Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Celebrated sculptor Chakaia Booker will launch the Sam Fox School’s spring Public Lecture Series with a free talk Jan. 19. Subsequent speakers will range from Pritzker Prize-winning architect Francis Kéré to author and illustrator Deb J.J. Lee, avant-garde stage director Robert Wilson and fashion technologist Anouk Wipprecht.

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum has acquired a major recent work by artist and activist Ai Weiwei. Titled “Illumination” (2019), the piece reconstructs, in colorful Lego blocks, an iconic selfie the artist took during his 2009 arrest in Chengdu, China.

“Color can appear anywhere,” says Katharina Grosse. “It is independent from any location.” In this video, Grosse, one of Germany’s most celebrated artists, explores the nature of color, the visceral reactions it prompts and its power to override pictorial relationships and hierarchies.

As a dual-degree candidate in architecture and urban design at the Sam Fox School, Theodore “Teddy” Levy has studied sustainable design principles, zoning and code regulations and digital modeling techniques. He also learned to listen. He is among the degree candidates who will be celebrated during the December recognition ceremony Saturday, Dec. 10.

The “Divided City” initiative at Washington University in St. Louis awarded community grants to seven recipients in the St. Louis metro area to support community work or creative practice related to urban segregation.

Master of Urban Design students travel the world in the Sam Fox School’s “Global Urbanism Studio,” getting the opportunity to deepen their understanding of issues facing cities.

The “Divided City” initiative at Washington University has awarded 2022 faculty collaborative grants to develop a documentary on local bus stops and to plan an Indigenous STL conference for summer 2023.

On Friday, Nov. 11, a new Smart Home for Occupational Therapy Healing — aka SMOOTH House — will break ground in St. Louis’ Delmar Maker District. Designed by WashU students, this energy efficient, net-zero building will feature research, training and clinical spaces for the School of Medicine’s Occupational Therapy program.

Over the last year, a team of architects, medical professionals and engineers from Washington University in St. Louis and Chicago-based architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill have explored questions about building design and people’s health through interdisciplinary design studios and seminars. Now that research is bearing fruit. On Nov. 11, a new Smart Home for Occupational Therapy Healing — aka SMOOTH House — will break ground in St. Louis’ Delmar Maker District.

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will host a preview of “Lest We Forget,” a large-scale public art installation featuring monumental portraits of Holocaust survivors, beginning at 3:15pm Thursday, Oct. 20. The exhibition will include 12 portraits of survivors now living in the St. Louis area.