Sam Fox School spring Public Lecture Series begins Jan. 20

Semester highlights include artist Balázs Kicsiny and architect Craig Dykers

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ Public Lecture Series presents free weekly lectures by nationally and internationally recognized artists, architects, historians and critics.

This spring, the Public Lecture Series will feature talks by acclaimed Hungarian installation artist Balázs Kicsiny and by celebrated architect Craig Dykers, co-founder of Snøhetta in Oslo and New York.

Other highlights will include lectures by landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh, architect Monica Ponce de Leon, illustrator Jessica Hische, art historian Susan Laxton and sociologist Richard Sennett, whose work frequently examines the effects of urban living.

The series will begin at 4:30 p.m.Friday, Jan. 20, with a special presentation by Kyna Leski, a principal of 3SIXØ Architecture in Providence, R.I.

As professor and head of architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design, Leski authored the first semester architecture design curriculum and a related book, The Making of Design Principles (2007).

Her talk will serve to launch the Laskey Sophomore Design Challenge, sponsored by Studio L. During this intensive, weekend-long collaborative session, all current sophomore art and architecture students will work in teams to brainstorm ideas for a given design challenge.

The series will return to its regular 6:30 p.m. time slot Monday, Jan. 30, with a talk by Kicsiny, who was in residence last spring as the Sam Fox School’s Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Visiting Artist.

Kicsiny’s latest installation, Killing Time, opens Jan. 27 at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. The piece was developed in conjunction with a class on the performative aspects of contemporary practice, which Kicsiny co-taught with lecturer Robert Gero. Components of the installation were fabricated by students in the class.

A reception for Kicsiny, co-sponsored by the Hungarian-Missouri Educational Partnership, will take place at 5:30 p.m. in the Kemper Art Museum.

Dykers, the Ruth and Norman Moore Visiting Professor of Architecture, will discuss his work Wednesday, Feb. 1. Major projects include design of Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet in Oslo and the recently opened National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion at the former World Trade Center site in New York.

In addition, later this spring, Dykers will chair the jury for the Sam Fox School’s 2012 Steedman Fellowship in Architecture International Design Competition.

All talks are free and open to the public. Unless otherwise noted, each will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Steinberg Hall Auditorium and will be preceded by a reception at 6 p.m. Steinberg Hall is located near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards

The Public Lecture Series is supported in part by funds from: Washington University’s Provost’s Office Diversity & Inclusion Grants and Washington University Student Union.

For more information, call (314) 935-9300 or visit samfoxschool.wustl.edu.

Spring 2012 Public Lecture Series

4:30 p.m. Jan. 20
Kyna Leski
Principal, 3SIXØ Architecture, Providence, R.I.
Professor and head of architecture, Rhode Island School of Design
Laskey Sophomore Design Challenge Lecture

Jan. 30
Balázs Kicsiny
Artist, Budapest, Hungary
Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Visiting Artist Lecture
* 5:30 p.m. reception, Kemper Art Museum

Feb. 1
Craig Dykers
Co-founder, Snøhetta, Oslo and New York
Ruth and Norman Moore Visiting Professor Lecture

Feb. 6
Michael Van Valkenburgh
Principal, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Brooklyn, N.Y., and Cambridge, Mass.
Charles Eliot Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University

4:30 p.m. Feb. 13
Diane Victor
Artist, South Africa
Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Island Press Visiting Artist Lecture

Feb. 13
Monica Ponce de Leon
Design director, MPdL Studio
Dean and Eliel Saarinen Collegiate Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan
Cannon Design Lecture for Excellence in Architecture and Engineering

Feb. 15
Brigitte Shim
Principal, Shim-Sutcliffe Architects, Toronto
Associate professor, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto
Coral Courts Lecture

Feb. 20
Jessica Hische
Illustrator, Brooklyn, N.Y.

7 p.m. Feb. 27; Reception 6:30 p.m.
Mabel Wilson
Associate professor, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University

Feb. 29
Wang Shu
Chief architect, Amateur Architecture Studio
Professor and dean, School of Architecture, China Academy of Art
Fumihiko Maki Lecture

March 5
Susan Laxton
Assistant professor of art history, University of California, Riverside

March 7
Robert Bruegmann
University Distinguished Professor of Art History, Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Illinois at Chicago
AIA St. Louis Scholarship Trust Lecture

March 21
Claudia Bernardi
Professor of community arts, diversity studies and visual and critical studies, California College of the Arts, San Francisco and Oakland

March 26
Adam Budak
Curator for contemporary art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
* Reception in the Kemper Art Museum

March 30
Gregg Pasquarelli
Founding partner, SHoP Architects
Keynote Lecture: Digital Desires Symposium
Graduate Architecture Open House Lecture

April 4
Chelsea Knight
Artist, New York
Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Teaching Fellow Lecture

April 11
Barbara Kasten
Professor of photography, Columbia College, Chicago

April 16
Trenton Doyle Hancock
Artist, Houston, Texas
Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Island Press Visiting Artist Lecture

April 18
Richard Sennett
Professor emeritus of sociology, London School of Economics
University Professor, New York University
Eugene J. Mackey Jr. Lecture

April 23
Julia Bryan-Wilson
Associate professor, modern and contemporary art, University of California, Berkeley
Multiple Feminisms Lecture