David Kirkland, the owner and executive chef of Turn Restaurant and David Kirkland Catering, believes food and music brings people together. He began his career in the early-1990's, bouncing from the Café at St. Louis Art Museum (Catering St. Louis) to Frazier’s Brown Bag, and then Venice Café. Kirkland learned everything he could from some of the city's best. In 1996, he moved to San Francisco and began focusing on his music interests, becoming a resident DJ at several clubs throughout the city. However, he never lost his love for the culinary arts, cooking for friends and family and exploring the area's now famous farm-to-table approach to food. After moving back to St. Louis, Kirkland returned to the kitchen with a mission, taking the helm at Café Osage in 2007. He opened Turn Restaurant and David Kirkland Catering in Spring of 2016.------
The Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, Missouri was designed by noted 1904 World's Fair architect Louis C. Spiering and built in 1912 as the home of the Ethical Society of St. Louis. Musicians and public speakers throughout the years have enjoyed the perfect acoustics of the Sheldon Concert Hall, earning The Sheldon its reputation as "The Carnegie Hall of St. Louis."[1][2] Well-known singers and ensembles have performed at The Sheldon, and speakers such as Albert Einstein, Dwight Eisenhower and Ernest Hemingway have spoken from its stage. The St. Louis Chapter of the League of Women Voters was founded in The Sheldon's Green Room. ———
When the Ethical Society relocated to St. Louis County in 1964, The Sheldon became primarily a music venue. Then, in 1974, a former singer with the Duke Ellington Orchestra purchased the facility, transforming The Sheldon into a church and the site for many jazz and gospel concerts. A California attorney with a love for chamber music purchased the building in 1984 at the urging of the Paganini String Quartet. He engaged Walter F. Gunn to restore the building and upon completion Gunn began operating The Sheldon in 1986 as a venue for concerts and community events. ———
Juan William Chávez is an artist and activist whose multidisciplinary practice extends across public sculptures, installations, paintings, drawings, and unconventional forms of beekeeping and agriculture. He often works collaboratively on social-practice projects that address the environment, food rights, and urban ecologies. His exhibitions focus on themes of the urban environment, ecology, sustainability, craft/labor, activism, identity, and archaeology of place. Chavez has exhibited at ArtPace, Van Abbemuseum, McColl Center for Art, Tube Factory Artspace, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Laumeier Sculpture Park, and Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. Chavez’s work was most recently included in El Museo’s survey of contemporary Latinx art, ESTAMOS BIEN - LA TRIENAL 20/21. His interdisciplinary approach to art has gained the attention and support of prestigious institutions like the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, Creative Capital, Graham Foundation, ArtPlace America, Andy Warhol Foundation, and Art Matters Foundation. Chávez holds a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Chavez was born in Lima, Peru, and raised in St. Louis, MO, where is lives and work.