Arts & Culture

Sculptor and longtime faculty member Ronald Leax, the Halsey C. Ives Professor Emeritus of Art, will receive the Dean’s Medal for outstanding service April 4 as part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ annual Awards for Distinction dinner.

David Peters, the McDonnell Douglas Professor of Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, has a body of work in applied aerodynamics and a host of academic honors, but he’s also a baseball fan. That’s why watching a baseball game takes on a whole new spin, aerodynamically speaking.

The game’s history and traditions are rich, but they threaten to suffocate its future. The “unwritten rules” and the game’s entrenched conservatism are standing in the way of fun. It will take more than bat flips and a backwards ballcap to let it through.

This fall, one of the top programs for art, architecture and design at a U.S. university — the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis — will unveil two major new capital projects that will transform the campus, reshape the visitor experience and firmly establish the prominence of its art museum on campus. The newly constructed Anabeth and John Weil Hall will house state-of-the-art graduate studios, classrooms and digital fabrication spaces. A major expansion and renovation of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will strengthen visibility, better showcase the renowned permanent collection and accommodate larger and more varied special exhibitions.

You — as part of the 10 percent of the American population who participates in this form of technically illegal gambling — have a 1-in-9.2 quintillion chance of picking the perfect March Madness bracket, says a statistical expert from Washington University in St. Louis.

The 14th annual African Film Festival invites St. Louisans to see eight of Africa’s most acclaimed films on the big screen. Highlights include two Kenyan films, the controversial “Rafiki,” which was banned in its own country, and “Supa Moda,” a family-friendly film that one critic called “the most important superhero movie you’ll see this year.”

Choreographers Harrison Parker and Rachael Servello will present a pair of new works March 23 in Edison Theatre as part of “Reel2Real,” the 2019 MFA Student Dance Concert.

Art schools are places of innovation and expression, of studio skills and critical analysis. But for many young artists, the transition to professional practice can be fraught. How do you start building a career? Opportunities for students like The MFA Fair this November help.

Junior Ruoyi Gan and senior Madeline Halpern are representing the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts in Varsity Art XXIII. Hosted by Art St. Louis, the annual exhibition features work by undergraduate and graduate students from St. Louis college and university-level art programs.