Arts & Culture

While President Trump’s proposed $970 million budget cuts in the arts and humanities account for less than one-tenth of a percent of savings in the administration’s $1.1 trillion federal budget plan, the effect could gut culture and diminish quality of life across the United States if not the world, say experts at Washington University in St. Louis.

Pedro Pitarch has won the 2016-17 James Harrison Steedman Memorial Fellowship in Architecture. The $50,000 grant, which supports international travel for research, is one of the largest such architecture awards in the United States. Pitarch, who was chosen from a field of 100 applicants, will use the grant to explore the intersection of public and private spaces in cities across Europe, Asia and the United States.

In the last year, dozens of books by university faculty and alumni hit the shelves. Here we share just a small selection of the noteworthy tomes that are making an impact on literature, research and best-seller lists.

The Washington University Symphony Orchestra and Washington University Choirs will join forces March 3 for the 2017 Chancellor’s Concert, featuring music of Franz Schubert and Giovanni Bottesini.

“Higher Ground: Honoring Washington Park Cemetery, Its People and Place” will open March 3 at the Sheldon Art Galleries. The exhibition includes works by artists Jennifer Colten, Denise Ward-Brown and Dail Chambers. All three will discuss their projects during a gallery talk April 7 and in a panel discussion at the Missouri History Museum May 24, among other events.

Todd Decker on Oscar favorite “La La Land,” and why Ryan Gosling is no Fred Astaire.

Chicago-based artists Amanda Williams and Andres L. Hernandez, winners of the PXSTL competition, will discuss the project in a public lecture March 8. The free talk will launch the Sam Fox School’s spring Public Lecture Series.

Despite controversy, film ‘advances representations of slavery,’ says scholar Sowande’ M. Mustakeem.

WashU alumni share their magical stories about working on Broadway, becoming part of a larger cultural conversation and, ultimately, making a difference.

“Macbeth” is a story of moral corruption – and a striking metaphor for the current political moment, says Henry Schvey, who will direct the Shakespeare classic Feb. 24 to March 5 in Edison Theatre.