![A gallery view of the “Varsity Art 29" exhibition featuring works by 62 local student artists and 5 professors that was supposed to run until March 27. But, the Art St. Louis abruptly shuttered its operations after "circumstances beyond [the non-profit's] control" that placed an "immense financial burden" on the organization.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7e56022/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1432x955+0+0/resize/840x560!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F8f%2F0a%2Fa21f8113446f95a105e7c46173b6%2F032425-prov-arta.JPG)
Art St. Louis, a nearly 50-year-old nonprofit community arts organization, announced it has shut down and laid off all of its staff due to unforeseen financial challenges.
“While the Board restructures the organization and determines what path forward, if any, exists, administrative and curatorial tasks will be managed by the ASL Transition Committee,” the nonprofit’s board wrote in what appears to be labeled as a draft statement sent to artists on Sunday night from an email address tied to Robin Hirsch-Steinhoff, Art St. Louis’ artistic director of almost 40 years.
The document was obtained by St. Louis Public Radio, but Hirsch-Steinhoff said Tuesday that the board sent the notice using her work email after her termination. She said she did not see the letter to artists until the publication of this article.
The notice says that the organization’s financial strain was caused by “circumstances beyond ASL's control” and that the board could “no longer, in good faith, ask our dedicated employees to continue to shoulder the burden of uncertainty without a clear path to paying their wages going forward.”
While Art St. Louis reported breaking even in 2022, according to tax documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service, the organization’s deficit grew to more than $35,000 in 2023.
As a result, Art St. Louis’ current exhibition, “Varsity Art 29,” has been immediately shuttered and artists will be contacted this week to arrange the return of their work. The nonprofit’s gallery and Catalyst Coffee — a coffee bar it was running in a joint space at 2801 Locust St. — have also closed.
The coffee shop concept was floated in the early 2010s, and a crowdsourced campaign raised more than $19,000 to execute the idea in the historic Park Pacific building. The shop and gallery operated out of the space at 1223 Pine for more than a decade before moving to its final location in the city’s Midtown Alley last year.
Mary Beth Hercules was one of the gallery’s latest cohort slated to participate in “The Sideshow,” an upcoming juried Art St. Louis exhibit that challenged artists to “consider and explore ideas of wonder, awe, mystery, absurdities, and oddities, as well as works that consider sideshows, circuses, cabinets of curiosity, and more.”
The show was the first gallery Hercules submitted and was accepted to — welcome news for the longtime interior architect beginning to pivot to an art career.
“To say the email I received last night was a gut punch is an understatement,” she said. “I am sad that this establishment is in trouble, but I think that we deserve a much more detailed explanation that brought them to this point.”
Neither Andrew J. Williams, Art St. Louis’ board president, nor the nonprofit's transition team immediately responded to requests for comment.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
