Arts Interview with Nancy Kranzberg

Mario Farwell, play-writer, librettist, and screenwriter stopped by to speak with Nancy about his life and career.  ------

Mario Farwell is a native of St. Louis Missouri. He attended the University of MO at Kansas City and received a B.A in Theater. While in Kansas City, he founded The Black and Avant-Garde Theatre. After graduating college, he moved to New York City and lived there for eighteen years. His plays and musicals have been produced off-off Broadway in NYC, San Diego, CA, Minneapolis, MN, and St. Louis, MO. Mario Farwell is the founder and current director of St. Louis Writers' Group in St. Louis, MO. The group's mission is the development of local scriptwriters' works. ———

Mario has been writing plays, musicals, and screenplays for over thirty years. His insight into the complexity of the human psyche began at an early age. As a young boy, he would spend hours at his mother's beauty shop. There he carefully observed the many eccentric characters that patronized the shop. He soaked in all the wonderful gossip and stories that the neighborhood women would spin. His play The Seamstress of St. Francis Street was strongly influenced by this experience. The Seamstress of St. Francis Street was fully staged by First Run Theatre in August 2007. The play also won the Inaugural E. Desmond Lee Playwriting Competition, and the award-winning play was turned into a feature film entitled Pennies for the Boatman. The film has won several awards which includes Best Film and Screenplay at the Madrid International Film Festival. ———

The Seamstress of St. Francis Street was produced in 2010 in Ghana, Africa by the University of Ghana at Legon. ———

His plays have won The Emerging Playwright Awards at Urban Stages in NYC, been included in the Summer Play Festival at Jungle Theatre in Minneapolis, MN, won Best Play at Scripteaser in San Diego, CA, and nine of his plays have been selected for production at First Run Theatre in St. Louis, MO. ———

Mario's full-length plays include Last Days of Café Café, Life Among the Trees, The Healing of Joey Padowaski, The Seamstress of St. Francis Street, You Know I Can't Eat Buffalo Meat When There's a Terrorist on the Loose, Apollo's Way, and Icarus Wings. He has written numerous one-acts: I AM GOAT, Service With a Smile, Beans, Naughty Boy, Naughty Girl, The Body Exchange and Don't Hate Me 'Cause I'm Beautiful are a few of his short plays. ———

He has also written a screenplay entitled, The Eyes of Forever. He is currently working on completing two musicals, the first Joan of Arc a musical drama based on the life of Joan of Arc and the second musical entitled Starfest is a sci-fi adventure infused with Afro-American culture and music. Recently, Mr. Farwell has produced and directed a showcase production of his musical Joan of Arc.

Rick Recht, musician and Executive Director of Jewish Rock Radio, stopped by to talk about his career and his involvement at the internet radio station. -------

About Jewish Rock Radio: -------

Mission: Jewish Rock Radio is the flagship initiative of Judaism Alive, a non-profit 501c3. The mission of Jewish Rock Radio (JRR) is to strengthen Jewish identity and engagement for youth and young adults through the power of music. -------

BACKGROUND: Jewish Rock Radio, the first high-caliber, 24-7, Jewish rock internet radio station was founded in 2009 by Jewish music pioneer, Rick Recht. JRR serves as a powerful network, promoting and elevating the international Jewish artist community while sharing a wealth of engagement opportunities available in the Jewish world for teens and young adults. -------

JRR has launched a variety of impactful initiatives including JRR Live Across America, The JRR Gift of Music, and the Jewish Star North American Talent Search to identify, attract, and support new talent in the Jewish world. -------

Kristen Sorth, Director and CEO of the St. Louis County Library System, stopped by to speak with Nancy about the goings on at the SLCL. ----

Among the happenings are the community outreach programs, including the diaper give-aways, and period supply give-aways for those that need them.----

Also discussed are the covid protocols and the ways the library has handled things during the pandemic, with curbside book programs, and online functions... as well as the massive renovation project happening within the system. ----

"I really believe I have the greatest job ever," says Sorth, who celebrated 20 years with the St. Louis County Library in 2018. "All I have to do is walk into a branch and see the level of engagement between our staff and the community to know that all of our efforts are worth it." When Sorth became Director in 2013 – the first woman to hold the title  for the library system – she took over management of its more than 650 employees and $50 million annual budget and faced an enormous task ahead – a $120 million capital improvement project to renovate or replace 19 of the library's 20 branches. (The project is on track for completion in 2022.).

Renée Franklin, Chief Diversity Officer for the St. Louis Art Museum, stopped by to speak with Nancy about her role at the Museum, and the Romare Bearden Graduate Museum Fellowship, among other topics.

Renée Brummell Franklin is the Chief Diversity Officer at the The Saint Louis Art Museum, a new position that will oversee the implementation of a report on diversity, equity, access and inclusion that was adopted in summer of 2020 by the museum's board of commissioners. Franklin works closely with all museum departments to implement the report, which details immediate, actionable initiatives as well as longer-term considerations.

Franklin joined the museum as coordinator of community outreach programs in 1998. During her time at the museum, she has served in a sequence of roles of increasing responsibility. Most recently as director of audience development, Franklin led the museum's efforts to expand and cultivate sustainable relationships with diverse audiences.

Franklin helped develop several successful initiatives at the museum, including the Friends of African American Art Collectors Circle, the Art with Us youth residency program, and the Teen Assistant Program, a mentoring program that includes paid, summer employment. Franklin has long overseen the Romare Bearden Graduate Museum Fellowship, a national model for increasing under-represented professionals working in museums.

Franklin received a master's degree in education and master's degree in business administration from Webster University and a bachelor's degree in marketing and business administration from Towson University.

Professor Timothy G. Solberg of Washington University stopped by to speak with Nancy about a new course that aims to teach people about how to manage the arts as a business.

Tim Solberg has been appointed as the academic director for the business of the arts minor at WashU Olin. The business of the arts minor integrates specialized coursework, experiential learning and rich networking opportunities for undergraduate students looking to gain a deeper understanding of how business principles apply to a range of arts-related fields.

Launched in 2018, the program offers students a framework of business, financial, marketing and strategic approaches for managing a career out of their artistic pursuits.

Tim joined the Olin faculty in 2018. He is a professor of practice in finance as well as the academic director of the corporate finance and investments platform. He will lead the business of the arts minor program in opportunities that engage faculty, students, alumni, and community members.

The minor launched with a generous donation from Richard Ritholz, BSBA '84, his wife Linda, who expressed a commitment to challenging students to practice their artistic endeavors with rigor and business savvy. The Ritholz's donation is targeting the creation of new courses, experiential learning opportunities in the arts, scholarship funding and internship stipends, and paying for faculty members to teach and publicize the program.

"I am excited to be the academic director of the business of the arts program. I have always had a deep commitment to the arts, whether performing or design, or literature," Tim said.

"We are designing a program that will have on-site experiential learning with fashion and garment design and creation, gallerists and museum managers, theater and media producers to learn the backstage operations methods. With my teaching experience in arts management at the premier arts and media management school in Chicago, Columbia College, and my own musical education, I am eager to mix finance and management with the arts and provide a hands-on experience for the students."

In addition to his background in the arts, Tim has worked 30 years in finance, including as a corporate banker and investment advisor for endowment and foundation trustees on their asset allocation and spending policies.

Shaka Myrick and Delyn Stephenson, Romare Bearden fellows at the Saint Louis Art Museum, stopped by to talk with Nancy about their fellowships and the work they are doing at the museum.

ABOUT THE ROMARE BEARDEN GRADUATE MUSEUM FELLOWSHIP: The Romare Bearden Graduate Museum Fellowship is a critical component in the museum's long-established commitment to increase diversity among its professional staff. Past fellows have gone on to hold key positions at the Saint Louis Art Museum, as well as at other noteworthy museums and universities, including the Art Institute of Chicago, National Gallery of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art and University of Texas at Austin. Named for African-American artist Romare Bearden, the paid fellowship is designed to prepare graduate students of color seeking careers as art historians and museum professionals. Fellows gain valuable hands-on experience working throughout the Art Museum on specific assignments tailored to their background and interests. Since the program's inception in 1992, Bearden Fellows have spent their year teaching, researching works in the collection, developing programming, writing gallery materials and assisting curators with the development of exhibitions. This year's expansion of the fellowship is funded in part by the Romare Bearden Fellowship Endowment, which was created with a $100,000 gift from the Frost family.

About SHAKA MYRICK Shaka Myrick (2021-2023) earned a bachelor's degree in painting at the University of Missouri in Columbia and spent the next decade working and interning at the NYCH Art Gallery in Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City. She earned a master's degree in art history from the University of Missouri–Kansas City, where she concentrated on West African culture and presence in Brazil. Last year, Myrick curated Real Black, the first exhibition featuring all Black artists at the UMKC Gallery of Art.

About DELYN STEPHENSON Delyn Stephenson (2021-2022) earned a bachelor's degree in art history and archaeology at the University of Missouri in Columbia and a master's degree in history through the Museums, Public History, and Heritage program at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. While at UMSL, Stephenson worked with the Griot Museum of Black History to create the exhibition Still We Thrive: The Neighborhoods of Fountain Park, Lewis Place, and The Ville. She also completed an internship with the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and worked at the National Blues Museum in St. Louis.

Susan Barrett, President of Barrett Barrera Projects, stopped by to speak with Nancy about BBP's acquisition of the photographs of Ann Ray concerning the life and work of the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen, among other subjects

Ann Ray is a French visual artist. She is self-taught in photography, except for alternative processes, which she studied during her studies at Central Saint Martins in London. During the late nineties, she lived in Tokyo and London, where she forged an unbreakable relationship with Lee Alexander McQueen, whom she immediately recognized as a pure artist. This was the start of an intense friendship and artistic collaboration that was as prolific as it was unique. From 1997 until the designer's tragic end in 2010, Ann Ray's caring gaze captured the spirit of the man and the essence of his work in many intimate situations: portrait sessions, at work in the studio, during performances – images of truth that reveal McQueen's creativity. Ray first revealed part of her work with McQueen to the public during the exhibition Les Inachevés: Lee McQueen, at the 2018 edition of the Rencontres d'Arles. In 2019, she presented the exhibition Blind Faith, at Ca'Pesaro in Venice, showing a series of portraits she took of different artists with their eyes closed. She is currently working on a creative documentary, a feature film, and she is preparing the publication of a collection of poems and images, as well as her first novel.

Lee Alexander McQueen is a British fashion designer who founded the iconic, eponymous label and served as chief designer of Givenchy from 1996 to 2001. McQueen was known for designing outside the conventions of the fashion world, often taking inspiration from avant-garde installations, theatre, performance art, and gothic fairytales. The immersive experience of his runway shows allowed fashion to transcend commodification. McQueen saw fashion as an artistic medium—one capable of evoking thesublime and providing commentary on identity, culture, values, and politics. His work has been shown at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum in the solo exhibition Savage Beauty

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Hannah Klemm, the associate curator of modern and contemporary art, curates the museum's "Currents" and "New Media Series" exhibitions. Klemm previously was the Fisher Collection Graduate Curatorial Fellow at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where she has worked on the contemporary German art collection. She holds a doctorate from the University of Chicago, a master's degree in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art and a bachelor's degree in art history with honors from Sarah Lawrence College. Klemm has received several fellowships and awards, including a 10-month research fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service at Humboldt University in Berlin.

About Currents 120: Jess T. Dugan -  Through February 20, 2022

St. Louis–based artist Jess T. Dugan is known for their color photographs that explore the power of identity, desire, and connection. In Currents 120: Jess T. Dugan, the museum presents a selection of 20 recent works—portraits, self-portraits, and still lifes—many of which were created specifically for this exhibition. Within a framework of queer and nonbinary experience and from an actively constructed sense of masculinity, Dugan's portraits examine intersections between individual identity and the search for intimate connection with others.

About Art Along the Rivers: Through January 9, 2022

The exhibition includes a surprising range of objects that vary widely in medium, function, and the prominence of their makers. For example, it brings together Mississippian sculpture, Osage textiles, architectural drawings for iconic landmarks, musical instruments, German and Creole furniture, African American decorative arts, prize-winning paintings from the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, and contemporary artists' responses to these historic objects. While at first these works might appear to have few connections, the exhibition arranges them by theme rather than by culture or chronology to establish dialogues around the region's geography, raw materials, and pressing social issues.

About Oliver Lee Jackson: Through February 20, 2022

Oliver Lee Jackson is known for creating complex and layered images in which figurative elements—or what he calls "paint people"—emerge from abstract fields of vibrant color. Jackson's practice is informed by a deep understanding of global art history—from early modern European painting to African art. Yet his works do not aim to elevate a single message, narrative, or meaning. Rather, the works serve as an open invitation to slow and close looking, encouraging viewers to stake emotional claim on the paintings and not wait for instructions on what to see.

David Brinker, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, stopped by to talk with Nancy about the museum as well as the current exhibition Tom Kiefer: Pertenencias / Belongings Sept. 3 – Dec. 19, 2021.

About MOCRA: Through exhibitions, collections and educational programs, MOCRA highlights and explores the ways contemporary visual artists engage the religious and spiritual dimensions. MOCRA serves the diverse Saint Louis University community, and the wider public, by facilitating personal discovery, experience and inspiration, while contributing to a wider culture of interfaith encounter and dialogue.

About Tom Kiefer: Pertenencias / Belongings

In July 2003, fine art photographer Tom Kiefer started working part-time as a janitor and groundskeeper at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility near Ajo, Arizona. In mid-2007, he was given permission to collect food confiscated from migrants and asylum seekers and donate it to a local food pantry. He was deeply moved at finding personal belongings in the trash bins along with the food. These items, necessary for hygiene, comfort and survival, were deemed "non-essential" or "potentially lethal" and seized and discarded by officials. Kiefer began to quietly rescue what items he could, and he resigned from his job in August 2014 to focus on photographing and documenting them in an ongoing project titled El Sueño Americano / The American Dream.

Museum of Contemporary Religious Art Saint Louis University 221 N. Grand Blvd. St. Louis, MO 63103

Eddie Coffield, Artistic Director of The New Jewish Theatre, Stopped by to talk with Nancy about the theatre, in general, as well as the upcoming Season.

Eddie Coffield brings three decades of experience to the J, including 16 years with New Jewish Theatre as Associate Artistic Director. During this time, he has directed more than 15 productions including My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, Yentl, and Driving Miss Daisy (original 2005 NJT production). Many of the productions have been Award-winning – The Immigrant, From Door to Door, Jacob and Jack and many others.

The New Jewish Theatre was an outgrowth of the long history of theatre programming of the Jewish Community Center. In 1997, the need was recognized to develop a professional theatre program with programming that reflected the Jewish experience. Since its inception, the theatre has continued to grow at an exponential rate, both in size and in quality. The original season of three productions of eight performances has expanded to the current season's five productions of 12 performances each.

The New Jewish Theatre's home is the state-of-the-art Marvin & Harlene Wool Studio Theater, located in the Arts & Education Building of the J's Staenberg Family Complex.

Cabaret at the J:  A Little Song, A little Dance, A Little Seltzer Down Your Pants! starring Eric Williams and Sharon Hunter Saturday, December 18, 7:30pm Sunday, December 19, 2pm

The Theatre is located at...  2 Millstone Campus Drive Creve Coeur, MO 63146

Ticket and information hotline: 314-442-3283

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