ve worked largely outside the opera world. The works address the roots of Black, queer ballroom culture; three important inventors who were Black women, and the Supreme Court battle over a rock band’s attempt to reappropriate a racial slur.

An East St. Louis radio station helped hook listeners in the St. Louis region on hip-hop back in 1979. That’s when New York record executives Joe and Sylvia Robinson sent the song “Rapper's Delight” to WESL. Former WESL owner Gentleman Jim Gates discusses the moment.

“A Brush of Violence” is the first film to be sponsored by St. Louis Filmworks.

Chicago-based artist Kelly Kristin Jones addresses the role of white supremacy in society in her exhibition "nwl," short for "nice white ladies."

St. Louis brings Elizabeth Savage’s “The Bee Play” to the stage for the first time.

Victor Goines, a longtime member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and distinguished educator, will lead Jazz at St. Louis.