Every Thursday at noon, a group of loyal patrons and newcomers gathers in the intimate Listening Room at High Low to hear from St. Louis thought leaders from across the arts, cultural, and educational spectrum at the High Noon speakers series. Some bring lunches, others just come for the dynamic presentations and performances in a friendly, relaxed atmosphere. Karen Lucas, the program’s curator, says the crowd averages around 30 people, but some programs have brought in as many as 80.
Though High Noon has only been taking place at High Low under KAF leadership since 2022, the program has a deep history in the St. Louis community and origins at University of Missouri, St. Louis (UMSL), where Lucas spent 27 years working and serving as Associate director of the Center for Humanities. When she first came to UMSL, the school had a series in place they called the Monday Noon Series featuring various programming from poetry readings to musicians. They asked Lucas to lead and expand the free program.
After a successful 25 year run, the program was forced to shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, and was eventually discontinued completely. Fortunately, the Center for Humanities had a board of community leaders who met every couple of months to brainstorm about programs that would be helpful to the community and Nancy Kranzberg was the President of that board.
“Nancy was very enthusiastic and she knows everybody in the art and music world, so when I had to come up with a presenter or group of presenters every week, I could just call Nancy,” Lucas recalls.
After the program at UMSL shut down, Nancy Kranzberg reached out and invited Lucas to lunch with her and husband, Ken. She informed Lucas that they would like her to start a series at KAF similar to the shuttered Monday Noon series, but make it bigger and better. Thus, High Noon was born.
“We’re there every Thursday. The only time we cancel is if a major holiday falls on that Thursday. We are trying hard because this is something that KAF focuses on—not only the local residents who get to come to something and enjoy it, but the local artists and arts community professionals who get a chance to be presenters and show off what they can do or what they have done,” Lucas says. “We’re trying to provide more exposure for local artists who may not have a high profile yet, but show a lot of promise.”
High Noon topics and presentations range from music and art to drama and literature and each session includes a question and answer period for the audience. In addition to KAF-connected artists, the series has welcomed speakers from most of St. Louis’ major cultural institutions including the Saint Louis Art Museum, The Sheldon, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, and Laumeier Sculpture Park, among others.
“We have some people who come with a friend or partner who just make it their weekly outing and people have gotten to know other regulars in the audience, so small groups will go out to lunch afterwards together—people who never knew each other until they met there,” Lucas says.
High Noon is free and open to the public each week. To view the upcoming schedule of speakers, please visit https://kranzbergartsfoundation.org/highnoon/.
