Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

From the beginning of his tenure, Mark Wrighton set out to put Washington University and its students and faculty on the map.

Ryan Lawson, BFA ’04, is an interior designer who as a student switched from studying architecture to art. He says that Chancellor Wrighton took a keen interest in his choice because Lawson was a student during the early planning phases of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

Los Angeles sculptor Elana Mann and Chicago public artist Erik L. Peterson have won the 2019 Stone & DeGuire Contemporary Art Awards, presented by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Each winner will receive $25,000 to advance their studio practice.

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual arts will present its 90th Annual Fashion Design Show April 14 in Anheuser-Busch Hall. The event will feature dozens of models wearing scores of outfits created by sophomore, junior and senior fashion majors.

New York-based architect Lily Zhang has won the 2018-19 James Harrison Steedman Memorial Fellowship in Architecture. Granted biennially since 1925, the $50,000 award — among the largest such prizes in the nation — is organized by the College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, and by the American Institute of Architects St. Louis.

Kinga Pabjan, a master’s candidate in architecture and construction management in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, was part of a three-person team that won the 2019 Project Precast design competition.

Sculptor and longtime faculty member Ronald Leax, the Halsey C. Ives Professor Emeritus of Art, will receive the Dean’s Medal for outstanding service April 4 as part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ annual Awards for Distinction dinner.

This fall, one of the top programs for art, architecture and design at a U.S. university — the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis — will unveil two major new capital projects that will transform the campus, reshape the visitor experience and firmly establish the prominence of its art museum on campus. The newly constructed Anabeth and John Weil Hall will house state-of-the-art graduate studios, classrooms and digital fabrication spaces. A major expansion and renovation of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will strengthen visibility, better showcase the renowned permanent collection and accommodate larger and more varied special exhibitions.

Art schools are places of innovation and expression, of studio skills and critical analysis. But for many young artists, the transition to professional practice can be fraught. How do you start building a career? Opportunities for students like The MFA Fair this November help.

Junior Ruoyi Gan and senior Madeline Halpern are representing the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts in Varsity Art XXIII. Hosted by Art St. Louis, the annual exhibition features work by undergraduate and graduate students from St. Louis college and university-level art programs.