Arts & Culture

St. Louis guitarist Steve Schenkel will perform for Washington University Jazz at Holmes series from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23.

Original cover art, “Love and Rockets” #15There is no shortcut from popular art to cultural respectability, but few have wandered longer than comic book, which has only recently begun to receive its critical and scholarly due. In October, the School of Art at Washington University in St. Louis will present The Rubber Frame: Culture and Comics, a book and a pair of complementary exhibitions that together trace the evolution of comics from early precursors in 18th and 19th century England and Switzerland to turn-of-the-last-century newspapers, the raucous undergrounds of the 1960s and ’70s and the literary alternative comics of today.

The Tango Group at Washington University will begin its fall season of dances and workshops Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 17, 18 and 19.

Most students who go abroad to study have many interesting tales to tell when they get home. But few, if any, also come back with fantastic stories of smuggling and spying. Fewer still parlay those stories into a Cold War thriller.

Photo by David Kilper/WUSTL Photo ServicesMary Jean Cowell and Cecil Slaughter perform “Sliders” as part of the 2004 “Dance Close-Up” Sept. 9-11.Ballet and modern dance will share the stage with Indian Bharata Natyam and multi-media work in Dance Close-Up, an intimate presentation of new and original choreography by faculty in the Dance Program Sept. 9-11.

Don J. Usner/Ventana de Luz PhotographyWrightPoet and playwright Jay Wright, the visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in Washington University’s Department of English in Arts & Sciences, will give a dramatic reading of his work at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14. In addition, Wright will read from his poetry at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 16.

St. Louis saxophonist Freddie Washington will launch Washington University’s eighth annual Jazz at Holmes series from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 9. The series features professional jazz musicians from around St. Louis and abroad performing in a relaxed coffeehouse-style setting most Thursday evenings throughout the school year.

The Washington University Department of Music in Arts & Sciences will mark the centenary of the 1904 World’s Fair by including works performed at the fair in concerts throughout its fall season. The season will be launched Sept. 7 by the Washington University Chamber Orchestra.

Manfred Pernice, “Untitled (Bicycle Rack),” 2002.The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis is recipient of a $125,000 Emily Hall Tremaine Exhibition Award. The award will support Reality Bites: Making Avant-Garde Art in Post-Wall Germany, the inaugural loan exhibition in the museum’s new facilities, scheduled to open in Fall 2006.

Maki & Associates, TokyoWashington University’s planned Sam Fox Arts Center.A $500,000 gift from Emily Rauh Pulitzer, founder and president of the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, has established the first permanent endowment fund for the Sam Fox Arts Center at Washington University in St. Louis.