Luke St. John is a busy man. The quasi-monthly exhibition series he helps curate, Build the Fire, recently saw a 400-plus crowd when it moved to the Arts Council building for a night of visual and performing arts, poetry, music and more.
“The traction and the response was much quicker than expected,” St. John says. “It was packed; we used the entire second floor.”
Build the Fire is the product of Modern Day Scribe, the company St. John started with photographer and videographer Patrick “Melon” Dufauchard. They also produce an occasional visual arts-focused show called Art Has a Home (the next one is Sept. 12, and is sponsored by the LSU School of Art).
For St. John, the idea for putting together exhibitions and shows like this began when he was pounding the pavement for his first love: music. He’s been a big part of the Baton Rouge hip hop scene for several years as an emcee and performer.
“I always do shows, and I wanted to have a show or a type of event that I would want to perform at and be excited about,” he says.
What started out in smaller venues and with sparser audiences grew into what it is now—an eclectic mix of arts disciplines sharing their work in a collaborative environment for one night.
In the process of getting the event off the ground, St. John got the attention of the public art-focused local group the Walls Project, which brought him on board as a cultural liaison for his ability to tap into sectors of the arts community that might have gone unseen.
“They learned about my music and they learned about Build the Fire—they saw the importance in that,” he says. “Now I can take a different part of the city that has been excluded, either consciously or unconsciously, and merge these worlds together so both parties can benefit.”
As a Baton Rouge native, St. John’s work as a musician and cultural event curator seems poised to take him places. But he’s firmly rooted in improving the city he calls home, much as he is constantly pushing himself to create better art and music.
“I grew up here, and I want to be able to create a space that I would want to live in, and I believe the arts has a place in that,” he says. “I want to raise a standard of what to expect out of the city by raising the standard of what I expect out of myself.” lukesaintjohn.com
“It’s primarily dictated by intuition, I guess. I just focus on functionality and cleanness I find beauty in simplicity.” St. John says he also loves traditional templates and always tries to add a small personal touch.
His Tibetan meditation, or mala, beads made of sandalwood. He owns five of them, because, as he says, “Sometimes they break because I’m moving all the time. I have them on me usually every day. It helps me meditate, and without meditation, I wouldn’t be able to keep my projects in order.”
