Arts & Culture

Celebrated architect Jeanne Gang, principal and founder of Studio Gang Architects in Chicago, will discuss her work for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ fall Public Lecture Series at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 25. The talk, titled “High and Low,” is the school’s annual Coral Courts Lecture and will take place in Steinberg Hall Auditorium, located near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards. A reception for Gang will precede the lecture, at 6 p.m. 

Poet Timothy Donnelly will ready from his work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 21, for Washington University’s Writing Program in the Department of English in Arts & Sciences. Donnelly’s first book, Twenty-seven Props for a Production of Eine Lebensziet, was published in 2003 by the Grove Press Poetry Series. His second collection, The Cloud Corporation, was released by Wave Books earlier this month.  

Architect Eric Cesal, a Washington University alumnus who is now directing design and reconstruction initiatives in Haiti for the group Architecture for Humanity, will return to campus to discuss his work at noon Wednesday, Oct. 20. The talk, titled Starting From Zero: How Haiti Can Save Architecture, is presented by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts as its annual Eugene J. Mackey Jr. Lecture, part of the school’s fall Public Lecture Series.  

Oh the shark has pretty teeth dear/And he shows them pearly white … So is introduced Macheath, the dapper bandit and notorious womanizer more infamously known as “Mack the Knife.” And thus begins The Threepenny Opera, a merciless send-up of operatic conventions, which will be presented by the Performing Arts Department Oct. 22 through 31. 

Salvatore Scibona, whose debut novel The End was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award, will read from his work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 14, for Washington University’s Writing Program in Arts & Sciences.  

Landscape architect Tom Leader, founder and principal of Tom Leader Studio in Berkeley, Calif., will discuss his work for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ fall Public Lecture Series Oct. 11. Formed in 2001, the studio is among today’s most innovative and experimental landscape architecture practices, known for balancing speculative and constructed designs.

Mezzo-soprano Leah Summers and pianist Charis Dimaris will perform an intimate Liederabend for the Washington University Department of Music in Arts & Sciences at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 10, in Holmes Lounge. Literally translated as “evening of song,” Liederabend is a German term referring to a recital given by a singer and pianist, particularly of works by 19th-century Austrian or German composers. 

Brazilian conceptual artist Rivane Neuenschwander will discuss her work with Richard Flood, chief curator of the New Museum in New York, at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 9,in Steinberg Auditorium. The dialogue is held in conjunction with Rivane Neuenschwander: A Day Like Any Other, the artist’s first major midcareer survey, which opens at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 8.

Brazilian conceptual artist Rivane Neuenschwander creates playful, ephemeral and often participatory artworks that blur distinctions between author and viewer, object and memory, permanence and temporality. This fall, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present Rivane Neuenschwander: A Day Like Any Other, the artist’s first major midcareer survey. Covering a decade of work, the exhibition reveals a wide-ranging interdisciplinary practice that merges painting, photography, film, sculpture, installation and collaborative action.

The Washington University Symphony Orchestra will feature works by two composers affiliated with the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences as part of a program of 19th, 20th and 21st century American music. The performance, which begins at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 8, in the E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall, is co-sponsored by the American Arts Experience-St. Louis, which will host dozens of events throughout the city Oct. 1-17.