St. Louis Arts and Education Council: An Evolution 60 Years In
By Suzanne Vanderhoef

For six decades, the Arts and Education Council has operated in the St. Louis region as a nonprofit dedicated to helping create a vibrant and growing arts ecosystem. It was started by local corporate leaders to help be a conduit to funding not only existing arts organizations, but also to help create new ones.

But lately that corporate atmosphere of arts giving has changed, and with it, the organization has had to make changes of its own.

“For the last 10 years, there’s been a pretty consistent shift in the corporate landscape of funding the arts, into other, different program types,” said Arts and Education Board Chairperson Chris Dornfeld. “In many cases, just cutting funding completely from nonprofit contributions. So, A & E has been examining how we can better serve the community going forward in the face of those changes, and where we can really thrive and help our arts ecosystem continue to be inclusive and vibrant, and really a great asset to the St. Louis region.”

One of those changes is putting a greater emphasis on education. But Dornfeld is quick to point out, it’s more of an evolution than a revolution and the Council’s role is becoming an important way to help people better understand the role that arts and arts education play in helping establish the region as a national leader for young and emerging artists.

 “We’re never going to out Broadway, Broadway, right. But I think Opera Theatre for example demonstrated some incredible abilities, with what they’ve done, nurturing young artists, funding new types of operas, funding new types of programs, I think we could look at a model like that. And think of the entire region. This is a landscape that ties into our entrepreneurs. And that ties into a lot of other technology ecosystems that are evolving here. And I think that creates a multiplier effect for for all those economies.”