Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

A still from *Having a Ball*, one of three circus-themed e-cards by Kristine Ng.For the estimated 7 to10 million blind and visually impaired Americans, the Internet has proven to be the most powerful — and most empowering — tool since Braille. Widely available software programs such as JAWS for Windows and Windows-Eyes can read aloud online newspapers and magazines and other previously inaccessible materials. Yet as bandwidth and memory improve, businesses have increasingly sought to drive customers to glitzy, graphics-heavy Web sites that are more difficult, if not impossible, for blind users to navigate. Thanks to a group of senior design students at Washington University in St. Louis, blind and visually impaired Web users can now experience some of the Internet’s increasingly expansive potential. The 23 students — design, illustration and advertising majors in the School of Art — have created some of the first Web sites showcasing new accessibility components of Macromedia Flash MX, the increasingly popular authoring tool for Web interfaces, interactive video, Web-based games, streaming music and other multimedia content.

The Gallery of Art will host “An Evening With Comic Artists Charles Burns and Gary Panter” at 7 p.m. Sept. 27 in Steinberg Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public and is organized in conjunction with the St. Louis Comic Art Show, a one-day event held downtown at the City Museum, 701 […]

Distinguished scholar Iain Boyd Whyte, professor of architectural history at the University of Edinburgh and a senior visiting program officer for the Getty Grant Program, will speak on “Expressionist Architecture” at 7 p.m. Oct. 2 for the Gallery of Art. The lecture is free and open to the public and will take place in Steinberg […]

Also opening are complementary exhibitions Painting America in the 19th Century and American Art on Paper From the 1960s to the Present.

Tamotsu Edo will work with School of Architecture students to construct and install a “koshikake machiai” in the Elizabeth Danforth Butterfly Garden.

The School of Art is welcoming the new year with its Danforth Scholars Show. The exhibition, on view at the school’s Des Lee Gallery through Jan. 30, showcases the work of five current or recent graduate students: Jill Downen, Brandon Anschultz, Grant Miller, Yoshihiro Kitai and Alison Bates. A reception for the artists will be […]

New York architect Mariano Sagasta has won the University’s 2004 Steedman Fellowship in Architecture International Design Competition. The biennial competition, which is open to young architects from around the world, carries a $30,000 first-place award to support study and research abroad — the largest such award in the United States. Sagasta, who earned a bachelor […]

Typographically Speaking: The Art of Matthew Carter will open with a reception for the artist from 6-8 p.m. Oct. 10.

Tired of TV, bored with bars, cynical about the cineplex? Start the weekend at the Gallery of Art, which will host lectures, concerts, film screenings, artists’ talks and guided tours on Friday evenings throughout the spring. All events begin at 7 p.m. and are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. Most activities […]

“Borders and Boundaries in 20th-Century Music” Oct. 24 corresponds to an Alan Cohen photography exhibit.