Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

In an age of computer graphics and 3-D rendering, South African artist William Kentridge employs the simplest materials imaginable — paper, charcoal and pastel — to create animated films that explore apartheid, colonialism, human rights abuses and other sobering topics with breathtaking insight and poignancy. At 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 2, Kentridge — whose work also includes prints, books, sculpture, collage, etching and performing arts — will receive the Dean’s Medal from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. 

Rafael Moneo is arguably the most celebrated Spanish architect working today, known for innovative modern buildings that deftly navigate even the most challenging urban sites while preserving and respecting the existing environments. At 6:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28, Moneo will discuss his work for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ spring Public Lecture Series. 

Location. Budget. Materials. Architecture is the art of negotiating constraints — to say nothing of clients, zoning and the unique history and particular characteristics of a given place. “There’s no such thing as a blank slate,” says Kathryn Dean, a principal of Dean/Wolf Architects in New York and director of the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. 

Over the last five decades, pioneering conceptual artist Luis Camnitzer has earned an international reputation for his subtly biting prints, multiples and sculptural works that combine poetic lyricism with political and social engagement. This spring, Camnitzer will receive the Printmaker Emeritus Award during the 2011 annual conference of the Southern Graphics Council International, hosted March 16 to 19 by Washington University’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. In recognition, the university’s Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum has organized Luis Camnitzer: Forewords and Last Words, an exhibition of works spanning the career of this influential artist.  

The inaugural class has been selected for the Professional Leadership Academy & Network (PLAN), a yearlong professional development program intended to cultivate future leaders at Washington University in St. Louis. And according to PLAN committee members, it was no easy task to choose the class of 26 from the “talented staff pool” of applicants.

Art historian Richard Meyer, associate professor at the University of Southern California (USC) and author of Outlaw Representation: Censorship and Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century American Art (2002), will launch the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ Multiple Feminisms Lecture Series Feb. 2. Designed to expand the conversation about what it means to be feminist, the series will investigate the ongoing cultural debate over sexuality and gender, as well as the effects of that debate on modern art, visual culture and academic practice.

The Advisory Committee for the Diversity and Inclusion Grants has awarded eight grants to Washington University faculty and staff for initiatives that improve the university environment for women and members of underrepresented minority groups.

Undergraduate tuition at Washington University in St. Louis will be $40,950 for the 2011-12 academic year — a $1,550 (3.9 percent) increase over the 2010-11 current academic tuition of $39,400. The required student activity fee will total $410, and the student health fee will be no more than $632. Barbara A. Feiner, vice chancellor for finance, made the announcement. 

In architecture as in life, the devil is in the details. Few know this better than Edward Ford, an educator, architect and author whose two-volume The Details of Modern Architecture (1990 and 1996) provided the first comprehensive analysis of how detailing and construction techniques can distort, camouflage or enhance a building. On Jan. 24, Ford, the Vincent and Eleanor Shea Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia, will launch the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ spring Public Lecture Series. 

Since its formation in 1978, Island Press has evolved from a traditional contract print shop — producing high quality editions in standard media and formats — into a uniquely collaborative and educational enterprise known for complex, large-scale works by a range of nationally and internationally renowned artists. In January, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will explore that evolution with Island Press: Three Decades of Printmaking. Curated by Karen K. Butler, assistant curator of the Kemper Art Museum, the exhibition will survey more than two dozen works highlighting the press’ history of technical innovation, artistic experimentation and student participation.