As always, there are exciting events taking place throughout all of St. Louis’ neighborhoods (shout out to MOBOT and the Annual Orchid Show Opening), but Grand Center is where it is at this weekend. Whether you are interested in music, art or theater, you can find it in the heart of midtown St. Louis this weekend. I decided to switch it up a bit on this First Friday and present a special Grand Center edition of “Things to do in the Lou.” I hope you decide to tolerate embrace the frigid temps and check out all of the events this weekend that “Keep Art Happening” in St. Louis. 

1. First Friday

Today is the first Friday the month, which means all the museums in Grand Center open for a neighborhood gallery walk of the current exhibitions!

I am especially excited to head over to CAM when I get off work to check out the opening of the Jeremy Deller: Joy in People exhibit. The entire building will be transformed to showcase the contemporary performances, posters, videos, photos and more by the artist from Great Britain. Click the photo (via CAM) below for a preview of what you will see.

Click for the Joy in People exhibition preview

You can also see the following exhibitions tonight in Grand Center:

• Bruno David Gallery: Kelley Johnson “New Paintings”; Tuan Lee “Grazia”; Escobar-Morales “Resurrection of Hun-Nal-Ye”
• Craft Allliance: Ann Coddington Rast: flock
• The Museum of Contemporary Religious Art: Jordan Eagles: BLOOD / SPIRIT
• The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts: The Progress of Love
• The Sheldon Art Galleries: ArtParty: Young Artists Celebrate the Centennial; The Sheldon: A Rich History; The Sheldon: 100 Moments – Photographs by Ray Marklin, Odell Mitchell, Jr., Kathleen M. Sanker and Jennifer Silverberg; Our Vision – Young Photographerrs Capture Sheldon Moments; Edward Boccia: Early Work; Ryan Duffy: Photographs
• The Saint Louis University Museum of Art: Edward Boccia: Figurative Expressionist

2. Jeremy Davenport

Image courtesy of thesheldon.org

The HEC-TV crew will be posted up at The Sheldon on Saturday night to tape this performance! Jeremy Davenport will be the featured artist on an upcoming I Love Jazz. Stay tuned!

3. Sibelius 5 featuring Hannu Lintu

Endlessly inventive and beloved for its wit, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 is full of rhythmic intensity and harmonic exuberance. Pianist Markus Groh makes his STL Symphony debut as Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu returns conducting Sibelius’ Fifth Symphony, a commanding work from his homeland that crescendos into radiant benevolence representing one of the composer’s most uplifting symphonies

Next week (February 7), St. Louis Symphony will announce their 2013-14 season at the annual Town Hall Meeting. It is going to be an outstanding event, complete with a demonstration of the SymphonyCares collaboration with Circus Flora’s Clowns on Call program. If you can’t make it to Powell Hall that night, you can watch HEC-TV’s live broadcast and stream at hectv.org.

4. Dave Holland Quintet

Image courtesy of sfjazz.org

Described as “one of the jewels of the jazz world” by the New York Times, the Dave Holland Quintet will continue to bring the sound of modern jazz to Grand Center this weekend at Jazz at the Bistro. 

For performance times and ticket information, click here

5. The Piano Lesson

Image courtesy of theblackrep.org

Saturday is The Black Rep‘s final performance of The Piano Lesson; what better way to celebrate the first weekend of Black History Month than to support the largest, professional African-American theatre company in the nation? If you missed the production at Grandel Theater, you can watch HEC-TV’s review of the play in the latest episode of Two on the Aisle:

Click the photo to watch a review of the Piano Lesson

For a complete list and ticket information for events in Grand Center, click here.