Author: Liam Otten

Environmental catastrophe upends the social order. Private functions fuel corporate profits. Oppressed masses rebel against privileged politicians. Don’t laugh. This is “Urinetown.”

The Saint Louis Art Museum and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis have selected Jennifer Bornstein as their 2017-18 Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Teaching Fellow. Bornstein will lead studios in the Sam Fox School and prepare a museum exhibition.

The photograph quickly went viral. A group of golfers in southern Washington State calmly putts before a raging forest fire. First posted Sept. 6, the image has taken social media by storm and become the subject of news articles and countless memes. But the point is this: In the western United States, forest fires have become so routine that people barely notice them anymore.

Over the last two decades, printmaker Dennis O’Neil has collaborated with artists from around the world while helping to expand the limits of screen print technology. Beginning Oct. 5, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will present “Process & Innovation: 20 Years of Partnerships in Print at Hand Print Workshop International.”

In “Topographic Memory,” architect Bruce Lindsey, of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, explores how we interpret both photography and the natural world.

In “Raindropped,” playwright Scott Greenberg, a senior in Arts & Sciences, explores the idea of falling from grace, both figuratively and literally. This weekend, “Raindropped” and two other student plays will receive their world premiere staged readings as part of Washington University in St. Louis’ annual A.E. Hotchner New Play Festival.

Legendary saxophonist Freddie Washington will launch Washington University in St. Louis’ fall Jazz at Holmes series Thursday, Sept. 21. The series will include 10 performances by locally and nationally known musicians, including Italian guitarist Filippo Cosentino and the university’s director of jazz performance, William Lenihan (pictured).

In “Borgia Infami,” St. Louis composer Harold Blumenfeld (1923-2014) combines historical fact and dramatic legend to investigate the nature of power and how secrets echo across the generations. On Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, Winter Opera Saint Louis and the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences will present the world premiere of Blumenfeld’s two-act opera in Edison Theatre at Washington University in St. Louis.

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will fly “Untitled (Dividing Time),” a flag created by artist Robert Longo, as part of “Pledges of Allegiance,” a national public art series organized by Creative Time in New York.

Nancy Y. Reynolds and Anne-Marie McManus, both of Arts & Sciences, discuss the environmental humanities and their new Mellon Sawyer Seminar, “Grounding the Ecocritical.”