Art Road Trip: St. Louis
St. Louis has long been a hub for the visual arts, with a deep bench of contemporary galleries and museums, as well as thriving grassroots art communities. For those planning a road trip from Chicago or elsewhere in the Midwest, a few days in St. Louis this fall can yield a surprisingly rich art itinerary that blends institutional heavyweights with independent spaces.
There is even a road trip-themed photography exhibition to enjoy on your road trip! “In Search of America” is on view at the St. Louis Art Museum through October 19, so get on the road!
– CGN
Anselm Kiefer, German, born 1945; Anselm fuit hic (Anselm Was Here), 2024; emulsion, oil, acrylic, shellac, gold leaf and sediment of electrolysis on canvas; 30 feet 10 1/16 inches x 27 feet 6 11/16 inches; Collection of the artist and courtesy Gagosian 2025.309; © Anselm Kiefer, Photo: Nina Slavcheva
Where to Start
Start your art wandering in the Grand Center Arts District, a walkable cluster of art institutions.
• Pulitzer Arts Foundation:
Housed in a Tadao Ando-designed building, the Pulitzer offers rigorously curated exhibitions. Jennie C. Jones: A Line When Broken Begins Again runs Sept 5–Feb 1, 2026.
• Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (CAM):
Next door, CAM champions emerging and mid-career artists with an international lens. Haegue Yang: Quasi-Heartland runs Sep 5–Feb 8, 2026. The exhibition marks Yang’s first solo museum presentation with a comprehensive selection of works in the midwest since 2009.
• The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) houses an encyclopedic collection. Don’t miss the 20th-century and contemporary wings, and plan for a stroll outside—the museum’s monumental front steps offer a panoramic view of the park’s autumn foliage. Anselm Kiefer: Becoming the Sea opens October 18 (pictured above).
• The St. Louis University Museum of Art, founded in 2002, is housed in a stunning Beaux Arts style building from the turn of the 20th century. The permanent
collection includes artists such as Chuck Close, Robert Motherwell, Jasper Johns, Kiki Smith, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.
Jennie C. Jones has an exhibition at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation
The Grove & Cherokee Street
From the Grand Center Arts District you can take a short drive south to explore revitalized areas like The Grove and Cherokee Street, both known for their vivid murals, vintage shops, and artist-run spaces. Local initiatives nearby like Paint Louis have turned highway underpasses and brick buildings into open-air canvases.
The Luminary is just one space that features forward-thinking programming, from installation, conceptual work, to socially engaged projects. The Luminary also supports residencies and has an on-site publishing initiative.
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum
Part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, this is one of the nation’s leading university art museums. A teaching museum, it serves as a center of cultural and intellectual life on campus and in St. Louis. The museum dates to 1881 and holds more than 8,700 works in its collection.
Stan Strembicki: Art History Revisited features work by the St. Louis-based photographer and is just one of four exhibitions on view at Bruno David Gallery Sept 13–Oct 25, 2025
Friday Nights and Gallery Hopping
If you time your trip around First Friday, many galleries and museums in Grand Center stay open late, hosting free events. First Friday also extends into the Central West End, which was recently damaged during devastating May 2025 tornadoes. Duane Reed Gallery, Houska Gallery and Square One stay open late each month and are within a 5 minute walk of each other. 15 or so minutes away is Bruno David Gallery which has been showing art since 1984 and hosts openings on some Friday nights. William Shearburn Gallery, a Midwestern mainstay, is also nearby.
The co-op Soulard Art Gallery, east by the river in the city’s oldest residential neighborhood also participates in First Friday, and it’s close to award-winning Tucker’s Place steakhouse and the famous Soulard pre-lenten Mardi Gras celebration, which usually runs from mid-winter into spring.
Tony Tasset, Deer, 2015, fiberglass, steel, paint, 12 x 20 x 8 feet. On view at the Laumier Sculpture Garden.
Where to Stay and Get Outside
Art lovers will appreciate the funky, historic atmosphere of Hotel Saint Louis, a boutique property in a restored 1893 building.
A stay at the Angard Arts Hotel, keeps your art experience running 24/7. Their rooftop ART Bar offers great views of the city and the Mississipi River.
If you have kids in tow (and even if not), get outside to the Laumier Sculpture Garden where everyone can marvel at 60 large-scale sculptures while enjoying fresh air and space to stretch in a 105-acre park in the heart of St. Louis. Free and open daily.
Other creative ideas? The Jefferson Barracks Telephone Museum is an off-beat space featuring phones from the late 1800s to 2012.
There is also the Neon Museum of St. Louis, open certain dates each month.
