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