St. Louis Arts and Culture by the Season

For the 2025 Visitors Guide, Explore St. Louis spoke with four leaders at the helm of the St. Louis arts-and-culture scene. Here, Marie-Hélène Bernard, president and CEO of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, shares her favorite ways to experience the arts in the Gateway City. See all the content in the official Visitors Guide here.

Your artsy itinerary will change with the season. Spring ushers in Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, which has become one of the most progressive opera companies in the world. Encompassing four productions sung in English with projected English subtitles, its annual festival season proves that opera can be innovative, inclusive and fun; it can feel truly alive. The sets, costumes, melodies, singing and acting all harmonize to tell a story, inviting you into a surprising new world.

Summer then offers arts al fresco at the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival and The Muny – the latter being a regular destination for my family – and winter urges you indoors to marvel at work by the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Jazz St. Louis and Saint Louis Dance Theatre.

Although there’s a seasonality to our arts scene, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra performs from September through June, accommodating most visitors with our vast programming. Throughout the year, we also partner with arts organizations such as the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and The Sheldon Concert Hall and Art Galleries to put on concerts at their venues, where attendees can get an extra dose of arts and culture.

As a resident of St. Louis, I love exploring different neighborhoods and experiencing the art that they house. The Kirkwood Performing Arts Center, where STAGES St. Louis performs from June through October, is in my backyard, and I really enjoy going there as well as Laumeier Sculpture Park. I’m also a huge fan of architecture. For me, art is never dissociated from architecture.

It’s important to support independent artists and underground musicians, too. Cbabi Bayoc, an internationally known visual artist and illustrator, has a studio on Washington Avenue that I believe everyone will enjoy. He has a beautiful message for the community, and he makes his art affordable for all.

St. Louis sustains an astoundingly high quality of art, and our arts-and-culture scene is remarkably innovative. We consistently produce new creations that are the envy of other communities, and we make them accessible to residents and visitors alike. I’m so proud of the creative work that we do collectively.