ST. LOUIS – On a sunny Tuesday afternoon, 92-year-old Art Stauder is painting in Tower Grove Park.
“I’ve been doing it about 15 or 17 years,” he said.
Stauder paints at the park once or twice a year with its beauty surrounding him and his painting supplies.
“We usually come and paint some of the lily pads when those are blooming and the ruins of the southern hotel,” he said.
One area of the park, however, is not known for its beauty, at the corner of Arsenal and Bent. It’s in the process of getting a makeover as part of the park’s 2017 master plan.
“It’s only about 100-day construction project,” said David Lauber, director of development for Tower Grove Park.
Stauder may be the only painter in the park Tuesday, but not the only artist.
“Today, we broke ground on basketball courts,” Lauber said. “When you have more amenities like this, the more people can engage with the park.”
Lauber played an integral role in bringing two basketball courts to the park. The courts will be built by October. No fences and no lights for the courts as they are built to be consistent with the park’s Victorian-style design.
“The response has been overwhelmingly positive,” Lauber said.
As Stauder adds another brush stroke to his canvas, a painting a few hours in the making. Just a few hundred feet away, Tower Grove Park and its team of architects and landscapers add the final touches to its canvas that’s years in the making.
“Anything that improves the park and makes it more useable for the public, I think it’s wonderful,” Stauder said.