Arts & Culture

Four faculty members from the 2008 Callaloo Creative Writing Workshops will read from their poetry and fiction at 7 p.m., Aug. 6 in Duncker Hall, Room 201, Hurst Lounge. The event is free and open to the public.

Lorser Feitelson, *Dichotomic Organization*From painting and architecture to music, film, furniture and the graphic arts, 1950s Los Angeles was an epicenter of American modernism. This fall the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will present Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury, a sprawling multimedia exhibition that investigates how the sleek West Coast aesthetic — at once playful and poised, laid-back and sharply articulated — emerged as cultural shorthand for crisp sophistication.

Baseball diamonds are a left-hander’s best friend. That’s because the game was designed to make a lefty the “Natural,” according to David A. Peters, Ph.D., the McDonnell Douglas Professor of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis and über baseball fan. Peters is a mechanical engineer who specializes in aircraft and helicopter engineering and has a different approach to viewing America’s Favorite Pastime.

The Big Read is a national program designed to encourage literary reading by helping communities come together to read and discuss a single book. In January 2009 Washington University in St. Louis — supported by a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts — will coordinate a St. Louis Big Read focusing on Harper Lee’s 1960 classic To Kill a Mockingbird. The month-long series of community-based events will include a wide variety of reading programs, read-a-thons, book discussions, lectures, performances, movie screenings and other activities.

Karl Benjamin, *Black Pillars,* 1957.From retail furnishings to international auction houses, recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in midcentury modernism, an influential design aesthetic that flourished between the mid-1930s and the mid-1960s. During the 2008-09 academic year the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will host two major exhibitions exploring both the breadth and the cultural impact of midcentury modernism, through such mediums as painting, sculpture, architecture, interior design, film, music and the graphic arts.

Elsie Parker and The Poor People of Paris will launch the summer Jazz at Holmes series with a free performance at 8 p.m. Thursday, June 12. The concert will feature French popular music and jazz, including works by Vanessa Paradis and Herve Vilard. Also on the program will be music of French favorites Edith Piaf, […]

Elsie Parker and The Poor People of Paris will launch the summer Jazz at Holmes series with a free performance at 8 p.m. Thursday, June 12. The series features relaxed, coffeehouse-style concerts with professional jazz musicians from around St. Louis and abroad most Thursday evenings throughout the summer.

Elsie Parker and The Poor People of Paris will launch Washington University’s summer Jazz at Holmes series with a free performance at 8 p.m. Thursday, June 12. The series features relaxed, coffeehouse-style concerts with professional jazz musicians from around St. Louis and abroad most Thursday evenings throughout the summer.

Courtesy photo*Masked Marvels & Wondertales*Since 1973 the Edison Theatre OVATIONS! series has presented both new works and innovative interpretations of classical material by nationally and internationally renowned artists. The 2008-09 season, the Edison’s 36th, will feature more than a dozen dance, music and theatrical events — including several St. Louis and world premieres — designed to challenge, educate and inspire.

Ronald Leax, the Halsey Cooley Ives Professor of Art, has been named dean of art, according to Carmon Colangelo, dean of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Leax will lead the College of Art and the Graduate School of Art. The one-year appointment will begin July 1. Leax will succeed dean Jeff Pike, who is the Jane Reuter Hitzeman and Herbert F. Hitzeman, Jr., Professor in Art. Pike has served as dean of art since 1999. He will return to full-time teaching following a sabbatical year.