Arts & Culture

Where do nature and design meet? And how does one create space within evolving nature? This fall, students in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts explored those questions as part of “Disappearing Ground,” a speculative studio centering on Fogelpole Cave in Illinois.

Rugby is hard-hitting, fast-moving and adrenaline-fueled. But for elite Paralympic wheelchair athletes, the sport can also pose particular challenges. Over the last several months, students and faculty at Washington University in St. Louis have worked to research, design and construct prototype garments specifically tailored to the needs of athletes with disabilities.

“The Calling of St. Matthew” is a masterpiece of light and shadow. For the seminar “Caravaggio: Master and Murderer,” art historian William Wallace enlisted students and colleagues from the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences to explore the painting’s mysteries.

Stephanie Beamer, Crystal Ellis and Hillary Petrie, all 2006 architecture graduates, became friends and collaborators while students at Washington University. Now, they run the award-winning furniture design company Egg Collective in New York City.

When Sam Coster, AB ’12, was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer at age 23, he knew his life had to change. A game developer who made irreverent endless runners for mobile, Coster and his brothers, who run the game development studio Butterscotch Shenanigans, decided to create their most imaginative and ambitious game to date, Crashlands.

“Here.Now.Together,” the 2017 Washington University Dance Theatre concert, will feature seven new works by faculty and visiting choreographers in Edison Theatre Dec. 1-3.

The Washington University Choirs will mark the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation with a free concert featuring music from the Reformation era alongside songs drawn from more recent protest movements, such as the fights for women’s suffrage and African-American civil rights.

Can art be separated from its cultural context? In “Kiss,” Chilean playwright Guillermo Calderon explores the power, empathy and sometimes difficult responsibilities of live theater. The Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will present Calderon’s funny yet searing drama Nov. 16-19.

Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” (1818) is one of the most influential artistic creations of the last two centuries. On Sunday, Oct. 29, the Washington University Symphony Orchestra will present three world premiere student compositions, inspired by Shelley’s book, in the E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall.