Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present two new exhibitions beginning Friday, May 6, and running through Monday, Aug. 1. Cosima von Bonin: Character Appropriation is the first solo museum exhibition in the American Midwest for the influential conceptual artist, who lives and works in Cologne, Germany. The 2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition will feature projects by 24 graduating master of fine arts candidates in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

Mark S. Weil, PhD, the E. Desmond Lee Professor Emeritus in the Department of Art History & Archaeology in Arts & Sciences and one of Washington University’s most prominent and long-serving professors, is providing the institution with a gift of $2,525,000 to support Arts & Sciences and programs in the humanities. From this gift, an endowed fund of $250,000 will be established to support the University Libraries.

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts honored eight outstanding architecture and art alumni at its fourth annual Awards for Distinction dinner April 28 at the Coronado Ballroom in St. Louis. The awards recognized graduates who have demonstrated creativity, innovation, leadership and vision through their contributions to the practices of art, architecture and design, as well as to WUSTL and the Sam Fox School.

Between 40-50 Washington University in St. Louis students each year make up the January Program, a unique experience in the College of Arts & Sciences and the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts. It allows talented students like Ogi Kwon opportunities to transition to WUSTL and arrive on campus five months after their peers without skipping a beat.

Graduate students from across Washington University gathered April 4 for the Graduate Professional Council’s (GPC) Bridging GAPS Awards Ceremony in Danforth University Center. The annual ceremony, organized by the GPC, is a recognition and celebration of the important role that graduate student leadership plays in enhancing interdisciplinary endeavors and the graduate student community.

In the beginning was the fig leaf. The first garment. Eden couture. “Our students always start with a leaf-inspired project because that is the beginning of fashion,” quips Jeigh Singleton, director of the Fashion Design program in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. “It is the original inspiration for color, line, shape, structure, texture — all the things that we think of when we think of clothing.” On May 1, those qualities and more will be on full display as part of the Sam Fox School’s 82nd Annual Fashion Design Show.

Based in Cologne, Germany, conceptual artist Cosima von Bonin is among the most influential yet elusive artists of her generation. At once playful, seductive and satirical, her wide-ranging creative practice interweaves sculpture, installation, video, textiles, performance and electronic music with a diverse network of collaborators. Beginning Friday, May 6, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present Cosima von Bonin: Character Appropriation, the artist’s first solo museum exhibition in the American Midwest.

At recent Board of Trustees meetings, the following faculty members were appointed with tenure or promoted with tenure: David T. Curiel; Mary C. Dinauer; David C. Queller; Joan E. Strassmann; Patrick Lawrence Burke; Feng Chen; Gammon M. Earhart; Justin Fay; Michael D. Frachetti; Denise P. Head; Joseph M. Jez; Jennifer M. Kapczynski; Nan Lin; Tabea A. Linhard; Francis N. Lovett; Liang Ma; Igor Marjanovic; Robi D. Mitra; David E. Reichert; Guillermo Rosas; Gillian Kay Russell; Lori Watt; and Jie Zheng.

During the 2011-12 academic year, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will mark the centennial of its College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design as well as the 50th anniversary of the Master of Urban Design program. On April 1 and 2, the Sam Fox School will preview festivities with “Architecture at 100: Architectural Education at Washington University in St. Louis,” a series of informal talks, roundtable discussions and alumni reflections.

Design is a problem solver. Design is a provoker, a test lab for change. Design is a tool for breaking old patterns and discovering new ways of thinking. So argues Alan Webber, cofounder of Fast Company, the pioneering magazine written for and about progressive business leaders. At 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 4, Webber will deliver the annual Eugene J. Mackey Jr. Lecture for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. The talk is co-sponsored by the Olin Business School.