Located on a picturesque stretch of Wydown Boulevard, the First Congregational Church of St. Louis, a beautiful historic building surrounded by a courtyard and a playground, fits in amongst the tasteful, conspicuously affluent homes surrounding it. With its towering brick walls, arched stained glass windows, and ornate red doors, it is not the first place one might expect to find an experimental art space, particularly one that grapples with difficult social issues. This contrast defines The Red Gate, a gallery showcasing multidisciplinary work from cutting-edge artists around the St. Louis region inside the active church, which continues to host service each Sunday. Now in its second year, the space will introduce a new show, Open Window, on October 18.
“[We] started Red Gate as a way to foster community,” says director Adrienne Outlaw, who co-founded the project alongside Sarah Moon and Elena Piston. “I know that pretty much all art spaces say that, but for me, what I’m really trying to do is get rid of the hierarchy within the art world and have a way for people to really meaningfully interact with each other.”
Outlaw, a sculptor and recent St. Louis transplant, had previously founded an art space in Nashville, Seed Space. After the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, she conceived of The Red Gate as an answer to the need for community engagement and connection. She also drew inspiration from a series of articles from The New York Times opinion writer Jessica Grose that covered the causes and consequences of Americans moving away from organized religion.
“As people are leaving religious institutions, what they are really starting to miss is community,” Outlaw summarized. “And they’re missing intergenerational community, and that idea of a place that you go to gather and be in a safe space.” She hopes that art can help bridge the gap, making a church setting—a historically exclusive space—more welcoming and accessible for religious and nonreligious visitors alike.
Outlaw also wants to make experimental art more approachable by placing it in a nontraditional setting. “If you go into a white-box
Curated by Outlaw and ArtCrush founder Ben Bradshaw, Open Window solicited works from an open call, allowing artists to tour First Congregational Church and pitch their ideas for various locations throughout the building. The result is a diverse collection from more than 30 artists, including sculptures, paintings, photography, film, music, dance, and performance art. Visitors can experience an interactive installation on kickboxing by Mad Green, see sculptures made of braided and repurposed saris by Sukayna Mani, and view an outdoor installation of bright-green string spanning between trees by Bradshaw, and that’s just a sampling of the works on display.
A series of structures from artist Peter Manion make up Open Window’s largest installation. Constructed from pinewood boards, the pieces resemble the skeletons of buildings featuring broken parts, blocked components, and crowded, overlapping elements.
“The work itself is about structure and change. The pieces are moveable, like blocks,” says Manion. “There’s a playfulness to it, an intuitiveness to it.” The work explores the different ways in which individuals “move through life” and navigate the pain, changes, and transformations they encounter. The installation’s intimate setting, a small chapel within the church, allows viewers to examine the work up close while still being able to move around it, encouraging them to take in the pieces from multiple perspectives.
Open Window will launch at The Red Gate at First Congregational Church of St. Louis (6501 Wydown) on October 18 with a free public celebration from 6–8 p.m. The exhibition runs through December 1.
“People from all walks of life gather here for the shows,” Outlaw says. “Progressive religious communities like ours can take such ideas of openness for granted. We want Red Gate to promote radical acceptance and critical creative thought among everyone.”
