Riehlife’s St. Louis Black Fine Artist Feature Series Continues

This conversation with Joseph LaMarque is the seventh in my series of profiles on African-American fine artists and leaders of cultural organizations in St. Louis which now include (in alphabetical order): Rene Dimanche Jr., Ron Himes, Joseph La Marque, Edna J. Patterson Petty, Robert Powell, Freida L. Wheaton, and Rochleigh Z. Wholfe.

You can go to the category ART MATTERS on the sidebar of the web home page to view posts for visual artists…and MEET ME IN ST.LOUIS. There are twleve posts total for these seven African-American artists and cultural leaders based in, or with ties to, St. Louis. Sample posts include (but not inclusive) and by reverse order of appearance are:

Missouri History Museum evening “Journey of African-American Cultural Institutions: Where do we go from here?” generates thirst for continued Kgotla gatherings to pull together and package African-American Cultural Institutions to attract Heritage Tourism Dollars to St. Louis

Rene Dimanche Jr.—Longing for Home Key to Finding Powerful Visual Voice

RochleighZ. Wholfe, Visionary Artist Viewing the Future

Robert Powell: Community leader, founder and executive director of Portfolio Gallery and Education Center, St. Louis—“Maybe Easy Isn’t What’s Important.”

Edna J. Patterson Petty’s Sewing Up a Creative Storm

Freida L. Wheaton’s Salon 53 opens in St. Louis: “Home is where the art is.”

Freida L. Wheaton’s Winter Solstice Salon 53 gathering.

Ron Himes, director and founder of St. Louis Black Rep Company (story below).

Meeting these people (along with my friend, the artist Lloyd Kleine Harvey) and getting to know them as we worked on these profiles has been a big highlight of my first six months in St. Louis. I want to thank each of them, personally, for sharing their company and comfort, as well as themselves and their work on Riehlife with our community here of around 400 faithful daily readers.