Arts & Culture

In January, “To Kill a Mockinbird” will serve as centerpiece of a National Endowment for the Arts’ Big Read program. Coordinated by Washington University, the program will feature dozens of lectures, readings, art exhibits, theater productions, book discussions, film festivals and other events exploring the themes of Harper Lee’s novel.

Harper LeeWith its appealing evocation of childhood and powerful call for tolerance and social justice, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is the rare American novel that can be discovered in adolescence yet rewards adult re-reading. In January the book will serve as centerpiece of a National Endowment for the Arts’ Big Read program. Coordinated by Washington University, the program will feature dozens of lectures, readings, art exhibits, theater productions, book discussions, film festivals and other events exploring the themes of Lee’s novel.

On Dec. 17 at the Duane Reed Gallery in Clayton, the Arts as Healing Program is hosting a public showing of art created by cancer patients. This reception, from 5:30-8 p.m., will celebrate these patients as artists and also honor their “journey of hope.”

A celebration of the lives and legacy of Donald Finkel, poet-in-residence emeritus of English in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, who died Nov. 15, 2008, and his wife, poet and novelist Constance Urdang, who died in 1996, will be held at 11:30 a.m. Dec. 12 in the Women’s Building Formal Lounge on the WUSTL campus.

The Gateway Arch is an icon of modern architecture and the most-recognized symbol of the City of St. Louis. Yet in many ways the Arch is cut-off from the city proper, sandwiched between the Mississippi Riverfront and a network of converging roadways and interstates. Last month students from five Missouri and Illinois universities gathered to address this challenge as part of the St. Louis Downtown/Riverfront Student Design Charrette.

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present three classic Hollywood films as part of its “Some Like it Cool” film series Dec. 9-11. Held in conjunction with the exhibition “Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design and Culture at Midcentury,” the festival will feature screenings of “Rebel Without a Cause” Tuesday, Dec. 9; “Anatomy […]

The Arts as Healing program is designed to help patients at the Siteman Cancer Center and those involved with their care a chance to express themselves and use art as a tool in healing.

As President-elect Barack Obama continues to fill key cabinet positions from the ranks of D.C.-based public policy think tanks, a new book by longtime policy adviser Murray Weidenbaum examines how the nation’s top think tanks came to play such critical roles in U.S. politics.

*To Kill a Mockingbird*Since its publication in 1960, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird has become the best-selling novel of all time and is perhaps the most widely read book exploring race in the United States. In January Washington University’s Edison Theatre will join forces with Metro Theater Company, St. Louis’ foremost professional troupe for young people, to stage an all-ages theatrical production of the civil rights classic.

Photo by David KilperWashington University Dance Theatre, the annual showcase of professionally choreographed works performed by student dancers, will present “Common Ground” Dec. 5-7 in Edison Theatre.