Author: Liam Otten

The days grow cold and the nights grow long, but December is a busy month for WashU music lovers. Upcoming performances will feature the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, The 442s and more than 150 WashU musicians in spaces throughout the Saint Louis Art Museum.

In February, the Kemper Art Museum will present “Seeds: Containers of a World to Come.” The exhibition features recent works and new commissions by 10 nationally and internationally known artists for whom the seed is the kernel, both literally and metaphorically, for their investigations.

Monika Weiss, a professor of art at WashU’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, was trained in piano but then branched into visual art and beyond. Her works encompass many formats and senses. She recently installed “Metamorphosis (Sound Sculpture),” at St. Louis’ Laumeier Sculpture Park.

Logan has won a grant. The project? Make 500 years of colonial pillaging accessible to school children. In other words: Write a Thanksgiving play! So begins, in meta fashion, Larissa FastHorse’s recent Broadway hit, which the Performing Arts Department will present Nov. 21-24 in the Hotchner Studio Theatre.

Can we ever see too much data? Yes, actually. In some situations, visual overload can paralyze decision-making. But over the last year, the interdisciplinary SAIL lab, with help from WashU Rowing, has explored nonvisual means for transmitting real-time performance feedback.

Three faculty members from WashU’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts — Chandler Ahrens, Constance Vale and Kelley Van Dyck Murphy — have been named University Design Research Fellows for the 2024-25 cycle of Exhibit Columbus.

The Bennet daughters are stubborn, idealistic, spirited and sometimes nosy. They are also unmarried. In the early 19th-century world of “Pride and Prejudice,” which opens Oct. 25 in Edison Theatre, this presents a problem. None can inherit the family estate.

Abram Van Engen, chair of the Department of English in Arts & Sciences, was recently installed as the Stanley Elkin Professor in the Humanities.

Uncertain times can challenge things we take for granted but also can create productive instabilities, opening the door to new ideas and new visions of the future. In this spirit, the Kemper Art Museum’s 2025 exhibition lineup will question canonical narratives, interrogate colonial imaginaries and reexamine complex historical entanglements.

How do we reason? When do we apply value judgments? Over the last year, WashU’s Civil Society Initiative has sponsored a range of classes, guest speakers and public events exploring the nature of responsible democratic citizenship.