Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Earl E. and Myrtle E. Walker Hall and the Museum Building will be integrated with three existing facilities to form a comprehensive arts complex.

Photo courtesy of National Eye Institute, National Institutes of HealthVisual perception changes as eyes age.Graphic design can be a matter of life and death. Literally. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, more than 40 percent of Americans aged 65 and over use five or more different medications each week, making unintended drug interactions a major contributor to an estimated annual 180,000 fatal or life-threatening adverse drug reactions. Yet drug labeling is a kind of typographical Wild West, says Ken Botnick, professor of visual communications in the School of Art at Washington University in St. Louis. “Drug companies are required to divulge certain types of information but there are no requirements in terms of how accessible that information is made,” Botnick explains. “Typically, decisions about the way information is organized — the hierarchy of presentation, the size and clarity of type — are simply afterthoughts.” Medical information design is just one of the issues to be explored as part of “Visual Design for an Aging Population,” a national symposium Botnick is organizing in March 2004.

Jeff Pike was about to meet the police when he made a terrible realization. Pike, now the dean of the School of Art, was then a junior at the Kansas City Art Institute and had been assigned to the Kansas City Police Department for a class on community graphic design. A week prior, detectives had […]

The Sam Fox Arts Center at Washington University in St. Louis will break ground for two new buildings — an art museum and a School of Art studio facility — April 14, 2004.

The Sam Fox Arts Center at Washington University in St. Louis will dedicate a new School of Art studio building in honor of St. Louis community leaders Earl E. and Myrtle E. Walker.

A major gift from Eric P. and Evelyn E. Newman will create a state-of-the art numismatic museum as part of the Sam Fox Arts Center at Washington University in St. Louis.

William Merritt Chase (American 1849-1916), *Courtyard of a Dutch Orphan Asylum* c. 1884, Oil on canvas on boardAll roads may lead to Paris, but for 19th century American painters, many at least traveled through St. Louis. In January, the Gallery of Art at Washington University in St. Louis will present Painting America in the 19th Century: Selections from the Permanent Collection. The exhibition includes works by 13 major American painters — many of whom lived or worked in Missouri.

Shimon Okshteyn, *Alarm Clock*, 2001, Lithograph, CollagraphIsland Press, the School of Art’s professional printshop, will host a special, one-time-only holiday sale Dec. 14. The event will feature works by nationally and internationally known artists at steeply discounted prices.

Mark Tansey, detail, *Four Forbidden Senses (Taste, Sound, Smell, Touch)* (1982), Oil on four canvas panelsThe art world of the 1980s was a place of artistic diversity and aesthetic contention. In January, the Gallery of Art at Washington University in St. Louis will revisit those years with American Art of the 1980s: Selections From the Broad Collections, which includes 14 large-scale paintings and sculptures by 11 celebrated and sometimes controversial figures.

Sean Scully, *Untitled* (1989), Oilstick and watercolorThe Gallery of Art at Washington University in St. Louis will present American Art on Paper from the 1960s to the Present: Selections from the Permanent Collection Jan. 23 to April 18. The exhibiiton includes 47 prints, drawings and photographs by 31 nationally and internationally known artists.