Katie Banister

Arts Innovator

Katie was a doer who was fiercely independent and never sat still. She earned her BS in Recreation and her work included childcare, sales, and social director. Katie coordinated fun - personally, and professionally. Now imagine losing all these abilities.
Katie’s loss became her asset by turning her into a speaker, author, and disability educator. She was the “Access Coordinator” for the Webster Groves, Missouri Park & Recreation Department. In 1997, with fiancé Steve, she co-founded Access-4-All with a mission to educate and empower through programs, publications, and music videos.
Katie serves on the Recreation Council Board of Directors, first president of the Delta Center for Independent Living, and founding member the “DisAbility Project.”
Honors include 2025 Kirkwood High School Hall of Fame inductee, 2001 St. Louis Woman of Achievement; Missouri Jaycees 1998 Ten Outstanding Young Missourians Missouri Governor’s Council on Disability 1993 Advocate of the Year, and Kirkwood, Missouri 1982 Junior Miss.

Sukanya Mani

Community Impact Artist

Sukanya Mani integrates feminist values into her art through intentional choices, education, and empowerment. Using cut paper and found objects, she transforms the act of cutting from violence into creation. Her science background enriches her installations, challenging viewers’ perception of space. Her art explores themes such as domestic violence, unseen labor, immigrant identity, and postpartum care, blending storytelling, science, and visual art. Mani’s process is rooted in research and interviews, ensuring authenticity in the stories she portrays.
Her work has been displayed in notable venues like the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis, Museum of Art DeLand in Florida, and internationally in Germany and India. A TEDx STL 2021 speaker, Mani’s art is featured in significant collections, and she has earned numerous awards for her community-based projects.

Adrienne Davis

Major Contributor to the Arts

Adrienne Davis is passionate about the arts and the St. Louis region and embraces opportunities to combine her two loves. She believes that St. Louis’s cultural institutions are some of its strongest assets and can play a pivotal role in uniting communities and building an equitable urban future for our region. She is a member of the Executive Committee of Opera Theatre St. Louis’s Board of Directors, where she also chairs OTSL’s Diversity Committee and supports Belonging in Opera. She is an Honorary Trustee at St. Louis Art Museum, having served as President of the Board of Trustees and on the Board of Commissioners, including as Secretary. She has served on the Boards of Laumeier Sculpture Park, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, the Saint Louis Visionary Awards, and December magazine, where she is now an advisory editor. In 2020, Davis played a central role in developing OTSL’s and SLAM’s diversity commitments.

Marie-Hélène Bernard

Outstanding Arts Professional

Since 2015, Marie-Hélène Bernard has led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra with a commitment to artistic vitality, community engagement, and access to music for all - in service to its mission of enriching lives through the power of music. Bernard’s tenure has welcomed an era of artistic vigor for the SLSO through innovative programming, acclaimed recordings and tours, and robust community connections across the St. Louis region. With music education at the forefront of her priorities, the SLSO’s programs have grown to engage more than 449,000 students and 1,300 teachers worldwide each year. Under Bernard’s leadership, the SLSO is expected to complete a $140 million renovation and expansion of its historic home, Powell Hall, in September 2025, alongside a $155 million campaign to support the project and its endowment: transforming the experience for audiences and artists while preserving the civic treasure and creating a vibrant music center for the community. She lives in Kirkwood with her husband.

Adelia Parker-Castro

Outstanding Teaching Artist

Adelia is the 71st President of the National Society of Arts & Letters-St. Louis Chapter (NSAL-StL), a nonprofit supporting young artists since 1944. A member for 12 years, she helped establish a student section, enabling students to exhibit alongside professionals in venues like Gallery 210 and the Gretchen Brigham Gallery. She has chaired national career competitions, presented at educational conferences, and served on art education panels globally.
An accomplished artist, Adelia exhibits photography, quilts, sculptures, and installations in galleries such as Zuka Artists Guild, Art St. Louis, and Lubbock Fine Art Gallery. Her work has been shown internationally, including in Senegal and Guatemala, and is held in national and international collections. She was an honorary chair for Bread & Roses 2024 through whom she was honored for her community arts activism and continues to contribute to the arts through mentorship, exhibitions, and advocacy.

Sarah Paulsen

Outstanding Working Artist

Raised in Kirkwood, Missouri, Sarah Paulsen is an artist, filmmaker, community organizer, and now illustrator, whose artwork has been exhibited widely in local and national exhibitions. She was the recipient of the 2018 Great Rivers Biennial, which culminated in an exhibit at Contemporary Art Museum- St. Louis. A 2010 C.A.T. Institute fellow and 2015 Regional Arts Commission Artist Fellow, she has garnered numerous awards for her work and also completed several residencies. Paulsen holds a B.F.A. in visual art from the University of Missouri, Columbia and an M.F.A. from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Art at Washington University. She lives and works in St. Louis, where she teaches art and animation at Marian Middle School and St. Louis Community College. She just completed an Artist in Residence with the Kranzberg Arts Residency, where she illustrated and self-published a book.

Photo credit for all Honoree headshots: Lois Ingrum