Since its founding in 1879, the St. Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is a prominent destination for weekend relaxation that doesn’t cost visitors a cent out of their wallets, and provides a profit of artistic inspiration. Located in Forest Park, the art museum not only offers amazing visuals on the inside, but on its exterior as well.
Approaching the museum from the outside, visitors might as well be tourists in Europe, and not in the Midwest.
Courtesy of St. Louis Art Museum Facebook
Ending this weekend was an exhibit hosted by SLAM since August called “Louis IX: King, Saint, Namesake,” relevant for the city’s 250th birthday celebration this
One section of the exhibit highlighted the reign of King Louis IX in France from 1226-1270; the other, his legacy as a saint and his overall impact on history. As he was extremely devoted to his religion, he led multiple crusades and movements to convert Jews in France. He is the only canonized king of France.
Aside from the Louis IX exhibit, the Saint Louis Art Museum regularly rotates exhibits, often enough that a fresh experience always awaits.
Others on display are “Breton Weston: Photographs”, “Facets of the Three Jewels: Tibetan Buddhist Art from the Collections of George E. Hubbard and the Saint Louis Art Museum”, “Calligraphy in Chinese and Japanese Art” and “Currents 109: Nick Cave”.
Two new exhibits opening on November 21st are “Scenic Wonder: The Hudson River Portfolio” and “Nicholas Nixon: 40 Years of the Brown Sisters.” Advertised around the city lately is the exhibit “Atua: Sacred Gods from Polynesia”, which opened only a few weeks ago.
Courtesy of St. Louis Art Museum Facebook
This recently new exhibit and the two upcoming exhibits draw attention to the amazing variety of type and context of art that SLAM presents to visitors; landscapes from the American romantic era of the early 1800s, a famous photographer’s intimate portraits of family post-1975, and amazing Polynesian sculptures.
All these exhibits were relevant in the past, and continue to be so today.
SLAM refuses to be the type of static, dusty art museum that parents drag kids to on family vacations. Each exhibit contains more than pictures hung up on walls to look at, but legacies, expressions, and ideas of people and cultures from our own country and from countries across the world, from France to China to the South Pacific.
The museum’s permanent collections are just as wide in variety and arranged to be viewed in-between the visiting exhibits. Paintings, prints, photographs, drawings, sculptures, textiles, and even suits of armor make up the collections.
The combination of works integrates different perspectives and personas for the people of St. Louis and tourists to contemplate. Among all the attractions in St. Louis, the art museum possesses elegant charm and wonder that cannot be ignored.