Artists in St. Louis have a new cultural mecca. After moving from space to space in its seven-year history, ArtDimensions, a St. Louis-based, non-profit organization that aims to energize the local artistic community, has moved to the Third Floor Gallery on Washington Avenue.

ArtDimensions was founded in 2001, after what co-founder Davide Weaver said was a dark time for St. Louis.

“In 2000, St. Louis was very bleak,” Weaver said. “There was a big, gaping hole in St. Louis [culture] for the past 25 years.”
Weaver believes that ArtDimensions’ efforts to enrich St. Louis’ artistic life have helped to improve all aspects of life in the city.

“[Our program] is about revitalizing the city through arts and education . making a better city,” Weaver said. “You look at places where revitalization began and [they had] a lot of artists.”

In recent years, ArtDimensions has produced tangible examples of its “revitalizing” effect on the St. Louis community.

Weaver said that ArtDimensions hosted “the largest outdoor art event in the city of St. Louis” at Taste of St. Louis, an event that ArtDimensions helped to organize for the last three years after several years of inactivity.

Weaver said that ArtDimensions has also tried to bring art into day-to-day life in St. Louis, not limiting the organization’s outreach to festivals.

“Our oldest program is called the ArtRotation program,” he said, in which locations around St. Louis, including coffee houses, restaurants, doctors’ offices and professional businesses, feature new local art every three months.

ArtDimensions Exhibit Curator Justin Tolentino was one of the artists to participate in the newly forged ArtAmbassador Program, which enables artists from St. Louis to travel in Italy yearly in order to cull inspiration from the classic art in the area.

“We’re getting [artists] out of the country for the first time . to see historical art,” Tolentino said. “[It’s] an overall life experience.”

Italian artists who Tolentino met during his trip abroad with the ArtAmbassador Program last year might be coming to St. Louis soon, he said.

Tolentino has worked at ArtDimensions for six years. He said that ArtDimensions “[tries] to build a community for the artists” that St. Louis has to offer. This mission hits home for Tolentino, who “was missing community [in St. Louis after graduating] from a private art school.

“I feel like I’m helping other artists to have a venue,” Tolentino said of work at ArtDimensions.

As curator, Tolentino “tries to bring quality” to ArtDimensions shows. He said that he looks for “new creativity; something that I haven’t seen done before . in St. Louis … [that I can] bring to the community.”

Tolentino said that a healthy artistic community is a primary ingredient for vibrant art.

“One of the great things about ArtDimensions . is you have this niche of artists you can always go back to,” Tolentino said. “It’s very good to be a part of an organization that gives you the means and ability to show to other artists.”

ArtDimensions’ move to Washington Avenue brings the organization full circle.

“We’re right next door to where we started seven years ago,” Weaver said. “Washington Avenue [used to be] a very desolate place.”

“We’re taking over the space and trying to give it a new face and new look,” Tolentino said. “It’s going to be great for us [with] new faces . new art. [On Washington Avenue,] we can showcase artwork to a more affluent clientele.”

ArtDimensions’ latest exhibit, “Show of Love,” which opens today. It is made up of “artwork geared toward the idea of love,” said Tolentino. “[It’s] not necessarily the Valentine framework . any aspect of love . [it’s very] open-ended.”

James Burwinkel, the chair of the Fine and Performing Arts Department at Saint Louis University, said that local art is an essential reflection of the community.

“When you have artists active in the community, it’s an opportunity for the artist to . [reflect] the community where [he or she] resides,” he said.

Burwinkel said that art produced for St. Louis by St. Louisans is “a more direct response to who we are as a community.”

Weaver said that ArtDimensions hopes to purchase its own studio in the future, a move that would facilitate even more artistic growth in St. Louis.

“One of our long-term goals is having a building that the group owns . [that would be] a strong foundation in the city,” said Weaver. This building would probably include classrooms and studio space.

Tolentino invited interested artists in the SLU community to attend ArtDimesions’ monthly meetings at the Third Floor Gallery.

Meetings are held the first Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m.