Arts & Culture

With her pink suits, chippy chihuahua and Greek chorus of sorority sisters, Elle Woods seems to have it all. But when her well-bred boyfriend, Warner Huntington III, leaves UCLA for Harvard Law, Elle’s dreams for the future come crashing down. So begins “Legally Blonde,” a musical adaptation of the 2001 film, which explores themes of personal identity, social expectations and what it means to be authentic.

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis will present “Decoys & Depictions: Images of the Digital,” a symposium exploring how digital images are constructed and operate, Oct. 24-26.

A sweeping campus planning, design and construction project has transformed the Danforth Campus two years after the start of construction. The largest capital project in the university’s recent history, the East End Transformation was officially dedicated Oct. 2.

A tam is the distinctive head covering typically worn in academic celebrations. Here’s a look at the specially designed custom tams created for the inauguration of Andrew D. Martin by Meredith Liu, a senior fashion major in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Learn about how poet Paul Tran and more than a dozen artists, illustrators and designers are preparing for the inauguration of Andrew D. Martin as 15th chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis.

In “Mrs. Kelley’s Igloo,” senior Sophie Tegenu explores themes of family, romantic love and the difficulties of saying “I do.”  This weekend, the play will be one of three to receive world premier staged readings as part of the Performing Arts Department’s annual A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival.

More than 5,000 plants form a literal wall of green that rises 30 feet in the air. Welcome to the Kuehner Court, located in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ new Anabeth and John Weil Hall. The new space will be dedicated Oct. 2 as part of Washington University’s east end dedication.

The newly expanded and renovated Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will reopen to the public Sept. 28 with “Ai Weiwei: Bare Life,” a major exhibition collecting dozens of artworks by the renowned Chinese dissident artist and activist.

Washington University in St. Louis is proud to welcome media on Thursday, Sept. 26 for an insider look at the new East End Transformation. The 2-year $360 million campus expansion adds three new academic buildings; two new multi-use facilities; an expansion of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum; and an underground parking garage topped by an expansive new park.