Arts & Culture

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts celebrated seven honorees April 20 as part of the school’s 2023 Awards for Distinction ceremony.

Each year, bold and beautiful fashion designs are showcased around the world—on runways, online and in print. Great fashion design makes us look better…but can it help us be better? At Washington University in St. Louis, students are not only exploring how fashion changes us, but also how it just might change the world.

The Sam Fox School will present WashU’s 94th Annual Fashion Design Show April 22 in Holmes Lounge. One of the oldest such shows in the nation, the event will feature dozens of models wearing scores of outfits that together explore the intersection of clothing and culture.

With ambitions and savvy acquisitions, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum makes an international mark.

“Beauty in Enormous Bleakness,” an exhibition highlighting the design legacy of Japanese American architects in the wake of World War II-era internments, is on view in Olin Library. A related symposium, “Moonscape of the Mind,” will take place April 13 and 14.

Krishna Bharat, a distinguished research scientist at Google, will deliver the keynote address for “AI + Design” April 3. The afternoon-long symposium will explore the current state of AI technology, the future of AI-assisted design and the implications for design practice and training.

Claudia Swan has been named the inaugural Mark Steinberg Weil Professor of Art History and Archaeology. A lecture and reception to celebrate her appointment were held Feb. 22 in the Kuehner Family Court in Anabeth and John Weil Hall.

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present “Torkwase Dyson: Bird and Lava” March 22 to July 10. Anchored by a newly acquired work, the display spans painting, drawing, sculpture and animation — along with architectural models relating to Dyson’s new commission for St. Louis’ citywide public art triennial Counterpublic.

Olivia Baba and Connor Seger, both seniors pursuing a bachelor’s degree in fashion design from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, each will receive awards as part of the 2023 Fashion Scholarship Fund competition.

In the years after World War II, a series of global shifts, including African decolonization and the U.S. civil rights movement, led artists to explore a new politics of form, synthesizing and integrating different visual and cultural traditions. This spring, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present “African Modernism in America,” the first traveling survey to examine the diverse aesthetic strategies, and complex relationships, between African artists and American artists, scholars, patrons and cultural organizations.