Arts & Culture

Bruce Lindsey, dean of architecture, and Peter MacKeith, associate professor of architecture, both have won important honors in the 2013-14 Architectural Education Awards.

Incarnadine is a fleshy hue, a blushing, pinkish crimson, akin to salmon or rust or rose, the color of pale sunsets, of angels’ robes, of water stained by blood. But blue is the color that dominates “Incarnadine” (2013), Mary Szybist’s second collection: the blues of bright skies and dark oceans, of pretty dresses and ominous clouds, of feathers and bubbles and bruises long past healing.

​Mary Jo Bang is a poet who, for most of her life, has secretly made visual art. Buzz Spector is a visual artist who, for most of his life, has sercretly made poetry. Now both reveal their secret practices with “Otherwise,” an exhibition on view through Feb. 8 at the Fort Condo Compound for the Arts.

The world is always falling apart. And artists have long been interested in the melancholy symbolism of ruin and decay. But in recent years, such themes have acquired particular urgency as global environmental issues increasingly become matters of both scientific and public concern.

Alfredo Jaar is one of Latin America’s foremost contemporary artists, known for installations and public interventions that investigate war, corruption, social justice, media desensitization and the global balance of power. On Monday, Feb. 10, Jaar will deliver the inaugural Bunny and Charles Burson Visiting Lecture for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

Dancer and WUSTL alumna Elinor Harrison, a member of acclaimed New York troupe Jane Comfort and Company, returned to campus last week as the 2014 Marcus Residency Dance Artist.

Stories are nice. So are songs. But put them together and you have cabaret, a distinctively intimate artform that collapses the distance — both figuratively and literally — between performer and audience. On Feb. 12, the husband-and-wife team of Todd and Kelly Daniel Decker will present “Songs from Broadway and Hollywood” as part of the DUC Chamber Music Series.

Jane Comfort and Company has been described by The New York Times as “a postmodernist pioneer in the use of verbal material in dance.” From Jan. 26-30, company member — and WUSTL alumna — Elinor Harrison will return to campus as the 2014 Marcus Residency Dance Artist.

This spring, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based architecture and design firm Freecell will create a temporary performance space on a vacant lot in St. Louis’ Grand Center neighborhood. On Jan. 27, founding partners Lauren Crahan and John Hartmann will launch the Sam Fox School’s spring Public Lecture Series with a discussion of their work.

Ruthe Foster sings like a force of nature. Eric Bibb, with his warm baritone and sparkling, effortless guitar, can seem like the happiest bluesman around. On Saturday, Feb. 15, these two Grammy-nominated blues artists will say “Thanks for the Joy” as part of the Edison Ovations Series.