Arts & Culture

In the political realm, climate change remains a point of debate. But for those charged with managing its effects — the storms and floods followed, whiplash style, by drought and water scarcity — the evidence is in. From March 22-25, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington, D.C., will present MISI-ZIIBI: Living with the Great Rivers, an international symposium investigating climate adaptation strategies in the Mississippi and Missouri basins.

If American war films are characterized by large-scale combat and appeals to valor, French war cinema is arguably more intimate and psychologically driven. From March 19-21, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present three iconic films as part of its France at War Film Series.

Brett skips class. He disappears for hours at a time. He nurses a disturbing secret: Brett is an Elvis impersonator. Welcome to “If I Were You” and Other Elvis Presley Songs, an original play by senior Leah Barsanti, and winner of the A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Competition.

Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ugly Duckling has delighted children for generations. Aesop’s The Tortoise and the Hare dates back more than 2,500 years old. On March 16, Corbian Visual Arts and Dance (aka Lightwire Theatre) will return to Edison will cutting-edge theatrical adaptation of both classic fables as part of the ovations for young people series.

As a child in New Mexico, Robert Mirabal awoke at dawn and “ran to the sun.” The ritual, a fusion of physical and spiritual discipline, was an important component of daily life in many Native American cultures. Now, that memory has helped inspire Music of the Sun, a collaborative concert between the Grammy Award-winning flutist and the pioneering string quartet Ethel, which comes to the 560 Music Center March 22.

Does art have a moral duty to be politically engaged? On Thursday, March 7, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will explore that question and more with “Committed Culture: A Panel Discussion on Politics and Aesthetics During World War II.”

In architecture and the visual arts, there is a long tradition of site-specific projects and temporary installations informing subsequent development. Now The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts have launched PXSTL, a national competition exploring the critical role of the arts and culture in building vital and dynamic communities.

New faculty members have joined the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

It’s hard to wave when your elbow can’t bend. In Beauty, choreographer Jane Comfort deploys the robotic, stiff-jointed movements of Barbie and Ken dolls to withering satirical effect. On Friday and Saturday, March 1 and 2, Jane Comfort and Company will perform Beauty—as well as the BESSIE Award-winning Underground River — as part of the Edison Ovations Series.

In the early 20th century, utopian conviction about the promise of artistic abstraction was widespread. And yet, in the years between the World Wars, the human figure remained the site of significant artistic activity. So argues John Klein, associate professor of art history and archaeology, in Face and Figure in European Art, 1928-1945, now on view at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.