Trustee and WashU alumna Vicki Match Suna has made a pledge to establish and endow the Carmon Colangelo Award for Creative Research and Innovation at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.
Colangelo, the school’s Ralph J. Nagel Dean and the E. Desmond Lee Professor for Collaboration in the Arts, will step down as dean June 30, after 20 years in the role. The gift honors his leadership and longstanding commitment to faculty development.
“Carmon is a very genuine person,” said Match Suna, chair of the Sam Fox School National Council. “Community, collaboration, the integration of art and architecture — these are all things he’s championed with real passion and a deep conviction in their value and lasting impact for the school. I want to honor his extraordinary legacy in a meaningful way.”
The Colangelo Award will provide grants of at least $25,000 to advance research, scholarship and creative practice. All Sam Fox School tenured and tenure-track faculty are eligible to apply. More details about the application process and timeline will be forthcoming, but the school hopes to begin distributing funds during the 2027-28 academic year. The gift advances the university’s efforts to promote academic distinction through With You: The WashU Campaign.
“It’s such an honor to see my name attached to faculty grants that I know will have a meaningful impact,” Colangelo said. “In conversations with Vicki about this program, our core idea was to incentivize and reward faculty excellence while creating opportunities for students to engage directly in faculty research and creative work. We want our faculty to succeed. We want to further enable them to contribute to their fields, support their trajectories and help build their careers.
“Ultimately, that research and creative activity will find its way into the classroom,” Colangelo added. “Innovative projects often lead to innovative programs.”
Building a culture
Colangelo, a nationally known artist and printmaker, came to WashU as inaugural dean of the Sam Fox School, which formed in 2006. It comprises three primary units: The College of Art, founded in 1879, was the first professional, university-affiliated art school in the United States. The College of Architecture, established in 1910, was a founding member of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. The Kemper Art Museum dates to 1881 and was the first art museum west of the Mississippi River.
During Colangelo’s deanship, the school raised millions of dollars for endowed scholarships, professorships and research initiatives. It launched new academic programs, including the Master of Landscape Architecture, the Master of Fine Arts in Illustration & Visual Culture, and the Master of Design for Human-Computer Interaction and Emerging Technology. And new facilities, including Anabeth and John Weil Hall and the expanded Kemper Art Museum, both designed by KieranTimberlake, dramatically increased the school’s total square footage, adding studios, classrooms, offices, fabrication labs and exhibition spaces.
“I’m proud of how the Sam Fox School coalesced and came together,” Colangelo said. “The new buildings are a physical manifestation of the collaborative spirit and supportive culture to which we aspire.
“We’re very competitive in recruiting students,” Colangelo added. “We should be just as competitive when it comes to championing our faculty.”
A cherished friend
Match Suna, who was born and raised in New York City, earned her undergraduate and master’s architecture degrees from WashU in 1980 and 1982, respectively. As executive vice president and vice dean for real estate development and facilities at NYU Langone Health, she leads planning, design and operation for more than 15 million square feet of clinical, research, educational, administrative and residential space.
“Vicki brings creativity, reflection and humanity into spaces dedicated to healing,” Colangelo said. “In the Sam Fox School, her expertise and leadership, as well as her remarkable generosity, curiosity, intelligence and warmth, have made her a trusted adviser and a cherished friend.”
Match Suna joined the Sam Fox School National Council in 2010 and was named a distinguished alumna in 2014. She served on the committee that helped select the architectural team and advise the design of Weil Hall, where her family established a seminar room to support cross-disciplinary learning. In 2019, she became National Council chair and has played an important role in advancing the Sam Fox School’s strategic plan. She received the school Dean’s Medal earlier this spring.
Match Suna’s ties to WashU are also deeply personal. Her daughters, Zoe, AB ’14, and Rose, BFA ’18, share her longstanding commitment to education, creativity and community.
The Colangelo Award builds on a series of grants that Colangelo established over the course of his deanship. These include funds for research, travel and teaching in amounts of up to $10,000. Match Suna said that the new, larger awards aim to facilitate even more ambitious projects.
“Carmon is very good at building bridges,” she said. “He understands the importance of creating opportunity. My hope is that the Colangelo Award will enable faculty to develop new ideas and bold new proposals that tackle today’s biggest challenges. I’m especially excited about the potential for developing collaborative teams that might bring together undergraduate and graduate students to engage with faculty.”
Accelerating impact
Chad Henry, director of research and innovation at the Sam Fox School, said this support will serve as an important foundation for securing future funding opportunities.
“The Colangelo Award will seed promising efforts that have the potential to grow and attract additional attention and support, including access to additional WashU resources and external funding,” Henry said. “Funding sources for art, architecture and design aren’t as abundant, large or as easily defined as some other academic fields. Yet these fields offer unique approaches and tools to accelerate impact. The ability to establish proof of concept through substantial investments like this can be truly transformative for Sam Fox School faculty and students.”
Colangelo emphasized that selection committee members will be drawn from across the Sam Fox School and will represent a diverse range of expertise and perspectives. He also noted that recipients will have at least 18 months to complete their projects.
Asked what themes jurors might prioritize, Colangelo demurred. “We don’t want to be too prescriptive,” he said. “How does a project advance an individual’s research? How does it advance the field?
“It all comes back to creating a supportive culture,” Colangelo said. “We want to provide the tools and resources that faculty need to succeed.”
Gifts in honor of Carmon Colangelo may be made to the Sam Fox School area of your choice, or to the Sam Fox School Research Awards in Honor of Carmon Colangelo at giving.washu.edu.
