Author: Liam Otten

The Big Read is a national program designed to encourage literary reading by helping communities come together to read and discuss a single book. In January 2009 Washington University in St. Louis — supported by a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts — will coordinate a St. Louis Big Read focusing on Harper Lee’s 1960 classic To Kill a Mockingbird. The month-long series of community-based events will include a wide variety of reading programs, read-a-thons, book discussions, lectures, performances, movie screenings and other activities.

Karl Benjamin, *Black Pillars,* 1957.From retail furnishings to international auction houses, recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in midcentury modernism, an influential design aesthetic that flourished between the mid-1930s and the mid-1960s. During the 2008-09 academic year the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will host two major exhibitions exploring both the breadth and the cultural impact of midcentury modernism, through such mediums as painting, sculpture, architecture, interior design, film, music and the graphic arts.

Elsie Parker and The Poor People of Paris will launch the summer Jazz at Holmes series with a free performance at 8 p.m. Thursday, June 12. The concert will feature French popular music and jazz, including works by Vanessa Paradis and Herve Vilard. Also on the program will be music of French favorites Edith Piaf, […]

The Gateway Festival Orchestra begins its 45th season of free Sunday-evening performances July 6 with a program of American music designed to celebrate the Independence Day weekend. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Brookings Quadrangle.

Courtesy ImageThe Sheldon Art Galleries at 3648 Washington Blvd. currently is hosting an exhibition of recent projects by Jen Maigret and Don Koster, both Cynthia Weese Teaching Fellows in the Sam Fox School’s Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design.

Elsie Parker and The Poor People of Paris will launch the summer Jazz at Holmes series with a free performance at 8 p.m. Thursday, June 12. The series features relaxed, coffeehouse-style concerts with professional jazz musicians from around St. Louis and abroad most Thursday evenings throughout the summer.

A design proposal by 10 architecture students from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts has won the 2008 JP Morgan Chase Community Development Competition.

Elsie Parker and The Poor People of Paris will launch Washington University’s summer Jazz at Holmes series with a free performance at 8 p.m. Thursday, June 12. The series features relaxed, coffeehouse-style concerts with professional jazz musicians from around St. Louis and abroad most Thursday evenings throughout the summer.

Courtesy photo*Masked Marvels & Wondertales*Since 1973 the Edison Theatre OVATIONS! series has presented both new works and innovative interpretations of classical material by nationally and internationally renowned artists. The 2008-09 season, the Edison’s 36th, will feature more than a dozen dance, music and theatrical events — including several St. Louis and world premieres — designed to challenge, educate and inspire.

September 27 Sweet Honey in the Rock This Grammy Award-winning a cappella ensemble celebrates the rich legacy of African-American musical traditions, capturing the sounds of spirituals, gospel, Blues, African chants and ancient lullabies. Founded in 1973, the all-female group takes its name from Psalm 81:16 — which describes a land so rich that honey flows […]