Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

St. Louis is known nationally for its excellent (and free) art. Here, staff, faculty, students and alumni of WashU share their favorite places to view visual art around St. Louis during the summer.

Discover some of the many environmental projects currently underway among WashU’s graduate student community, the ‘research engine of the university.’

Kahan Chavda, BSBME ’16, co-founder of Inversa, a company pioneering the field of ethically harvested leathers, workshops with Sam Fox School students on how engineering and fashion design can support endangered ecosystems.

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts has announced the theme for its 2026 James Harrison Steedman Fellowship in Architecture. The competition, which will mark the Steedman’s 100th anniversary, invites early-career architects from around the world to investigate and reimagine the fundamental systems, facilities and services that underlie contemporary life.

Philanthropists Nancy Kranzberg and Ken Kranzberg received the 2025 Dean’s Medal from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts April 10 as part of the school’s annual Awards for Distinction ceremony. Also recognized during the ceremony were six outstanding alumni in art, architecture and design.

“Adam Pendleton: To Divide By,” an exhibition catalog published by WashU’s Kemper Art Museum, has been named best monograph of 2024 by the Midwest Art History Society.

Eva M. Agüero is set to graduate with a master’s degree in visual art from the Sam Fox School. Her work, which has spanned from painting to multimedia, questions assumptions about manners and women’s role in society.

The Sam Fox School will present WashU’s 96th Annual Fashion Design Show April 26 in Holmes Lounge. One of the oldest such shows in the nation, the event will feature dozens of models wearing scores of outfits that together explore avant-garde looks, user-centered design and cross-cultural connections.

Graduate students studying human-computer interaction begin courses this fall — with help from prominent alumni.

Carmon Colangelo, the Ralph J. Nagel Dean of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, will conclude his deanship effective June 30, 2026. Colangelo will continue to serve as WashU’s E. Desmond Lee Professor for Collaboration in the Arts. He will return to teaching, after a yearlong sabbatical, in fall 2027.