WUSTL School of Design & Visual Arts News

I-CARES announces 2013 funded research projects

2013-05-14 00:00:00

The International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES) has announced the award winners for its 2013 Call for Proposals.

As part of its mission, I-CARES awards seed funding to WUSTL faculty undertaking innovative and collaborative research in the broad areas of renewable energy and sustainability through an annual call for proposals.

This year, special emphasis was placed on projects related to climate change.

I-CARES has awarded 12 projects with 25 Washington University faculty from five schools: Arts & Sciences, the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, the School of Engineering & Applied Science, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and the School of Medicine.

For a full list of winning projects and the faculty members involved, visiticares.wustl.edu/research/Pages/Projects.aspx.

I-CARES supports a network of national and international researchers all with a focus on renewable energy, the environment and sustainability, extending beyond Washington University’s seven schools. With the addition of the 2013 research awardees, I-CARES now supports 99 individual researchers across 71 projects.

A play of perception

Tue, 14 Say 2013 20:54:22 CST

A Play of Perception by Sarah Theis. Installed in Mooney Park, it is one of five works included in the 2013 University City Sculpture Series. Photo by James Byard/WUSTL Photo Services.

What you see often depends on where you stand.

A simple truth, perhaps, but one that bears remembering. For Sarah Theis, a senior in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, the observation served as a starting point for A Play of Perception, her contribution to the annual University City Sculpture Series.

Now in its 27th year, the series provides students with valuable hands-on experience in developing works of public art. Participants choose locations, estimate costs, design models and make professional presentations before University City’s Municipal Commission on Arts & Letters. Winning projects — funded by the city and the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis — are then constructed, installed and unveiled.

Theis was one of five students — along with Dara Katzenstein, Seth Czaplewski, Catherine Leberg and Jon Orosco — selected to install works this spring. They remain on view through Sept. 10.

A Play of Perception, located in Mooney (aka Jackson) Park, consists of four brightly colored steel circles, each containing a distinct image. Yet when viewed straight-on, these images line up to form a single landscape. The artist explains that she hopes the piece will create “a sense of wonder” while providing park-goers with a new lens through which to view otherwise familiar sights.

Theis’ piece shared “Best of Show” award honors with Leberg’s The Seed Men. As much an exercise in community outreach as in object-making, The Seed Men was created with assistance from fourth-grade art students at Barbara C. Jordan Elementary School. Using a special “seed paper,” the students constructed small, paper-maché-like human figures that, when planted and cultivated, sprout either wildflowers or basil houseplants.

“Even as more people move into cities, and the urban and suburban setting becomes more encompassing of land area, the importance of the green space must remain a focus,” Leberg says. “Like our histories and our cultures, this is something we pass along, through our actions, our words, our art.”

In conjunction with the sculpture series, Buzz Spector, the Dean and
Jane Reuter Hitzeman and Herbert F. Hitzeman Jr. Professor of Art, organized an exhibition titled Community Visuals: A Student Exhibition in 2-Dimensions, for the University City Public Library.

The exhibition featured more than 20 prints, paintings and drawings by Sam Fox School students. Rachael Tellerman, a senior painting major, took Best of Show honors.

Click here for map of sculpture projects.

Click here for photos of the works-in-progress.

Celebrate Art Museum Day May 18

Liam Otten — 2013-05-09 00:00:00

Has a painting or drawing ever stopped you in your tracks? Have you ever circled a sculpture, collating angles and comparing views? Have you ever been challenged, or simply amused, by an installation or performance?

If so, you’re not alone. On May 18, more than 100 institutions across North America will celebrate Art Museum Day with a variety of free activities, special programming and other initiatives.

This fourth annual event, organized by the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), is designed to highlight the impact of museums within their communities and the importance of the visual arts to society at large.

In Missouri, WUSTL’s Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum — one of only four AAMD member institutions in the state — will welcome visitors with refreshments and student-led tours as well as art-making opportunities and discounts in the Museum Shop.

“Museums, by their very nature, are dedicated to serving the public,” said Sabine Eckmann, William T. Kemper Director and Chief Curator of the Kemper Art Museum, who was elected to the AAMD last fall.

“Everything we do — from planning exhibitions and developing related programming to collecting artworks and preserving them for future generations — is intended to educate and inspire,” Eckmann continued. “Art Museum Day represents an important opportunity for museums to reach out and engage the broadest possible audience, and for that audience to reciprocate by sharing their own encounters with art.”

The AAMD’s Art Museum Day coincides with International Museum Day, organized annually around the world by the International Council of Museums. Visitors are encouraged to post stories, responses and reflections on social media platforms, via the hashtag #ArtMuseumDay, and through the Kemper Art Museum’s social media channels.

Founded in 1916, the AAMD represents approximately 210 directors of art museums throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. The group is dedicated to establishing and maintaining high standards for both its members and the museums they represent, and serves as a forum for the exchange of information and the exploration of ideas.

For more information, call (314) 935-4523 or visit kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu.

Into the ‘Vault’

2013-05-02 00:00:00

The Scarlet Tanager band performs in Kemper Art Museum atrium as part of the museum's third annual Vault Party. Photos by Anne Stanford.

Painters have studio visits. Musicians have backstage passes. And museums? Well, museums have vaults.

On April 12, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum showcased dozens of rarely seen works from its acclaimed permanent collection as part of its third annual Vault Party. (See slideshow at right.)

Organized by the Kemper Student Council, the evening featured music, art-making activities and The Artist’s Process, an exhibition of works by Joseph Beuys, Julien Dupré, Elizabeth Peyton, Ed Ruscha and many others.

“Students use museum resources and work closely with Kemper staff to curate a one-night art show,” explains Anne Stanford, a junior who helped organize the event.

“We get to strategize about how to best allocate funds, choose where the art goes, and write up a brochure about it,” Stanford adds. “As students ourselves, we are able to represent the opinions and voices of the student body, and to help choose works and programming they might like to see.”

In addition to the exhibition, that programming included a performance by the band Scarlet Tanager, as well as materials for crafting opera masks and Chinese-style calligraphy.

“It’s a unique and incredible opportunity,” adds senior Rachel Schorr.

“The turnout and response were both extremely positive.”

Contemporary German Art: Selections From the Permanent Collection

Liam Otten — 2013-04-05 00:00:00

Andreas Gursky, Beijing, 2010. Inkjet print, 120 7/8 x 83 7/8" (framed). Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis. University purchase with funds from the David Woods Kemper Memorial Foundation, 2012. Artist Rights Society Inc. (ARS). Hi-res version upon request.

In Beijing (2010), German photographer Andreas Gursky depicts China’s famous “Bird’s Nest” stadium, a spectacular structure designed for the 2008 Olympics by Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, with Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei. Yet to create the image, Gursky digitally combined multiple viewpoints, emphasizing the building’s complex beam structure but also distorting the viewer’s perspective and freeing the final work from its reference to the actual building.

In May, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will feature Beijing in Contemporary German Art: Selections From the Permanent Collection, an exhibition that highlights 16 large-scale works, all completed within the last 12 years by artists living and working in Germany. The exhibition complements the opening of a major expansion to the Saint Louis Art Museum, which will showcase its own holdings of postwar German art.

Thomas Bayrle, Sun Yat-sen (Sign for Moon), 2005. Silkscreen on cardboard mounted on wooden grid, 48 7/16 x 36 9/16 x 1 13/16". Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis. University purchase with funds from the David Woods Kemper Memorial Foundation, 2012. Artist Rights Society Inc. (ARS). Hi-res version upon request.

In addition to Gursky’s Beijing, Contemporary German Art will feature several important new acquisitions, including Sun Yat-sen (Sign for Moon) (2005) by Thomas Bayrle. Also on view will be works by Franz Ackermann, Thomas Demand, Charline von Heyl, Sergej Jensen and Corinne Wasmuht — all recently acquired thanks to a gift from the James M. Kemper Jr. and the David Woods Kemper Memorial Foundation. Rounding out the exhibition will be major pieces from Cosima von Bonin, Isa Genzken, Ulrike Kuschel, Michel Majerus, Manfred Pernice and Wolfgang Tillmans.

Though all of these artists work within the context of a reunified democratic Germany, none overtly dwell on German history or national identity — nor do they demonstrate a shared visual style or singular medium, as did the so-called German neo-Expressionists in the 1980s. Rather, these artists strongly underscore their own artistic voices and individual concerns. Their artworks, similarities notwithstanding, are principally borne out of difference.

Some, such as Ackermann and the late Majerus, expand the medium of painting into the realm of installation art, endowing it with a monumental presence and stability that reflects but also stands in counterpoint to the global digital revolution. Others, such as Wasmuht, revise the postmodernist strategy of appropriation to create entirely new image worlds — worlds that emphasize slowness in both their conception and perception.

Just as the medium of painting is turned upside down and inside out, so too is the practice of photography. Tillmans, for example, creates large-scale photographs without the use of a camera, while Demand’s practice of documenting temporary sculptures results in photographs that lack a real-world referent. Bayrle — a major figure within postwar German art, who nevertheless remains overlooked internationally — bridges photography, printmaking and sculpture. In Sun Yat-sen, he silkscreens an iconic portrait of the Chinese revolutionary onto a three-dimensional relief of wood and cardboard that suggests both highway structures and collectivist networks.

Other artists explore the incorporation of the everyday into the realm of art. While Pernice challenges the ready-made as impromptu memorial, Genzken’s use of bits and pieces of the materials of daily life bestows otherwise anonymous sculptures with individuality. Von Bonin and Jensen both create objects made out of commonplace textiles, though their approaches differ: Jensen reworks the legacy of collage and found object artists such as Kurt Schwitters, while von Bonin provocatively employs stitching, dark humor and hermetic meaning to further complicate boundaries between popular culture and so-called high art.

Contemporary German Art is curated by Sabine Eckmann, William T. Kemper Director and chief curator. It will open with a public reception from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, May 3, and remain on view through Sept. 7, 2013. Both the reception and the exhibition are free and open to the public.

The Kemper Art Museum is located on Washington University’s Danforth Campus, immediately adjacent to Steinberg Hall, near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards. Regular hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays; and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The museum is closed Tuesdays.

Support for Contemporary German Art: Selections From the Permanent Collection is provided by James M. Kemper Jr.; the David Woods Kemper Memorial Foundation; the William T. Kemper Foundation; and members of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

For more information, call (314) 935-4523 or visit kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu.

Hatchery course helps fuel student start-up companies

Neil Schoenherr — 2012-04-26 00:00:00

St. Louis is becoming widely recognized as a hub for entrepreneurship. Students at Washington University in St. Louis are taking advantage of the close proximity to great resources by starting their own business ventures, with the help of a variety of on-campus clubs, competitions and a groundbreaking class.

Mary Butkus

Abby Cohen and Andrew Brimer, co-founders of Sparo Labs, pose with the Olin Cup after winning the top prize in this year's entrepreneurship competition.

The Hatchery, offered by Olin Business School but open to all students, both undergraduate and graduate, is one of the university’s capstone entrepreneurship courses.

It was one of the first business courses in the country to use multidisciplinary team collaboration, mentoring and coaching to support students as they launch enterprises while in college.

Enrolled students can work on their own social or commercial venture ideas or partner with community entrepreneurs to develop theirs.

“The Hatchery is fortunate to have the support of the St. Louis entrepreneurship community for the benefit of the students,” says Clifford Holekamp, senior lecturer in entrepreneurship and one of the course teachers.

“Students are connected with business consultants, subject matter experts and industry leaders to help develop their plans, and a judging panel of entrepreneurs and early-stage investors help evaluate the final results.”

The course is proving quite successful.

“Typically, more than 50 percent of student-initiated ideas are actually launched, an unusually high statistic that speaks to how extraordinarily entrepreneurial Washington University students are,” Holekamp says.

“The course is great because it is structured in a way that provides you with enough guidance that you don’t feel like you’re completely on your own, but enough freedom that you truly learn through experience,” says sophomore Arts & Sciences student Jolijt Tamanaha.

Tamanaha and a team of fellow undergraduates founded Farmplicity, which provides a path for local farm producers to sell fresh goods directly to St. Louis restaurants.

“Ken Harrington (managing director of the university’s Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and course instructor has put us in contact with so many amazing people, including many chefs and restaurateurs in St. Louis, who helped us flush out our concept,” Tamanaha says.

“At Washington University, our main goal is to have students experience the uncertainty that surrounds entrepreneurial activity,” Harrington says. “The Hatchery is one of several capstone courses where they learn to take action and have impact. Once this happens, they become ‘entrepreneurial’ for life.”

“I think the Hatchery is a fantastic course for those interested in entrepreneurship,” says senior Andrew Brimer, studying mechanical engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Brimer and Abby Cohen, a senior majoring in biomedical engineering, used the Hatchery to help hone their business, Sparo Labs. Their award-winning team, which includes students from Olin Business School, is developing a low-cost spirometer, a device that measures lung function. While most of these devices cost between $1,000 and $2,000, Sparo Labs is developing a model that will cost around $8.

“The course forces you to understand all the facets of a business venture and you never stop learning,” Brimer says. “The university is doing a great job promoting and encouraging entrepreneurship on all levels, from the ‘back of a napkin ideas’ that can be pitched at an IdeaBounce, to the Olin Cup or Discovery Competition that help foster more developed or mature projects into real companies with serious funding.”

“The Hatchery really helped us find mentors,” says senior Farmplicity team member Lauren Ortwein, majoring in marketing and operations and supply chain management at Olin Business School. “When you have a whole organization like the Skandarlaris Center helping connect you with local entrepreneurs, opportunity after opportunity presents itself to you when you put in the hard work.”

Wǒmen (我们): Contemporary Chinese Art on display

2013-04-22 00:00:00

Hung Liu, Bonsai, 1992. Photolithograph from two plates on Rives BFK paper, 22 1/2 x 30". Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis. Gift of Island Press (formerly the Washington University School of Art Collaborative Print Workshop), 1993.

In 1978, the reformist politician Deng Xiaoping helped launch a series of new economic policies that together marked the beginning of China’s modern “Reform Era.”

And just as this period has witnessed the emergence of China as a major international power, so too has it seen the arrival of contemporary Chinese art on the global stage.

Such is the backdrop for Wǒmen (我们): Contemporary Chinese Art, now on view at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

Curated by a trio of undergraduate students — Samantha Allen, Elizabeth Korb and Danielle Wu — the exhibition collects more than a dozen works by contemporary Chinese women artists, all created during this ongoing period of modernization and variously reflecting its hopes, illusions and realities.

The curators note that, though several artists engage with issues relating to gender politics, they generally resist the application of artistic labels, seeing themselves less as feminist artists than as individual practitioners who happen to be women.

This approach is encapsulated in the exhibition title: The Chinese character “wǒmen” (我们) can be read as “women” in English, but it literally translates more broadly to “us” in Chinese.

And indeed, the works on view span a wide variety of thematic territory, shedding light on issues that affect not only individuals but also the Chinese population as a whole. Topics range from the effects of rapid urbanization and the role of Chinese identity in a globalized society to the impact of sociocultural reforms on the fabric of everyday life.

http://youtu.be/RQEz_kQqSWk

Wǒmen (我们): Contemporary Chinese Art represents the inaugural exhibition of the Arthur Greenberg Curatorial Fellowship, a competitive program jointly sponsored by the Kemper Art Museum, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and the Department of Art History & Archaeology in Arts & Sciences. It remains on view through May 26 in the museum’s Teaching Gallery.

The Kemper Art Museum is located near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards. Regular hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays; and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The museum is closed Tuesdays.

For more information about the exhibition, call (314) 935-4523 or visit kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu.

‘Be a sponge’ and other advice to help students succeed at summer internships

Steve Givens — 2013-04-23 00:00:00

As students begin to leave campus for the summer, many will head off to internships, hoping to add to their classroom experiences and enhance their future opportunities by immersing themselves in the real world of work.

It’s a great way to spend the summer, said Mark Smith, Washington University in St. Louis’ associate vice chancellor for students and director of the Career Center, but to get the most out of the experience, it’s imperative that students have a clear plan.

“An internship can be the start of a great career, a way to make some money, a way to find out what you really like — and don't like — a way to confirm and fulfill your passions,” Smith said. “But you need to have a plan and the people you work with and for need to know about it.”

Essentially, Smith said, it comes down to these questions: What do you want to know about yourself, the industry in which you are working, and the function you are performing? And what can you can learn by the end of the summer and incorporate into your career planning and course choices when you return?

Smith offers four tips that will help make a summer internship more meaningful and productive.

1. It’s essential to communicate upfront to your supervisors what kinds of experiences you want to have before the end of the internship.

“Don't assume that the people you are working with will automatically know what you want,” Smith said. “You need to communicate the learning experiences and exposure you'd like to get in this very short time frame. Don't let past interns determine your summer. Your needs and goals are unique to you. Be professional, be clear, and don't give up. Most everyone at your firm is inclined to want to see you have a positive experience. Let them know what that experience looks like from your perspective.”

2. Find informal ways to meet others within the organization.

“Grab some coffee with folks you don't work directly with,” Smith said. “Set up lunches every week with people who are interesting to you, outside of your area. People love to talk about their work and careers — their achievements, their challenges, where they want to go next, and what they would recommend to you. By doing these things you will stand out, build a network of associates, and most importantly, learn what you need to know about where you want to direct your career passions when you return to school.”

3. Set high expectations and make the most of the experience, especially in the first four weeks.

“Be a sponge,” Smith said. “Do more than expected. Contribute in ways outside of the scope of the role they gave you. It will open opportunities that they, and you, hadn't considered at the beginning of your program. If you don't do this at the start, and you wait for the internship to evolve, you won't optimize your learning experience.”

4. Keep a journal and ask yourself questions such as:

• Do I really like working for this size of an organization?
• Is this type of organization the best way to start off my career?
• Would I want to spend eight hours a day working with people who do this kind of work?
• Would I be happy starting my career in a rigid culture that pays well, but which doesn't offer me the personal independence I am used to?
• Is it critical to get a graduate degree to be promoted in this industry?
• Where do those around me get their personal and professional satisfaction?
• How do professionals in this organization keep up with all the new developments?
• How do you get promoted in this industry?
• Which are the best organizations in this industry? Why are they the best?

Smith emphasizes that upfront planning and hard work are the keys to a successful internship.

“Every summer thousands of interns realize, too late, what they could have experienced, if they only communicated at the beginning what they wanted, and given 110 percent from Day One,” he said.

84th Annual Fashion Design Show May 5

Liam Otten — 2013-04-17 00:00:00

This steel-blue strapless dress, designed by senior Katherine Olvera, features a ribbon-detailed bodice and contrasting shawl. Model is Hao Feng of the Barbizon Modeling Agency. Photo by Jennifer Silverberg/WUSTL Photo Services. Download hi-res version.

The more you know about something, the more complicated it becomes.

Fashion design is both a singular practice and a series of interrelated skills. Inspiration leads to sketching, which leads to pattern-making, tailoring and construction, which in turn mark the pathway from studio to catwalk to retail environment.

This off-white dress in raw silk, by senior Sophia Fox-Dichter, also features a pleated skirt. Model is Ermina Allhodzic of the Barbizon Modeling Agency. Photo by Jennifer Silverberg/WUSTL Photo Services. Download hi-res version.

But for Washington University fashion design majors, the puzzle pieces all come together at 6 p.m. Sunday, May 5, when the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts presents its 84th Annual Fashion Design Show.

Featuring dozens of models wearing scores of outfits created by 26 aspiring designers, this New York runway-style extravaganza will take place in the Ballroom Theater of WUSTL’s 560 Music Center.

Tickets are $65 for general seating, or $50 for students, and are available through the Edison Theatre Box Office, (314) 935-6543, and all MetroTix outlets.

Discounted tickets, of $45 and $35, are available prior to May 1. Special reserved seats, with higher prices going to fund scholarships in the program, are also available.

For more information, email samfoxschool@wustl.edu.

The complete look

“Putting something out on the runway, you learn that it’s all about creating a complete look,” says Jennifer Ingram, the W. H. Smith Visiting Assistant Professor of Fashion, who coordinates the show.

“You might spend hours sewing, but if the pattern isn’t made correctly, or if the garment isn’t pressed right, then it isn’t going to fit,” she adds.

A 2004 alumna, Ingram fondly recalls the lessons imparted by the pressure of public presentation. “It has to be understandable to an audience,” she explains. “You might think something is very feminine, only to find that an audience sees it as hard and edgy.

“But when you finally see your look, something that you’ve made, going down the runway? There is a tremendous sense of accomplishment.”

This Herringbone wool topcoat, by senior Brian Lee, features a contrasting French cuff and spread collar shirt. Model is Zach Swanson of the Barbizon Modeling Agency. Photo by Jennifer Silverberg/WUSTL Photo Services. Download hi-res version.

Dresses, formal wear and undergarments

In a new twist, the show will open with kimonos designed by sophomores — a first for the fashion design program.

(Prior to this year, only juniors and seniors were featured in the show.)

Ingram notes that the kimono is rich in history and creative potential, but also simple to construct. “It’s a versatile garment, but not overwhelmed with technical details,” she says. “There are no zippers, no closures, no pockets. You don’t have to cut armholes.”

Next, the junior class will present color-blocked dresses, followed by tailored separates; pants and shirts; and signature dresses. The seniors, meanwhile, will show separates inspired by Underneath It All, the recent survey of undergarments at the Missouri History Museum.

Also on the bill will be formal wear, with each outfit incorporating both a transformational detail and a custom fabric manipulation. Ilana Moreno, for example, offers a cranberry evening gown that converts into a cocktail dress. Collette LeMaire brings hand-painted fabric to her crème-colored bridal gown.

(All formal looks are currently featured in a special exhibition at Plaza Frontenac, in the north center court, near the entrance to Saks Fifth Avenue.)

A cream-colored bridal mermaid gown, hand-painted, by senior Collette LeMaire. Model is Shameka Green of the Barbizon Modeling Agency. Photo by Jennifer Silverberg/WUSTL Photo Services. Download hi-res version.

What kind of designer do you want to be?

Perhaps the highlight of the show will be the seniors’ signature collections. The fashion equivalent to a graduating thesis, each is a fully coordinated clothing line tailored to a specific audience and based on a specific theme.

“You have to decide what type of designer you want to be,” Ingram explains. “What category will you design for? Who’s your target market? What sort of company would you like to work with?”

Abby Katsev, for example, will present children’s wear inspired by the Eloise book series. Katherine Olvera is creating formal cocktail dresses inspired by origami. Chantal Strasburger will offer day dresses influenced by her research of Southeast Asian textiles.

Other inspirations range from architecture (Ann Bullock) and minimalist design (Brian Lee) to the films of director Zhang Yimou (Sophia Fox-Dichter), a mysterious French circus (Carly Oshima) and the Ruined Polaroids of photographer William Miller (Felicia Podberesky).

“It’s a balance of freedom and restriction,” Ingram says. “You can be creative and think outside the box, but you also have to make sure the garment works for a manufacturer and a clientele.

“The idea is to take the skills learned as sophomores and juniors, and to begin using them strategically.”

Organizers and Co-sponsors

Guest panelists for the 84th Annual Fashion Design Show will be Emily Koplar, designer and owner of Wai Ming; Charlotte Kerr, assistant buyer for Neiman Marcus; and Tania Beasley-Jolly and Doug Moss, marketing director and general manager, respectively, of Saks Fifth Avenue.

Stylists are led by Dominic Bertani of the Dominic Michael Salon, who has done the models’ hair for the past 21 years. Makeup is by students from The Paul Mitchell School. Footwear is provided by Brown Shoe. Lighting, audio and runway tech is by Ironman Sound.

Outstanding student designers receive a variety of scholarships, cash prizes and awards. The Dominic Michael Silver Scissors Designer of the Year Award is presented to one outstanding senior at the end of the evening. Susan Sanders Block sponsors the Silver Ripper Award, presented to one outstanding junior. Moss and Beasley-Jolly will present the Saks Fifth Avenue Honorary Designer Award.

The 560 Music Center is located in University City, at 560 Trinity Ave., near the intersection with Delmar Boulevard. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. A meet-and-greet with designers immediately will follow the show, at 7 p.m.

Daniel Libeskind on drawing

2013-04-10 00:00:00

Architect Daniel Libeskind (at right) talks with students and faculty in the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. Photo by Whitney Curtis/WUSTL Photo Services.

Acclaimed architect Daniel Libeskind met with architecture students and faculty from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts to discuss the role of drawing in his practice.

The conversation centered on a pair of artist’s books he created in the early 1980s. Copies of Chamber works: architectural meditations on themes from Heraclitus (1983) and Theatrum mundi: through the green membranes of space (1985) are both included in the collection of WUSTL's Kranzberg Art & Architecture Library.

Libeskind was on campus to discuss “The Future of Cities” as part of the Assembly Series. The visit was cosponsored by the Sam Fox School and the Architecture Student Council.

http://youtu.be/jeERzO-v7fM

Sam Fox School Awards for Distinction announced

2013-04-19 00:00:00

Peter Saul, Shark in My Bathtub. 72" by 96" acrylic/canvas, 2011. Copyright: Peter Saul. Courtesy: Mary Boone Gallery, New York.

“If there’s anything you keep doing wrong, if there’s anything that every teacher you’ve ever had tries to get you to stop doing — do more of that.”
— Peter Saul

Described by The New York Times as “an artist’s artist” and “a serial offender in violations of good taste,” painter Peter Saul (BFA ’56) has provided lush, lurid and scathingly satirical commentaries on political, social and historical events for more than 50 years.

Christopher Columbus, Willem de Kooning, the Vietnam War, Angela Davis, George W. Bush, Abu Ghraib, and the artist himself — all come under the squirming, drooping, brightly colored gun of Saul’s disturbingly inventive paintings and prints.

On April 11, Saul received the Dean’s Medal from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.

The medal — which recognizes extraordinary contributions to the fields of art, architecture or design — comes as part of the Sam Fox School’s sixth annual Awards for Distinction dinner.

In all, the school recognized seven outstanding alumni who have demonstrated creativity, innovation, leadership and vision in their respective fields.

Architecture alumni Catherine Meehan Barner (BA ’75) of San Francisco and Kenneth D. Levien, FAIA (BA ’74/MArch ’76) of New York both received Awards for Distinction.

Also receiving Awards for Distinction were art alumni Dexter Fedor (BFA/BSBA ’79) of Los Angeles and Carolyne Roehm (BFA ’73) of New York.

Architect Erin Cubbison, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, (BS ’03) of Berkeley, Calif., received a Young Alumni Award, as did printmaker Bunny Cornell Burson (MFA ’05) of St. Louis.

The awards ceremony was held at Palladium Saint Louis, 1400 Park Place. For more information, contact Aly Abrams, (314) 935-7223, or aly.abrams@wustl.edu.

Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

The Sam Fox School is a unique collaboration in architecture, art and design education. Offering professional studio programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, the Sam Fox School links four academic units — the College of Art, College of Architecture, Graduate School of Art and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design — with the university’s nationally recognized Kemper Art Museum.

For more information about Sam Fox School, visit samfoxschool.wustl.edu.

WUSTL volunteers pave the way for CGI U large-scale service project

2013-04-03 00:00:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7_kGOYdwlg&feature=youtu.be

More than 250 students, faculty, staff and friends from across the university gathered at Gateway STEM High School last Saturday, March 30, to help lay the groundwork for this weekend’s meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative University.

Projects ranged from taping and priming interior walls to removing worn flooring, painting athletic field bleachers and building a series of raised planter beds for Gateway STEM’s horticulture program.

The work cleared the way for the CGI U service project, an even larger undertaking that will conclude the weekend’s activities. Approximately 800 conference delegates will work on dozens of restorative projects and facility updates around Gateway STEM — from grounds maintenance and storage clean-out to garden construction and more.

In an effort to create a greener and healthier environment, each project will incorporate sustainable products and practices. The event will include a short program featuring President Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, and Gateway STEM High School Principal, Beth Bender, who will speak about the importance of giving back.

whitney curtis

Social work student Nondwe Kali paints the walls inside Gateway STEM High School.

whitney curtis

Students remove carpet from a classroom and take it to the dumpster. As part of CGI U, Interface carpet company donated new, sustainable carpet, which will be installed by students Sunday, April 7.

whitney curtis

Architecture students in the Sam Fox School designed a series of raised planter beds for use by faculty and students in Gateway STEM's horticulture program. Here, volunteers unroll, fold and staple metal hardware cloth into the inside face of the planter base. The idea is to create a “cage” or “basket” filled with chunks of gravel, which will facilitate water drainage.

whitney curtis

Jimmy Biagi, a senior in mechanical engineering, cuts timber for use in the planter base. To minimize cutting and waste, the dimensions of the planter are matched to readily available material sizes.

Two environmental activists to give sustainability lecture April 10

Julie Kennedy — 2013-04-08 00:00:00

Two prominent environmental thinkers and activists will address climate change, biodiversity and pollution during an upcoming lecture at Washington University in St. Louis.

The lecture, titled “To Hell in a Handbasket? The Global Environment and Sustainability,” is free and open to the public. It will begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 10, in Whitaker Hall Auditorium. The primary sponsors are University College — the adult, evening and continuing education division in Arts & Sciences — and the International Affairs program in University College.

Adjunct instructor Anukriti Hittle, the driving force behind the lecture, suggested Robert Repetto and Daniel Tunstall as speakers because of their long history of environmentalism.

Tunstall

“These two speakers have a long-term and deep understanding of the issues that plague our world today,” said Hittle, who teaches in the International Affairs and Environmental Studies programs and advises students on environmental and sustainability careers through The Career Center.

“Not only are they scholars, they are activists. I suggested Bob Repetto because he is a pioneer in environmental economics and Dan Tunstall because he has worked with indicators of sustainability since the Nixon administration.

Repetto

“When our students hear about these complex and intractable issues, they want to know what they can do. I know that these two speakers can help answer this question, as well as inspire by example.”

Repetto, author of America’s Climate Problem: The Way Forward, has combined an academic career as an economist at Harvard, Yale and the University of Colorado with a leadership role in environmental policy as vice president of the World Resources Institute.

Tunstall worked on statistical policy in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and he directed the information program at the World Resources Institute until his retirement in 2011.

The lecture is part of a larger daylong symposium on sustainability issues. The other events include a lunch and discussion with guests and selected students and faculty, and short presentations for students about sustainability careers.

Other sponsors include the School of Engineering and Applied Science; the International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability; the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies; the International and Area Studies program; the Environmental Studies program; the Office of Sustainability; and the College of Architecture.

The event grew out of Hittle’s professional association with the two speakers and University College’s interest and programs in international affairs, sustainability, global leadership and management. The symposium also reflects a universitywide commitment to sustainability and global issues.

For more information, call (314) 935-6700.

Faces of Hope rally readies campus for Clinton Global Initiative University

2013-03-28 00:00:00

The Faces of Hope rally -- complete with drummers, video remarks by Chelsea Clinton and the announcement of Washington University in St. Louis' $30 million commitment to sustainability -- helped excite the WUSTL community as the campus prepares to host Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) April 5-7.

CGI U is an annual meeting bringing together students and youth, experts and celebrities to discuss and work to solve pressing global challenges. To learn more about CGI U, including student projects, events and related programming and the important work WUSTL faculty, students and staff are doing, visit cgiu.wustl.edu.

james byard

Students who have committed to completing projects as part of CGI U gathered at Washington University's Danforth University Center to showcase and explain their plans to WUSTL community members during the Faces of Hope rally and celebration. The rally was also a zero-net waste event, with students using laptops instead of posters to explain their ideas. To learn more about students' commitments to action, visit cgiu.wustl.edu.

james byard

Members of the Crash Band drum line and the WUSTL cheerleading squad provide a rousing start to the campus' annual Faces of Hope event celebrating civic engagement and community service by WUSTL faculty, students and staff. This year's event focused on projects students are developing as part of CGI U, from helping St. Louis youth improve their neighborhoods to installing a wind turbine in Nicaragua.

james byard

Washington University Executive Vice Chancellor for Administration Hank Webber announces the university's $30 million Energy Conservation Investment during the Faces of Hope rally. "The inspiring work of our faculty, staff and students is helping to solve pressing global issues," he said. Amanda Moore McBride, director of the Gephardt Institute for Public Service, and Student Union President Julian Nicks also made remarks. Nicks encouraged people to make small changes in their own lives, such as taking shorter showers, saying such steps added together can have a meaningful impact.

james byard

Students explain their CGI U projects to Amanda Moore McBride, right, chair of the WUSTL CGI U effort, during the Faces of Hope rally. About 200 WUSTL students have committed to completing projects that address one of CGI U's focus areas: education, environment and climate change, peace and human rights, poverty alleviation and public health.

james byard

Students make their pledges to sustainability during the Faces of Hope rally. The display offers a visible sign of the university's "Less is More" campaign, a new initiative that encourages individuals to take simple steps such as turning off lights when they're not needed and recycling as much as possible.

Daniel Libeskind to discuss 'The Future of Cities' April 2

2013-03-26 00:00:00

Daniel Libeskind. Image courtesy of Michael Klinkhamer Photography.

Daniel Libeskind, one of the most celebrated architects working today, will discuss “The Future of Cities” as part of the Assembly Series at Washington University in St. Louis.

His presentation, sponsored by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and the Architecture Student Council, will begin at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 2, in Graham Chapel. The event is free and open to the public, though seating for the public may be limited. A Q&A will immediately follow.

For more information, visit assemblyseries.wustl.edu.

The Jewish Museum, Berlin. Image courtesy of Guenter Schneider.

Daniel Libeskind

Born to Holocaust survivors in Łódź, Poland, in 1946, Libeskind was a virtuoso musician at a young age, but gave up music to focus on architecture.

He became an American citizen in 1965, earning his undergraduate degree in architecture from Cooper Union in 1970 and a postgraduate degree in the history and theory of architecture from the School of Comparative Studies at Essex University in 1972.

Libeskind established his architectural studio in Berlin in 1989, after winning the competition to build the Jewish Museum. Even before its opening, in 2001, the museum’s radical, strikingly asymmetrical design — filled with disorienting angles, underground passages and slit windows — became an icon for the City of Berlin and Germany.

(Some commentators went so far as to suggest that the museum remain empty, a monument to the void left by the Holocaust. However, Libeskind and museum director Michael Blumenthal noted such proposals defeat the project’s purpose, which is to pay homage to the rich cultural contributions of Germany’s Jewish community.)

Studio Daniel Libeskind moved its headquarters from Berlin to New York City in February 2003, when Libeskind was selected to lead the Ground Zero Master Plan.

Proposed design for the residential tower One Madison Avenue in New York.

Serving as both the conceptual basis and the technical foundation for the entire redeveloped complex, the plan encompasses four new towers, a transportation hub, a visitors pavilion, a memorial and a memorial museum.

The plan dictates the location and massing of each program element, including building height and relative size as well as proximity and the relationships between them. As Libeskind has noted, the project represents both a “healing of New York” and “a space to witness the resilience of America.”

Today, in addition to the New York headquarters, Studio Libeskind has European partner offices based in Zürich and Milan. Its practice spans museums and concert halls as well as convention centers, university buildings, hotels, shopping centers and residential towers. Projects range from the Military History Museum in Dresden and the Creative Media Center in Hong Kong to major extensions of the Denver Art Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

In addition to his design work, Libeskind is regarded as one of architecture’s preeminent theorists. His books include Breaking Ground: Adventures in Life and Architecture (2004); Daniel Libeskind: The Space of Encounter (2001); Libeskind Speaks: Writings of Construction (1999); and Radix-Matix: Architecture and Writings (1997).

Libeskind has taught and lectured at many universities worldwide. He has held such positions as the Frank O. Gehry Chair at the University of Toronto; Professor at the Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe, Germany; the Cret Chair at the University of Pennsylvania; and the Louis Kahn Chair at Yale University.

He has received numerous awards including the 2001 Hiroshima Art Prize — an award given to an artist whose work promotes international understanding and peace, never before given to an architect.

Libeskind lives in New York with his wife and business partner, Nina Libeskind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8w4UQL6aI0

University’s Commitment to Action brings $30 million to advance sustainability

Neil Schoenherr — 2013-03-27 00:00:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4R5GKfHUUg&feature=share&list=PLb9ODR3vzQJM-ZkBw7DngUgJU8enswKkw

Henry S. Webber, executive vice chancellor for administration, discusses the $30 million dollar sustainability commitment Washington University is making as part of its Clinton Global Initiative University efforts. The ambitious plan involves returning the university to 1990 emissions levels despite a doubling in size of the campus and its Medical School.

As part of its Clinton Global Initiative University efforts, Washington University in St. Louis has announced a major institutional commitment to action around the important issue of sustainability.

Webber

“Human health and environmental sustainability are inextricably linked,” said Henry S. Webber, executive vice chancellor for administration. “As a university community, one of the most important things we can do is consume less. Consuming less reduces greenhouse gas emissions; cuts down on fossil fuel consumption; and positively impacts air and water quality, public health, climate patterns, agricultural production and more.”

As such, Washington University is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions 22 percent by 2020, reverting to 1990 levels.

To advance this goal, the university has established an Energy Conservation Investment of $30 million that will enable the university to accelerate investments in:

greater energy efficiency
improved heating and cooling
better waste management

Students, faculty and staff are committing to consume less as part of the university’s “Less is More” campaign.

Taking simple actions such as turning off lights and recycling as much as possible, combined with the institutional investment, will result in lower emissions and preservation of natural resources.

While the university has accomplished much in recent years to reduce its environmental impact, these commitments strengthen the institution’s resolve to push this initiative to the next level.

“Society expects great universities to provide leadership on critical social issues and to be very wise stewards of our resources,” Webber said. “Our sustainability work does both.

“We’re showing how as a $2.3 billion economic engine, we can significantly reduce our environmental impact, and we can do so in a way that’s also economically viable. That frees up resources to invest in our primary missions of teaching, research and patient care.”

Sustainability at WUSTL

Washington University in St. Louis is a national leader in sustainability, a core priority that runs through all aspects of the campus community, operations and the university’s work as a leading research and teaching institution.

The university already has made great strides in the area of sustainability. While the university’s square footage has more than doubled since 1990, to 11.5 million square feet from 5.7 million square feet, the university has reduced its overall energy usage by 4 percent during this time.

Sixty-eight percent of waste was diverted from landfills in 2012 and the university has amassed more than $109 million in avoided energy costs since 1990.

Washington University is the hub of an international laboratory, training leaders while creating and nurturing ideas aimed at forging a more sustainable future. Significant global partnerships are helping to address issues of energy, environment and sustainability through international collaborative research efforts.

For more information, visit sustain.wustl.edu. For more information about the Clinton Global Initiative University, visit cgiu.wustl.edu.

Faces of Hope campus rally to kick off Clinton Global Initiative University

Kelly Wiese Niemeyer — 2013-03-20 00:00:00

People around campus have been considering their personal commitments to action since it was announced that CGI U would be coming to Washington University in St. Louis. Above, engineering students Brittany Edwards, left, and Sara Fletcher are committed to alternative energy research. To view a gallery of commitments to action from WUSTL faculty, staff and students, visit the Washington University Facebook page.

Install a wind turbine in Nicaragua. Create a mobile app to help illiterate women in Pakistan access health and education information. Teach youth in distressed St. Louis neighborhoods leadership skills to improve their communities. Help people in China quit smoking. Get veterans to train horses for therapy use. Provide HPV vaccines to youths in Uganda.

These are just a sampling of the detailed and far-reaching projects Washington University in St. Louis students have committed to accomplishing as part of this year’s Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U), which will hold its annual meeting on campus in April.

The Faces of Hope event on Wednesday, March 27, is an opportunity for the WUSTL community and friends to come together and get ready for CGI U.

UPCOMING CGI U PROGRAMMING:

6 p.m. March 25, January Hall, Room 110. Screening of Precious Knowledge documentary
2 p.m. April 5, Wilson Hall, Room 214. "Debt and Inequality" lecture, Louis Hyman, author of Borrow: The American Way of Debt. 3:30 p.m. April 6, Former President Bill Clinton and Stephen Colbert, host of The Colbert Report, hold the closing plenary session of CGI U.

- RSVP for Faces of Hope here.

- Stay tuned for watch party information.

- Visit cgiu.wustl.edu for the latest event and schedule updates.

Learn about more than 50 of the 118 projects that students have committed to for CGI U. Hear university leaders’ announcement of a major institutional commitment to action, and find out how you can be part of the WUSTL-CGI U effort that starts on campus next month.

Faces of Hope is an annual event at WUSTL, hosted by the Gephardt Institute for Public Service, that celebrates the faculty, staff and students’ civic engagement and community service. The rally provides a chance to learn more about particular service projects under way and network with like-minded community members.

Faces of Hope will run from 4:30-6 p.m. in the Danforth University Center’s first- and second-floor common areas. Attendees can support the WUSTL commitment by signing a pledge and choosing a giveaway item. To receive a giveaway, people must pre-register here by Friday, March 22.

Recognizing CGI U’s commitment to protecting the environment, the Faces of Hope gathering plans to be a zero-net waste and energy event.
The 200 students’ commitments address at least one of the five focus areas of CGI U: education, environment and climate change, peace and human rights, poverty alleviation and public health.

Here are just a few examples:

Claire Christensen, a senior majoring in economics in Arts & Sciences, aims to raise $10,000 to install a wind turbine in Sumu Kaat, Nicaragua. One turbine could provide 1,500 kilowatt hours of energy a year to 10 homes. Christensen plans events that would serve dual roles as fundraisers and educational efforts to teach people about climate change and the importance of sustainable development both in the United States and abroad.

Medical student Mengyang Sun plans to provide HPV vaccines, which protect against cervical cancer, to everyone, male and female, between 9 and 26 years old residing in Gulu District in northern Uganda. Cervical cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in developing countries. Rather than focusing on screening and early detection, as many efforts do, Sun’s project strives for cancer prevention through mass vaccination.

Closer to home, De Andrea Nichols, a graduate student in social work, proposes D*Serve, a program to empower young people in north St. Louis to turn around their neighborhoods by teaching them skills in design and civic leadership, offering lessons and projects in areas such as architecture, communications and public art.

To learn more about CGI U, including student projects, events and the important work WUSTL faculty, students and staff are doing today in CGI U’s five focus areas, visit cgiu.wustl.edu.

Co-sponsors for Faces of Hope are Dell Inc., WUSTL’s Office of Sustainability, Dining Services and Bon Appétit’s Eco-to-Go Program, and student initiatives Net Impact, Tote Green and the Student Union’s Green Events Commission.

Adapting to climate change on the Mississippi

Tue, 19 Sar 2013 19:23:22 CST

The Mississippi River, looking south to downtown St. Louis. Courtesy of The Confluence Partnership.

In the political realm, climate change remains a point of debate. But for architects, engineers, urban designers and others charged with managing its effects — the storms and floods that are followed, whiplash style, by drought and water scarcity — the evidence is in.

It’s time to develop a strategy, and to learn from those already implementing one.

“The climate has changed,” said John Hoal, PhD, associate professor and director of the Master of Urban Design program in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. “We take it as a fact. The question is, how do you design for this new condition?”

From March 22-25, the Sam Fox School — in conjunction with The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington, D.C.— will present MISI-ZIIBI: Living With the Great Rivers, an international symposium investigating climate adaptation strategies in the Mississippi and Missouri basins.

“The Dutch have centuries of experience living with water,” said Dutch Ambassador Rudolf Bekink. “By joining with Washington University, we combine the best of Dutch ingenuity in water management with American experts in spatial design.

“Together we can chart a sustainable course for the Mississippi River that will continue to benefit the Midwest and the entire U.S.,” Bekink added.

Robbert de Koning and Steven Slabbers, both esteemed landscape architects and designers from the Netherlands, and Dale Morris, senior economist for The Royal Netherlands Embassy, will present a keynote lecture at 6:30 p.m. Friday, March 22.

The talk, which is free and open to the public, will explore “The Room for the River Program”— an eight-year, €2.3 billion ($3 billion) effort to address landscape design, climate change, flood protection, drought tolerance and environmental conditions in The Netherland’s Rhine-Meuse Delta.

Additional events will include panel discussions and scenario-planning workshops with dozens of experts from The Netherlands and the American Midwest.

Extreme flooding to extreme drought

The world’s fourth-longest river, the Mississippi drains 31 states (approximately 40 percent of U.S. landmass) and is a primary conduit for agricultural export. Yet increased climate volatility, as evinced by the 2011 floods and the 2012 Midwest drought, threatens to impede the river’s functioning as well as the use of adjacent lands.

“In the space of one year, we’ve gone from extreme flooding to extreme drought,” said Hoal, who organized MISI-ZIIBI with Derek Hoeferlin, assistant professor of architecture. “So now we’re looking at both conditions.”

“When water is high, what are the implications for building in the flood plain?” Hoal continued. “When water is low, what is the impact on agriculture? How do you get barges through? How does it impact ground water and water quality?

“The sense that, because we’re surrounded by this amazing river system, we’ll never have a water problem — well, it’s not true,” Hoal said. “And it’s really shocking.”

Morris noted, “These same challenges are also present in the Netherlands, in which 60 percent of the people live in, and 70 percent of GDP is generated in, land and cities that are at or below sea level.”

A prototypical Midwestern situation

A former director of urban design for the City of St. Louis, Hoal is founding principal of H3 Studio and directed master planning for the 200-square-mile Confluence Greenway System. He and Hoeferlin have worked together on water management issues, notably in post-Katrina New Orleans, where H3 was one of five firms leading the Unified New Orleans Plan.

Hoeferlin was part of the Dutch Dialogues in New Orleans, which led to the ongoing development of a comprehensive urban water management strategy for the Crescent City by a multidisciplinary Dutch-American team.

“St. Louis is a great example of a prototypical Midwestern situation,” Hoeferlin said. Workshops (which are by invitation) will pair Dutch experts from Room for the River with stakeholders from throughout the Mississippi and Missouri basins. Together, they will examine three distinct conditions:

* An agricultural zone, represented by the Mississippi from Melvin Price Locks and Dams to the Illinois confluence.

* A suburban development zone, represented by the Missouri from Earth City to the Chesterfield Valley.

* An urbanized zone, represented by the Mississippi from the Missouri confluence to Interstate 270.

“Throughout the Midwest, you see all three types,” Hoeferlin said. “But St. Louis also represents a unique transitional zone, where you go from a managed system of locks and dams to a free-flowing river.

“We’re trying to think about the watershed as a whole,” Hoeferlin added. “What’s the relationship, the cause and effect, between what happens upriver versus what happens downriver?”

Not one solution

Concluding the four-day conference, at noon Monday, March 25, will be a series of public presentations by the three working groups. Offering reflections will be Rachel Jacobson, the Department of the Interior's acting assistant secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks.

“We’re not trying to come up with one solution,” Hoal said. “We’re trying to come up with a series of strategies and tactics that can be applied throughout the upper Midwest, in a variety of conditions. We’re sure that our Dutch colleagues can contribute to those strategies, and maybe also take some good ideas back to their own country. The workshop is a great example of cross-boundary and cross-discipline collaboration.”

“Over the next 30 years, the costs of replacing levees and rebuilding the river system will be astronomical,” Hoal continued. “It’s unaffordable. Something has to change.”

Hoeferlin concluded, “We can’t keep simply reacting to crisis. We need to learn to be proactive.”

Locations and sponsors

“MISI-ZIIBI: Living With the Great Rivers” takes place in the Sam Fox School’s Steinberg and Givens Halls, located near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards.

For more information or a complete schedule of public events, visit http://www.samfoxschool.wustl.edu/events/lectures/7854.

Support for MISI-ZIIBI is provided by American Rivers; Southern Illinois University Carbondale; the CGI U Programming Fund at WUSTL’s Gephardt Institute for Public Service; and WUSTL’s International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability.

France at War Film Series

2013-03-14 00:00:00

A still from Louis Malle’s Au Revoir les Enfants (Goodbye, Children), 1987.

If American war films are characterized by large-scale combat and appeals to valor, French war cinema is arguably more intimate and psychologically driven, focusing on the ways personal dynamics are affected, and corrupted, by the shadow of violence.

Marcel Carné’s Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise), 1945.

From Tuesday through Thursday, March 19-21, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present three iconic films as part of its France at War Film Series.

Held in conjunction with the exhibition Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928-1945, the festival will open with Jean Renoir’s 1939 La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game), a scathing social critique disguised as an aristocratic comedy of manners.

The festival will continue the following evening with Marcel Carné’s Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise) (1945). Widely considered among the greatest of French films, Les Enfants is set in the 1840s but was filmed during the Nazi occupation and included members of the Resistance among its 1,800 extras.

Concluding the festival, on March 21, will be Louis Malle’s Au Revoir les Enfants (Goodbye, Children). Released in 1987, this haunting autobiographical tale centers on the friendship of two boys, one of whom is Jewish, at a Catholic boarding school in 1944.

Jean Renoir’s La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game), 1939.

All three screenings are free and open to the public and begin at 7 p.m. at the Tivoli Theatre, 6350 Delmar Blvd.

In addition, a selection of short films created as part of the Kemper Braque Film Challenge will be screened each night.

Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928-1945 remains on view through April 21. The Kemper Art Museum is located near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards. Regular hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays; and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The museum is closed Tuesdays.

For more information about the film festival or the exhibition, call (314) 935-4523 or visit kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu.

Next ‘St. Louis Up Close’ to look at art and community building

2013-03-08 00:00:00

Art and community building in St. Louis is the next social issue to be explored in a new series featuring casual conversations with local nonprofit leaders.

The series, “St. Louis Up Close,” is sponsored by WUSTL’s Gephardt Institute for Public Service and the Community Service Office. Talks are free and open to the public.

“Art and Community Building: Cherokee Street and Beyond” will be held at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 21, in the Liberman Graduate Center, Danforth University Center, Room 300.

The discussion will explore some of the amazing strides St. Louis is making in the arts as an agent for social change and will look at such questions as:

• What is the role of the arts in neighborhood revitalization?
• Why are the arts an essential component of a strong community?
• How can you get involved?

The discussion will feature Con Christeson, co-founder and managing artist of the Community CollabARTive at Peter & Paul Community Services and an instructor at Webster University; Bruce Lindsey, dean and E. Desmond Lee Professor for Community Collaboration at WUSTL’s College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design in the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts; and Roseann Weiss, director of Community Art Programs and Public Art Initiatives for the Regional Arts Commission.

The next session in the series, “Hungry Children in St. Louis,” will be held from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 10, in the DUC, Room 236.

For more information, contact the Gephardt Institute at (314) 935-9104 or email: gephardtinstitute@wustl.edu.

CGI U announces 2013 speakers; new CGI University Network to fund student commitments

2013-03-05 00:00:00

Among the featured speakers:

Chelsea Clinton, board member, William J. Clinton Foundation; Stephen Colbert, host and executive producer of ‘The Colbert Report’ on Comedy Central; Hawa Abdi Dhiblawe, founder, the Dr. Hawa Abdi Foundation; Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO, Square Inc.; co-founder and executive chairman, Twitter Inc.; Salman Khan, founder and executive director, Khan Academy; Michael Sherraden, founding director, Center for Social Development and the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis; Jada Pinkett Smith, actress and advocate, Don’t Sell Bodies; and Muhammad Yunus, chairman, the Yunus Centre, will speak on pressing global challenges at CGI U 2013, to be held April 5-7 at Washington University in St. Louis.

For a full list of speakers visit http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/25060.aspx. For more information visit: http://cgiu.wustl.edu.

Former President Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton announced the program and featured participants for the sixth annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) to be held at Washington University in St. Louis April 5-7.

CGI U will bring together more than 1,000 college students worldwide with innovators, thought leaders and civically engaged celebrities to make Commitments to Action to address the most pressing challenges facing their campuses and communities in areas such as education, environment and climate change, human rights, poverty alleviation and public health.

More than $400,000 in funding will be available for students to carry out their commitments made at CGI U, primarily through the newly established CGI University Network of 33 colleges and universities that have committed to support, mentor and provide seed funding to student innovators and entrepreneurs from their respective schools.

“The schools that have joined the CGI University Network are supporting student commitment-makers to create positive change across the globe,” said Bill Clinton. “This year, CGI U will bring together more than 1,000 college students representing all 50 states and six continents to explore concrete ways to build a better tomorrow. I look forward to working with the young leaders who come to Washington University in St. Louis this April with their enthusiasm and their ideas.”

“It’s inspiring to witness the power of CGI U students, whose energy, ideas, optimism and determination continually expand the possibilities for public service,” said Chelsea Clinton, who serves on the board of the Clinton Foundation. “By joining an extraordinary community of young people, thought leaders and experienced entrepreneurs, students attending CGI U 2013 will have the opportunity to make real contributions and forge connections that last a lifetime.”

Washington University in St. Louis was chosen to host this year’s CGI U because it is recognized as an international leader in preparing young people to address the world’s most pressing challenges.

This year’s program will address issues throughout CGI U’s five focus areas: Education, Environment and Climate Change, Peace and Human Rights, Poverty Alleviation, and Public Health through sessions including:

• Getting Off the Ground: Stories of Starting Up, in which a panel of budding and veteran entrepreneurs will share their personal stories, setbacks and key lessons in launching a business or organization;
• A Better Future for Girls and Women: Empowering the Next Generation, which will bring together practitioners and pioneers to explore the tangible ways in which young people can continue to build a better future for girls and women around the world; and
• Solutions Without Borders: Working With Unlikely Allies, which will convene notable entrepreneurs and policymakers who are proving the necessity of cooperation over conflict.

For the complete schedule, visit cgiu.org/meetings/2013/agenda.asp.

For more information on CGI U or the CGI University Network, visit cgiu.wustl.edu or cgiu.org. For inquiries, email cgiu@clintonglobalinitiative.org or call (212) 710-4492.

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Additional information:

CGI University Network
CGI University Network schools have agreed to provide more than $300,000 in total funding to CGI U student commitment-makers. Schools that have joined the CGI University Network to date include Alverno College; Arizona State University; Avicenne Private Business School; Babson College; Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Brown University; the College of William and Mary; Cornell University; Duke University; Johnson C. Smith University; Middlebury College; Northeastern University; Rollins College; Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey; St. Cloud State University; Simmons College; Southern Methodist University; Parsons The New School for Design; the Ohio State University; the University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy; Tufts University; Tuskegee University; University of Arkansas, Clinton School of Public Service; University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, San Diego; University of Delaware; University of Houston; University of Miami; University of the Pacific; Washington University in St. Louis; Westfield State University; and Widener University.

Resolution Social Venture Challenge
In addition, the Resolution Project is offering $100,000 in seed funding for CGI U 2013 students through the Resolution Social Venture Challenge, a competition designed to support student-launched social ventures that are sustainable and have a measurable impact. Students selected to compete in the Social Venture Challenge will exhibit their commitments at CGI U and have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges. Winners will be announced at the end of the CGI U meeting.

Up to Us Competition
CGI U, Net Impact and the Peter G. Peterson Foundation launched the Up to Us Competition to increase financial awareness among young people. From Jan. 21–March 1, 11 teams of CGI U participants campaigned to educate and engage their campuses on America’s debt crisis and how it will impact their future. A $10,000 cash prize will go to the team with the winning campaign, to be announced at CGI U. The Up to Us Competition judges include Chelsea Clinton; former White House Chief of Staff and former Co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform Erskine Bowles; former U.S. Sen. and former Co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform Alan Simpson; and anchor of ABC’s “This Week” and “Good Morning America” George Stephanopoulos.

Commitments to Action
Building on the Clinton Global Initiative’s successful model of convening Fortune 500 CEOs, heads of state, the most effective NGOs and civil society to address the world’s most pressing challenges, President Clinton launched CGI U to engage the next generation of leaders from around the world. As with participants at all CGI meetings, CGI U students must make a Commitment to Action: a new, specific and measurable student initiative that addresses a pressing challenge on campus or beyond.

Media information
Press registration is now open to members of the media. To apply, complete the form at cgilink.org/YE3ZA5.

The deadline to apply for press credentials is 5 p.m. ET Tuesday, April 2. ET. Journalists may apply for credentials on site, but pre-registered media will be given priority. For questions about press registration, email: press@clintonglobalinitiative.org.

Follow us on Twitter at @CGIU and @ClintonGlobal or on Facebook at Facebook.com/CGIUniversity for meeting news and highlights. The event hashtag will be #CGIU.

Art and politics during World War II

2013-03-04 00:00:00

In the late 1930s, as Europe and the world drew ever closer to war, the French painter Georges Braque added a new motif to his roster of still life objects: the human skull. Yet Braque, the co-inventor of Cubism, denied editorial intention. The skull, he insisted, was merely a formal device.

Braque’s position stands in striking contrast to that of his countryman, the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. In the aftermath of the war, Sartre argued that literature, and by extension all forms of culture, had a moral duty to be socially engaged.

At 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 7, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will explore both positions as part of “Committed Culture: A Panel Discussion on Politics and Aesthetics During World War II.”

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928-1945, the event will feature short presentations and a roundtable discussion about how these ideas — autonomous artistic production vs. political engagement — are addressed in a variety of art forms, including literature, film, theater and visual art.

Panelists will include:

* Colin Burnett, PhD, assistant professor of film and media studies in Arts & Sciences
* Karen K. Butler, PhD, assistant curator, Kemper Art Museum
* Lionel Cuillé, PhD, Jane and Bruce Robert Professor of French, Webster University
* John Klein, PhD, associate professor of art history and archaeology in Arts & Sciences
* Stamos Metzidakis, PhD, professor of French and comparative literature in Arts & Sciences
* Henry Schvey, PhD, professor of drama and comparative literature in Arts & Sciences

“Committed Culture” is free and open to the public and takes place in Steinberg Hall Auditorium. A reception immediately will precede the talk at 6 p.m. in the Kemper Art Museum.

Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928-1945 remains on view through April 21. Regular hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays; and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The museum is closed Tuesdays and major holidays.

For more information, call (314) 935-4523 or visit kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu.

The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts and Sam Fox School launch new competition in midtown St. Louis

Liam Otten — 2013-02-27 00:00:00

In architecture and the visual arts, there is a long tradition of site-specific projects and temporary installations informing subsequent development. St. Louis’ 1,300-acre Forest Park still bears the stamp of the 1904 World’s Fair. The Gateway Mall, a gleam in the eye of civic planners for more a than century, today boasts Citygarden, Eero Saarinen’s Gateway Arch and Richard Serra’s Twain.

Now The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis have launched PXSTL, a competition exploring the critical role of arts and culture in building vital and dynamic communities.

The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. Photo by Robert Pettus. Hi-res version upon request.

Open to emerging artists and designers currently working in the United States, PXSTL centers on a vacant lot in the heart of Grand Center, St. Louis’ premier arts and culture district.

The site, located at 3713 and 3719 Washington Blvd., is directly across the street from the Pulitzer Foundation’s building, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando.

“PXSTL represents a form of tactical urbanism,” says Leslie Markle, the Sam Fox School’s curator for public art. “While the physical project is limited to a specific lot, we are looking for proposals that include a plan for community engagement and that demonstrate an understanding of Grand Center and the existing framework plan for this district.”

“The intention is to highlight how small-scale interventions have a significant impact in the context of a city like St. Louis,” Markle says, “and to provide a model for other communities facing similar challenges.”

Unexpected avenues

PXSTL is funded by an endowment, established by Emily Rauh Pulitzer, that supports joint projects between the Sam Fox School and the Pulitzer Foundation.

The winning individual, firm or interdisciplinary group will receive a $50,000 project budget, as well as a $10,000 honorarium, to create a temporary — and largely self-sustaining — construction, landscape strategy or other strategic intervention. The final project should invite interactivity but also offer something to passing motorists and pedestrians.

PXSTL site on Washington Boulevard. Photo courtesy of The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. Hi-res version upon request.

“The interplay of visual, literary, and performing arts, along with design and architecture, is central to the exhibitions and programs presented by the Pulitzer Foundation,” says Gretchen Wagner, curator for the Pulitzer Foundation.

“The PXSTL project seeks to open up unexpected avenues for collaboration to inspire you to think about art differently and engage with your community,” Wagner adds. “The integrated use of temporary constructions, ephemeral media and the application of unexpected materials is an aspect we look to explore.

“This partnership with the Sam Fox School provides an exceptional opportunity for innovative thinkers and practitioners to realize ambitious, multifaceted ideas in a dynamic context of an evolving urban center.”

Process and timeline

Organizers have solicited nominations from a select group of distinguished practitioners and curators, as well as from deans of architecture, art and design programs, and from editors of art, architecture and design publications. All nominations are due by March 15. A selection panel of the Pulitzer Foundation staff and Sam Fox School faculty will announce three finalists at the end of May.

Each finalist will receive an honorarium with which to conduct an initial site visit; develop a full, conceptual proposal; and make a final presentation to the selection panel. The winning project will be announced in August 2013, and will open to the public in Summer 2014.

For media inquiries, please contact Liam Otten at (314) 935-8494 or Liam_Otten@wustl.edu; or Becky Adamietz-Deo at (314) 446-2053 or

radamietz@pulitzerarts.org.

New faculty join Sam Fox School

2013-02-25 00:00:00

New faculty members have joined the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

Chandler Ahrens is an assistant professor of architecture. Ahrens is a co-founder and director of the Los Angeles office of Open Source Architecture (OSA). The international research and design architectural practice has designed commercial and residential projects in addition to designing, fabricating and mounting several complex installations such as The Hylomorphic Project at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles.

His work with OSA has been extensively published internationally, and he has lectured at numerous academic institutions. Ahrens also has worked for several large international architectural firms, and most recently he served as an assistant professor at Woodbury University in Los Angeles. He earned his bachelor's degree from Savannah College of Art and Design and his master's degree from University of California, Los Angeles, both in architecture.

Andrew Cruse is also an assistant professor of architecture. Previously a visiting professor in the Sam Fox School, Cruse is a member of the American Institute of Architects and the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards and is a LEED-accredited professional. His research focuses on the cultural, social and energy issues around the topic of building reuse and modernization.

He is working on an interdisciplinary teaching and research initiative called Quadrangle, exploring these issues as they relate to multifamily housing in St. Louis. Before joining the WUSTL faculty, Cruse was an associate at Machado and Silvetti Associates in Boston. He has taught at Northeastern University, Rhode Island School of Design and Boston Architectural College. He earned his bachelor's degree in art history from Columbia University and his master's degree in architecture from Rice University.

Kees Lokman is an assistant professor of landscape architecture. Lokman earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in landscape architecture and urban design from Wageningen University, and graduated with distinction from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design's master of design studies program.

He previously served as an adjunct assistant professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology and a faculty member of Archeworks. Lokman also has more than five years of professional experience, including design work at the office of plantsman Piet Oudolf and at Terry Guen Design Associates, as well as collaborations that have led to international prizes and mentions in design competitions, including Meta[bolic] Park, The Chicago Constellation and Indianapolis Monument Nexus.

Face and Figure in European Art, 1928-1945

Liam Otten — 2013-02-20 00:00:00

John Klein, associate professor of art history and archaeology, discusses Face and Figure in European Art, 1928-1945, which he curated for the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. Photo by Whitney Curtis/WUSTL Photo Services.

The early 20th century saw a series of revolutions in Western society and art.

Innovations in mass production and transportation laid the groundwork for modern global capitalism, just as World War I brought industrial efficiencies to the business of slaughter.

In the visual arts, Cubism’s aggressive fracturing of space and time echoed the instabilities proposed by quantum physics and relativity. The rise of abstraction challenged the aesthetic centrality of the human figure.

“Utopian conviction about the promise of artistic abstraction was widespread,” says John Klein, associate professor of art history and archaeology in Arts & Sciences. And yet, “It turns out that, in the interwar years, the body was the site of a great deal of consequential artistic activity.”

So argues Face and Figure in European Art, 1928-1945, which Klein recently curated for the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

Drawn largely from the permanent collection, Face and Figure complements the museum’s Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928–1945, also now on view. In all, it collects 55 works in a variety of media — by Max Beckmann, Max Ernst, Paul Klee, Fernand Léger, Joan Miró, Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso and others — that together explore the stubborn persistence, and continuing relevance, of the human image.

Willi Baumeister, Still Life with Head, 1930. Oil on canvas, 26 x 32 1/4". Saint Louis Art Museum, Bequest of Morton D. May, 833:1983. © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild‐Kunst, Bonn.

A constant in a whirl of variables

“Faces are irresistible,” Klein says. “Human beings are hard-wired to be drawn to faces for comfort, confirmation, information and empathy.”

Klein notes that some modern artists — such as the sculptor Aristide Maillol, known for his classical bronze nudes — never really abandoned the body. Others, such as André Derain and Jacob Epstein, re-engaged with it following periods of radical experimentation.

“Portraiture, with its conventional focus on the face, emphasizes a material particularity that for many artists answered their disenchantment with the abstract and universal,” Klein says — particularly in the wake of World War I. Wyndham Lewis, a geometric abstractionist turned portraitist, “celebrated the dynamic energies of the modern technological world until he too was blindsided by the actual horrors the Machine Age brought.”

(Lewis, notably, is represented by his 1944 Portrait of Mrs. Ernest W. Stix, which depicts the wife of a prominent St. Louis businessman and former member of the WUSTL Board of Directors. For many decades, the portrait hung in the family home, now the site of Stix International House.)

Klein says that the exhibition presents the modernist face and figure according to three broad approaches: traditional, late Cubist and Surrealist.

However, “these groupings are not definitive, and they are not discrete,” he adds. “One of the fascinating things about the art of this period is the way in which many artists cross style or ‘movement’ boundaries — which themselves are not firm distinctions in the first place.”

For example, Beckmann’s Film Studio (1933) and Léger’s The Divers (1941) both combine the spatial play of late Cubism with fluid, dreamlike atmospheres more typical of Surrealism. A similar hybrid characterizes Moore’s Reclining Figure (1933) and Stanley William Hayter’s Amazon (1945), both of which depict large, elegantly distorted figures enmeshed in webs of schematic line.

“For the artists represented in the exhibition, whatever their stylistic allegiances or personal inclinations, the figure is a constant in a whirl of variables,” Klein says.

“This constancy in the midst of profound change may be the key to the continuing relevance of the body as an expressive vehicle of human identity in the artistic imagery of the first half of the 20th century.”

Face and Figure in European Art, 1928-1945, remains on view through April 21. A free brochure, featuring a curator’s essay by Klein, is available in the exhibition.

Support for this exhibition is provided by James M. Kemper, Jr., the David Woods Kemper Memorial Foundation, the Hortense Lewin Art Fund and members of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

For more information about the exhibition, call (314) 935-4523 or visit kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu.

Sam Fox School and Brookings Institution present "The Innovative Metropolis"

2013-02-18 00:00:00

Sustainability and economic growth are two desirable goals that should demonstrably complement one another, especially in our cities.

But how?

On Thursday, Feb. 21, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution will present “The Innovative Metropolis: Fostering Economic Competitiveness through Sustainable Urban Design."

The daylong symposium, held at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., will explore the intersections between sustainable urban design and economic growth, as well as the implications of both for design practice and public policy.

Peter MacKeith, associate dean of the Sam Fox School and associate professor of architecture, in partnership with Rob Puentes, senior fellow and director of the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Infrastructure Initiative, organized the symposium. Nicole Allen, special assistant to Sam Fox School dean Carmon Colangelo, also played a significant role in guiding the planning of the daylong event.

Funding was secured through the joint WUSTL-Brookings Academic Venture Fund, in addition to major support from the George L. Ohrstrom, Jr. Foundation and Mr. Gerry Ohrstrom.

"Teaching and research at the Sam Fox School are informed by our collaborative and interdisciplinary mission," says Colangelo, the E. Desmond Lee Professor for Collaboration in the Arts.

"Our focus on and growing strength in the area of sustainable urban design is a result of strong research and knowledge creation among our urban planners, architects, and designers in partnership with national and international policy makers," Colangelo adds. "The Innovative Metropolis builds on the significant work of associate professor John Hoal, chair of our Master of Urban Design program, and the momentum generated by our fall symposium URBANISM(S): Sustainable Cities for One Planet, which explored the future of global urban design."

"The Brookings Institution has an intense focus on U.S. urban and metropolitan issues," MacKeith says. "We've identified this mutual common ground with the Brookings, and hope to explore best practices in sustainable strategies and tactics that might foster economic development and, by extension, job growth.

"Good design, good public policy, and a good economy should mutually reinforce each other," he adds. "Ideally, there should be a constant toggling back-and-forth, so that one proposes design with considering policy implications, and proposes new policy while considering design."

WUSTL Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton and Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution, will open the symposium with welcome remarks.

Bruce Lindsey, dean of architecture and the E. Desmond Lee Professor for Community Collaboration, and Hoal, will lead a Sam Fox School team of participants, including Christof Jantzen, WUSTL’s I-CARES Professor of Practice; assistant professor of architecture Seng Kuan; and visiting professor of urban design Oliver Schulze, principal of Schulze + Grassov in Copenhagen.

In all, participants will include more than 20 domestic and international experts, representing both organizers, as well as the London School of Economics and Political Science, Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and other institutions and private firms.

Although hosted by the Brookings Institution, the symposium will be available to the campus community and the public at large via web simulcast. (The simulcast is free but advance registration is requested; click here for details.) In addition, the Sam Fox School will host a remote viewing in Givens Hall.

“Sustainable urban design is a major focal point for the Sam Fox School – as our recent "Urbanisms" conference last fall demonstrated,” MacKeith says.

"The aim here is to thread together the virtues of all that we do in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, and art with the interests and expertise of the Brookings Institution—and so to produce an even stronger fabric for education, professional practice and metropolitan policy," MacKeith says.

Obituary: Udo Kultermann, Ruth and Norman Moore Professor Emeritus of Architecture, 85

2013-02-12 00:00:00

Renowned author and art historian Udo Kultermann, who taught architecture at Washington University in St. Louis for nearly 30 years, died Feb. 9, 2013, in New York City, following a long illness. He was 85.

A specialist in 20th-century architecture, Kultermann, the Ruth and Norman Moore Professor Emeritus of Architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, was the author of more than 35 books on a wide range of subjects, many of which have been translated into multiple languages.

“Udo was a wonderful friend and colleague,” says Constantine E. Michaelides, dean emeritus of architecture, who knew Kultermann for more than 40 years. “He was a scholar of international recognition and a very prominent contributor to the education of hundreds of our alumni and alumnae. He will be sorely missed.”

Michaelides recalls visiting his prolific colleague in his Givens Hall office. “I would describe it as a typical professor’s office, with all the walls covered in books. Except that in this case, Udo had written most of them!”

Born in Germany in 1927, Kultermann studied art history, archaeology and German literature at the University of Greifswald. He earned a doctorate from the University of Muenster in 1953 and served as the director of the City Art Museum in Leverkusen before joining the WUSTL faculty in 1967.

A 1985 recipient of the university’s Distinguished Faculty Award, Kultermann also was the inaugural recipient of the Ruth and Norman Moore Professorship, which was established the following year. He was named professor emeritus in 1994.

Among Kultermann’s scholarly contributions were groundbreaking studies of contemporary architecture in Africa and the Middle East. Other interests included European art and architecture, as well as contemporary American art. He was among the first art historians to write seriously about contemporary female performance artists.

His most widely cited books include The History of Art History (1987) and Art and Life: The Function of Intermedia (1971). Other books range from New Japanese Architecture (1960) and Contemporary Architecture in Eastern Europe (1989) to Contemporary Architecture in the Arab States (1999) and Thirty Years After: The Future of the Past (2002).

Kemper Braque Film Challenge Feb. 15-18

2013-01-29 00:00:00

Still from The Space Between Things. The film, by Cody Stokes, was created as part of the Kemper Braque Film Challenge. Image courtesy KDHX Media Arts.

In the early 20th century, the rise of Cubism marked a radical and virtually unprecedented break with Western painting’s long tradition of naturalistic depiction.

But even Cubism had its influences. Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, the movement’s founders, were entranced by African masks, by the paintings of Paul Cezanne and — critically — by the visual techniques of early cinema.

Next month, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum and KDHX Media Arts will help contemporary filmmakers return the favor with the Kemper Braque Film Challenge.

The three-day event, which takes place Feb. 15-18, is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928-1945. Working individually or in teams, participants will create short works (under seven minutes) incorporating Cubist elements, practices or principles.

Embracing the experimental

“Challenges like this display the amazing talents of St. Louis filmmakers,” says Kat Touschner, media arts producer for KDHX. “It’s a great way to focus on pure creativity for a weekend, and can be a spark to ignite other creative ideas.”

Touschner notes that KDHX also produces the annual St. Louis 48-Hour Film Project, the National Film Challenge and the International Documentary Film Challenge. She finds that such challenges energize the filmmaking community and stimulate innovative approaches to creating finished films.

“What’s unique about the Kemper Braque Film Challenge is that it takes one form of art and uses it to inspire another,” Touschner adds.

“Hopefully, it will encourage artists and filmmakers to break away from traditional narrative and embrace the experimental.”

Competition details

Participating filmmakers can chose one of two options:

1.) Incorporate still life objects (provided at the event kickoff) that correspond to specific components of Braque’s painting, or,

2.) Transform a pre-existing film (also provided at kickoff) by breaking up, reassembling and even potentially adding to the footage.

The top three films will receive cash prizes of $500, $300 and $200. Each will be screened at the Tivoli Theatre as part of the museum’s France at War Film Series March 19-21.

In addition, all eligible films will be screened April 12 in WUSTL’s Steinberg Hall Auditorium, as part of the museum’s Friday Nights @ the Kemper series.

Participation is free and open to the public, but space is limited. For more information or to register, visit kdhx.org or email mediaarts@kdhx.org.

Eric Hoffman wins Young Architects Award

Liam Otten — 2013-01-30 00:00:00

A rendering of the new East Building at the Saint Louis Art Museum, designed by acclaimed British architect Sir David Chipperfield. WUSTL’s Eric Hoffman, winner of a national AIA Young Architects Award, served as Chipperfield’s local design liaison. Image courtesy of David Chipperfield Architects.

Eric Hoffman, professor of practice in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, has won a national 2013 Young Architects Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Hoffman is both the first Sam Fox School faculty member and the first Sam Fox School alumnus (M.Arch ’05) to receive the honor, among the highest available to architects in the early stages of their careers.

Eric Hoffman

Bruce Lindsey, dean of the College of Architecture and the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design, notes that, as a professor of practice, Hoffman “breeches the often-insular walls” between the academy and the profession at large.

“Eric’s teaching is distinguished by a tireless and demanding attention to the perspective of students and their professional futures,” Lindsey says. “But he also teaches through an example of professionalism that is simply impossible to miss.

“He combines design excellence, technical expertise, construction experience and, most of all, a passion about making great architecture.”

Hoffman will formally receive the award March 20 during the AIA’s “Leadership and Legislative Conference” in Washington, D.C. In addition, he will present his work alongside 2013 AIA Gold Medalist Thom Mayne (of Morphosis) and Laurinda Spear (of Arquitectonica) at the group’s national convention in June.

Eric Hoffman

A native of Plano, Texas, Hoffman earned a bachelor of architecture degree in 1999 from Oklahoma State University, where he was the first student to win all five graduating class awards.

Hoffman is currently co-director of patterhn. Founded with former classmate Tony Patterson (M.Arch ’04), the firm specializes in the design of cultural, civic and residential projects.

From 2005-2011, he was an associate and senior architect at Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum. He served as design liaison and project architect for HOK to acclaimed British architect Sir David Chipperfield on the 200,000-square-foot expansion of the Saint Louis Art Museum, slated to open in June.

From 2000-04, Hoffman was an architect with Joan Soranno’s award-winning studio within the Minneapolis firm Hammel, Green and Abrahamson. While there, he worked extensively on the Walker Art Center expansion, designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning Swiss firm of Herzog & de Meuron.

Other notable projects — across all capacities — include conceptual designs for the Munich International Airport (2006), the Boston Center for the Arts (2008) and Four Brothers & Sister Creek (2011), all of which won AIA design awards. Most recently, patterhn was selected as a finalist for the Atlanta History Center.

Last fall, Hoffman helped to adapt and install “Make a House Intelligent” for the exhibition Design with the Other 90%: CITIES at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. Conceived by Mexican architect Arturo Ortiz Struck and the urban research firm Taller Territorial de México, these simple structures are designed to be built quickly and inexpensively by small teams of people living in the informal Mexico City settlements known as colonias populares. The pavilion was constructed in one day and will remain in place through the summer.

Young Architects Award

Now in its 20th year, the Young Architects Award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and made significant contributions to the profession. (The term “young architect” refers not to age, but to practitioners who have been licensed for fewer than 10 years.)

This year, the AIA recognized 15 young architects from around the country. Hoffman is only the third recipient to represent St. Louis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYQNajr-YPc

Potted Potter: The Unauthorized Harry Experience at Edison Feb. 15

2013-01-28 00:00:00

Storytellers Dan Clarkson (left) and Jeff Turner present Potted Potter Feb. 15. Photo courtesy of Seabright Productions. Download hi-res version.

At a reading speed of 250 words per minute, it would take the average adult almost three full days (without sleep or bathroom breaks) to complete J.K. Rowling’s mammothly popular Harry Potter series.

Now you can do it in 70 minutes flat, thanks to storytellers Dan Clarkson and Jeff Turner. In Potted Potter, these Olivier Award-nominated actors, and estimable humanitarians, have condensed Rowling’s seven novels into a mere 4,200 seconds — roughly one per page — of pure, unauthorized hilarity.

Next month, Clarkson and Turner will alight upon Washington University’s Edison Theatre like two champion Quidditch seekers in pursuit of the Golden Snitch. (Don’t worry, you’ll understand soon enough.)

Performances, presented as part of the Edison Ovations Series, will begin at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 15. Tickets are $36, or $32 for seniors, $28 for Washington University faculty and staff and $20 for students and children.

Attendees are invited to come dressed as their favorite Potter characters.

Anything for a joke

Potted Potter began in 2005, with the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book in the series. To entertain midnight book-buyers, Clarkson and Turner developed a punchy, five-minute street show summarizing the previous volumes.

The current iteration, expanded and updated to include all seven books, retains that manic, anything-for-a-joke ethos. Turner, looking a bit like the young Elton John, dons round glasses and a yellow fright wig to portray the titular wizard. The remaining 600-odd characters — from Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger to Dumbledore, Mad-Eye Moody and “He Who Must Not Be Named” — are left to Clarkson’s frenzied devices, abetted by a seemingly endless array of hats.

The New York Times calls Potted Potter “gloriously goofy,” adding that, “You don’t need to know all the plot twists and nuances of Hogwarts to enjoy the in-jokes, though clearly most of the delighted crowd does.”

“Like all really good parodies, Dan and Jeff’s ‘Unauthorized Harry Experience’ is both a send-up and a heartfelt homage,” adds The Guardian (UK).

“There’s sure to be an authorised stage version one day,” adds the Sunday Express, “but they will be hard pressed to summon such genuine affection and wit – let alone get the audience to play a game of Quidditch.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73GmyK8OwNo

Tickets and sponsors

Performances begin at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 15. Tickets are $36, or $32 for seniors, $28 for Washington University faculty and staff and $20 for students and children.

Tickets are available at the Edison Box Office and through all MetroTix outlets. Edison Theatre is located in the Mallinckrodt Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd.

For more information, call (314) 935-6543, e-mail edison@wustl.edu or visit edison.wustl.edu.

Edison programs are made possible with support from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency; the Regional Arts Commission, St. Louis; and private contributors.

Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928-1945, at Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum

2012-11-15 00:00:00

Georges Braque, Vase, Palette, and Mandolin, 1936. Oil, charcoal, and graphite on canvas, 32 x 39 5/8”. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Purchase with the aid of funds from W. W. Crocker. © 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

In the early 20th century, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso invented Cubism and shook the foundations of Western art. But in the 1930s, as the rise of fascism brought new urgency to questions of aesthetics and politics — questions that entered mainstream consciousness with Picasso’s Guernica (1937) — Braque’s fractured still lifes and bourgeois interiors remained emphatically inward-looking.

Yet Braque’s painting was not as separate from outside events as Braque might have it. While his attention to the private, secluded realm of the still life suggests disengagement with historical and political circumstances, the paintings themselves convey a more complex narrative. Indeed, the artist’s exactingly internal gaze was precisely what made his work relevant to questions of art, engagement and responsibility.

So argues Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928-1945, the first major U.S. museum exhibition dedicated to Braque in 16 years. Co-organized by the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis and The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the exhibition is also the first to situate Braque’s work within the cultural and political upheavals leading up to, and through, World War II — a period that has been virtually unexplored in scholarship on the artist.

Drawn from public and private collections in the United States and Europe, Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928-1945 brings together 42 paintings representing an overlooked moment in the painter’s career: after the early, pioneering days of Cubism and the neoclassical retour à l’ordre, but before the late series of large-scale paintings featuring billiard tables, birds and the atelier.

By presenting multiple groupings of closely related works side by side, the exhibition reinforces the slow, experiential viewing that is central to his art, providing a rare opportunity to understand the mastery behind Braque’s dedicated and focused attention to the still life and to the methods and materiality of painting.

For the first time in more than 80 years, Braque’s “Rosenberg Quartet” (1928-29), created for his dealer, Paul Rosenberg, is here reunited. Another grouping features The Blue Mandolin, Still Life with Glass and Still Life with Fruit Dish, Bottle, and Mandolin, all completed in 1930.

Though depicting similar objects — gueridon tables, mandolins, compote bowls — the three paintings are executed in distinct palettes and from different vantage points. The effect is to highlight Braque’s gift for rendering familiar worlds unfamiliar, or even hallucinatory.

Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928–1945 is curated by Karen K. Butler, assistant curator at the Kemper Art Museum, and by Renée Maurer, assistant curator at The Phillips Collection.

The exhibition will open at the Kemper Art Museum Jan. 25 and remain on view until April 21. It then will travel to The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., where it will be on view June 8 to Sept. 1, 2013.

http://youtu.be/72MCQWzyD4E

The known and unknown worlds

For Braque’s supporters, his emphasis on creating unfamiliar worlds represented no less than a manifesto of human freedom and an attempt to break free from history and civilization. Carl Einstein, the German Jewish art historian who organized Braque’s first major retrospective — and who relocated to Paris in 1928 to edit the journal Documents with Georges Bataille — initially planned to title his 1934 monograph on Braque “La morale de la pureté (The morality of purity).”

But the war years proved difficult for the painter’s circle. In 1940, Rosenberg left Paris for New York as the Nazis seized his gallery, paintings and residence. Shortly thereafter, Einstein committed suicide in the French Pyrenees while fleeing the Gestapo, and Braque himself stopped painting for a time. Conversely, under the occupation government, other contemporaries judged Braque’s still lifes as sufficiently apolitical to be featured in a special exhibit as part of the 1943 Salon d'automne.

In addition to situating his work within the period’s cultural and political debates, Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928-1945, provides unique insight into the artist’s creative process. Employing x-ray and other technical analysis, conservators reveal Braque’s manipulation of pigments and materials as well as his practice of continually reworking canvases. Still Life with Palette (1943), for example, is revealed to contain an entirely different composition beneath its final surface.

Other highlights include The Baluster and Skull / Still Life with Fruit Dish (1938), a rarely seen double-sided painting. For Braque, the skull represented both a new motif and a powerful evocation of the traditional Vanitas, with its critique of worldly pleasure and emphasis on the inevitability of death. Yet Braque’s symbolism remained layered and ambiguous. Though arguably an oblique reference to war, his skulls also often echo the shape of a painter’s palette. If mortality is invoked, it could well be Braque’s own — yet another example of the inward nature of the artist’s vision.

Catalog

Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928–1945 is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog featuring essays by Butler and Maurer as well as Uwe Fleckner, professor of art history at the Universität Hamburg, and Gordon Hughes, the Mellon Assistant Professor at Rice University. In addition, Patricia Favero, associate conservator at The Phillips Collection, has coauthored a study of Braque’s materials and process with the Harvard Art Museum’s Erin Mysak, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Conservation Science, and Narayan Khandekar, senior conservation scientist.

Also included are seminal early writings on the artist, translated into English for the first time. In all, the volume represents a significant contribution to Braque scholarship and to the body of critical thought connecting the study of art, philosophy and politics leading up to and during World War II.

Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928-1945, is published by The Kemper Art Museum, The Phillips Collection and Prestel∙Del Monico, with international distribution by Prestel.

Exhibition support

Support for Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928–1945, is generously provided by James M. Kemper Jr.; the David Woods Kemper Memorial Foundation; the William T. Kemper Foundation; John and Anabeth Weil; Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Hortense Lewin Art Fund; the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency; the Regional Arts Commission; and members of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Opening and hours

Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928-1945, will open with a public reception from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 25, and will remain on view through April 21. Both the reception and the exhibition are free and open to the public.

For more information, call (314) 935-4523 or visit kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu.

Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, part of Washington University’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, is committed to furthering critical thinking and visual literacy through a vital program of exhibitions, publications and accompanying events. The museum dates back to 1881, making it the oldest art museum west of the Mississippi River. Today it boasts one of the finest university collections in the United States.

Sam Fox School launches spring lecture series

2013-01-07 00:00:00

Nicholas Kahn & Richard Selesnick, Eisbergfreistadt: King of Birds (2011).

A gray-brown figure stands on a rocky shore, arms outstretched and face obscured by birds. A turbaned head emerges from a pond, a lily in its mouth. Silver-spiked balloons hoist a prone humanoid over desert and volcanoes.

Over the last three decades, the collaborative artists Nicholas Kahn & Richard Selesnick have won international acclaim for large-scale photo installations that mix dry wit and subtle narratives with trippy, futuristic surrealism — René Magritte meets NASA and Pink Floyd.

At 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 28, Kahn and Selesnick — who began collaborating in 1982 as WUSTL photography majors — will discuss their work for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts spring Public Lecture Series.

In all, the series will feature 12 talks by nationally and internationally known artists, architects, curators, landscape architects and urban designers.

Other highlights include conceptual artist Nina Katchadourian (Feb. 18), art conservator Patricia Favero (Feb. 27), and landscape architect Kate Orff (March 20).

All talks are free and open to the public and, unless otherwise noted, begin at 6:30 p.m. in Steinberg Hall Auditorium. Each will be preceded by a reception at 6 p.m.

Steinberg Hall is located near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards, immediately adjacent to the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

For more information, call (314) 935-9300 or visit samfoxschool.wustl.edu.

Spring 2013 speakers

Jan. 28
Nicholas Kahn & Richard Selesnick
Collaborative artist team

Feb. 4
Stanislaus von Moos
Vincent Scully Visiting Professor of Architectural History, Yale University
Eugene J. Mackey Jr. Lecture

Feb. 11
Georgeen Theodore
Founding partner and principal, Interboro, New York
Associate professor, New Jersey Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture and Design
Coral Courts Lecture

Feb. 18
Nina Katchadourian
Artist represented by Catharine Clark Gallery
Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Island Press Visiting Artist Lecture

Patricia Favero, associate conservator for The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., will discuss painter Georges Braque Feb. 27. Pictured is The Round Table (1929). Image courtesy of The Phillips Collection. © 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

Feb. 27
Patricia Favero
Associate conservator, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
In conjunction with the Kemper Art Museum exhibition Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928-1945
* Reception in Kemper Art Museum.

March 6
Angel Alonso
Principal, aceboXalonso architects, Madrid
Ruth and Norman Moore Visiting Professor Lecture

March 18
Rahul Mehrotra
Founder and principal, RMA Architects, Mumbai, India
Professor and chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University

March 20
Kate Orff
Founding principal, SCAPE, New York
Anova Lecture for Landscape Architecture

March 22
Workshop Keynote Lecture: “MISI-ZIIBI: Living With the Great Rivers
Climate Adaptation Strategies in the Midwest River Basins”
Robbert de Koning, Dale Morris and Steven Slabbers
Co-Sponsored by the Royal Netherlands Embassy, Washington, D.C.

April 3
Uwe Fleckner
Professor of Art History, Hamburg University
In conjunction with Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928-1945
* Reception in Kemper Art Museum

April 2

Assembly Series Lecture
Daniel Liebskind
Founder and principal, Studio Daniel Libeskind, New York
Supported by WUSTL Student Union

April 5
Stanley Saitowitz
Principal, Stanley Saitowitz/Natoma Architects, San Francisco
Cannon Design Lecture for Excellence in Architecture and Engineering
Graduate Architecture Open House Lecture

Interview with Karen Butler

2013-01-22 00:00:00

http://youtu.be/72MCQWzyD4E

Karen K. Butler, assistant curator at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, discusses Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928-1945.

The exhibition, which opens Jan. 25, is the first to explore Braque’s work in the years leading up to, and through, World War II—a period that has been virtually unexplored in previous scholarship about the artist.

Butler organized Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life in collaboration with Renée Maurer, assistant curator at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. Following its debut in St. Louis, the exhibition will travel to the Phillips Collection June 8 to Sept. 1, 2013.

For more information, call (314) 935-4523 or visit kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu.

Faculty Achievement Award nominations sought

2013-01-16 00:00:00

Nominations are being accepted for Washington University’s annual Faculty Achievement Awards, known as the Arthur Holly Compton Faculty Achievement Award and the Carl and Gerty Cori Faculty Achievement Award.

The Compton Award is given to a distinguished member of the faculty from one of the six Danforth Campus schools and the Cori Award to a faculty member from the School of Medicine.

All full-time, active Washington University faculty members are eligible to receive the Faculty Achievement Award. Any full-time, active member of the faculty may submit a nomination to the Advisory Committee. The nomination packet should include:

• A nomination letter detailing the rationale for the nomination;
• The nominee’s curriculum vitae;
• Three supporting letters from individuals acquainted with the nominee’s contributions as a scholar/researcher and teacher.

The ideal candidates for the Faculty Achievement Award will show excellence in both the research and the service/teaching domains. While outstanding achievement in research and scholarship are weighed most heavily, the awardee must also show a strong record of service to the university and respected accomplishments in teaching, whether that be in the classroom, in mentoring or in other pedagogical capacities.

The deadline to submit nominations is Friday, Feb. 15. Submit nominations and supporting letters to Gerhild S. Williams, PhD, vice provost and associate vice chancellor, at Campus Box 1080 or by email at gerhildwilliams@wustl.edu.

The awardees will be announced this spring. The recipients will receive their awards and give presentations of their scholarly work during a ceremony in December. At the time of these presentations, the awardees will each receive a $5,000 honorarium.

Robert P. Mecham, PhD, a pioneering cell biologist, and Nancy L. Morrow-Howell, PhD, a leading national scholar in gerontology, received Washington University’s 2012 Faculty Achievement Awards during a Dec. 1 event.

Mecham, the Alumni Endowed Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology, received the Carl and Gerty Cori Faculty Achievement Award, and Morrow-Howell, the Ralph and Muriel Pumphrey Professor of Social Work at the Brown School, received the Arthur Holly Compton Faculty Achievement Award.

An Advisory Committee will review nominations and make recommendations to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton, who, with the Faculty Senate Council, established the awards in 1999.

To see a list of the Advisory Committee members, click here.

To see a list of previous award recipients, click here.

Little Sun solar lamp bridges art and outreach

Liam Otten — 2012-12-05 00:00:00

Sarah Moore, an architecture master’s candidate in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, recently designed, constructed and installed a group of Little Suns — small, powerful solar lamps created by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson — in the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. Photo by Whitney Curtis.

You try doing homework in the dark.

For school-aged children across much of the developing world, access to electrical lighting remains precarious. Many rural farming villages exist “off the grid.” Major cities from Nairobi to Kolkata are subject to regular blackouts — a phenomenon from which even the United States, as Hurricane Sandy demonstrated, is not entirely immune.

Enter the Little Sun. Designed by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson and engineer Frederik Ottesen, Little Sun is a small, powerful and inexpensive solar-powered lamp. The almost shockingly bright LED, encased in tough, cheerful yellow plastic, shines up to five hours on a four-hour charge.

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton examines a Little Sun with Ian Smith, a student in The Madagascar Project. Smith and fellow student Anne Dohmen will present a poster about their work at 5 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 6, in the Kemper Art Museum as part of an open house for the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. Photo by Sid Hastings.

“As an artist, Eliasson has increasingly turned his attentions to communities and peoples in need,” says Peter MacKeith, associate dean and associate professor of architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. “Can something of functional — almost desperate — value also become something of artistic consideration?”

Now Little Sun is at the center of two projects involving WUSTL students and faculty.

Sarah Moore, a master’s candidate in architecture, recently worked with MacKeith and Eliasson’s studio to design, construct and install a group of Little Suns in the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

Next spring, students in “Sustainable Development and Conservation: Madagascar”— offered by University College in conjunction with the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and the Missouri Botanical Garden — will, among other projects, track the usage of Little Suns while exploring their larger economic and environmental potentials.

“Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot, but only 10 percent of its forest is left,” explains Judi McLean Parks, the Taylor Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Olin Business School.

“The people are crushingly poor, among the poorest in the world,” adds McLean Parks. “When you’re faced with a starving child, you’ll cut down a tree to make charcoal to sell.

“You have to solve the people problem first.”

Transforming cultural production

In the Kemper Art Museum, the Little Sun installation is situated near another Eliasson project, the 600-pound aluminum sphere titled Your Imploded View, which hangs permanently in the atrium. The small yellow discs shine brightly in the latter’s mirror finish.

The installation is presented in conjunction with Design with the Other 90%: CITIES, a major exhibition of smart, problem-solving projects from around the world, which MacKeith coordinated. Alerted to the Little Sun by Sabine Eckmann, the museum’s William T. Kemper Director and Chief Curator, MacKeith arranged to meet Eliasson in September, during the Venice Architecture Biennale. He quickly saw the potential for wider university partnerships.

Little Suns hang next to Olafur Eliasson's Your Imploded View (2006) in the Kemper Art Museum. Photo by Whitney Curtis.

“In conversation, it became clear that, in addition to designing a supremely useful object, Olafur was deeply concerned with the pragmatics of distribution,” MacKeith says. “The idea is to transform centers of cultural production, such as museums and universities, into points of contact, where visitors come to understand and engage with these issues.”

Moore, a longtime fan (and Twitter follower) of Eliasson’s work, volunteered to help. In consultation with Eliasson's studio, she designed the installation and built many of its component parts.

The result has the friendly, intimate air of a Calder mobile. Little Suns and photos of owners are suspended with transparent filament and framed with laser-cut plexiglass discs that catch the light and echo the lamp’s distinctive silhouette. Visitors use iPads to explore the Little Sun website on their own.

"We wanted to show how people use them and how their lives are enriched," Moore says. She adds that the suns are now available for purchase in Europe and the United States, with sales helping to support distribution in the developing world.

Additionally, a portion of the sales of the Little Suns sold in the Kemper Art Museum Shop ($25) will support the Skandalaris Center's Madagascar project.

"Every time you buy a Little Sun, you're supporting the whole endeavor."

A collaborative effort

Next spring, that endeavor will expand off the southeastern coast of Africa, thanks to The Madagascar Project.

Founded in 2006 — in partnership with the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Community Conservation Program, which has been active in Madagascar for decades — the program helps small communities cultivate sustainable economic growth.

“It’s been a collaborative effort,” says Ken Harrington, managing director of the Skandalaris Center. He credits Charles McManis, JD, the Thomas and Karole Green Professor of Law, with bringing the garden’s outreach to university attention.

“Over the last several years, students and faculty from across campus have worked together on a wide variety of projects,” Harrington says. “Their ability to look at challenges from different disciplines has enriched the solutions and the experience for all involved.”

The powerful LED runs at 0.5 watts but emits the light of a 40-watt incandescent bulb.

In January, the program will work with local conservation partners to dispense more than 100 Little Suns to families, farmers, basket-weavers and others. In May, students will travel to Madagascar, interview recipients and, hopefully, develop a sustainable business model to promote wider adoption.

“One of the challenges is how to define the process of distribution,” says adjunct instructor Armand Randrianasolo, PhD, associate curator at the Missouri Botanical Garden, who will teach the course. Given the limited number initially available, careless dissemination could lead to conflict between families or communities.

“We have to think carefully,” he says.

Yet the potential benefits are significant.

“First, it can enhance daily productivity,” Randrianasolo says.

For example, a busy mother might have only a few daylight hours each week for weaving baskets. Extra hours following dinner would result in more baskets to sell and more household income.

The lamp also will help families save money on candles and kerosene whose fumes can cause respiratory problems. That, in turn, can help alleviate the tension between economic and environmental stability.

“When the family has more income,” Randrianasolo concludes, “it won’t need to cut forest trees to feed the kids.”

At noon Thursday, Dec. 6, Judi McLean Parks will discuss Design with the Other 90%: CITIES at the Kemper Art Museum. In addition, at 5 p.m. the Skandalaris Center will host an open house, also in the Kemper Art Museum. Anne Dohmen and Ian Smith, both students in The Madagascar Project, will present posters about their work.

Both events are free and open to the public. For more information, call (314) 935-4523.

‘Fiscal cliff’ would have major consequences, WUSTL leaders warn

Susan Killenberg McGinn — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 18:38:17 CST

If Congress and President Obama do not reach a compromise before the end of the year to avoid the ‘fiscal cliff,’ it will have major consequences on Washington University in St. Louis as well as other universities and colleges across the country, say WUSTL administrators.

Read Chancellor Wrighton's letter to the congressional delegation.

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton and other Washington University administrators have been actively working to impress upon the country’s leaders and the public what billions of dollars in looming tax increases and spending cuts in 2013 would mean to Americans’ health and to the economy.

Wrighton recently sent a letter to Missouri’s congressional delegation, including U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt, as well as Illinois U.S. Senators Richard Durbin and Mark Kirk, expressing his concern if a compromise isn’t reached by the start of 2013.

In the letter, Wrighton wrote that “elements of the ‘fiscal cliff’ could impact our nation’s ability to educate the next generation of students, to provide life-saving cures and treatments to those in need, and to conduct the ground-breaking research necessary to maintain the nation’s continued leadership in science, scholarship, and innovation.”

Meanwhile, in an op-ed appearing in yesterday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Larry J. Shapiro, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the Washington University School of Medicine, wrote that cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would be “devastating.”

Read full text of Dean Shapiro's commentary on potential “fiscal cliff” consequences.

“Some $600 billion of the planned cuts will come from non-defense programs, which will have dire consequences for our health and our economy,” Shapiro wrote. “That is because the cuts indiscriminately slash federal investment in medical research.

“This short-sighted solution to the nation’s deficit problem would significantly delay new, life-saving medical treatments. But what many people don’t realize is that the massive cuts also would put a chokehold on the creation of high-tech jobs and threaten U.S. global competitiveness.”

View a United for Medical Research (UMR) infographic detailing why looming cuts in research funds could put jobs and medical innovations at risk. Washington University is a founding member of UMR, which is one of several national research advocacy organizations.

Evan D. Kharasch, MD, PhD, vice chancellor for research and the Russell D. and Mary B. Shelden Professor of Anesthesiology, has formed a Research Leadership Working Group to help maximize the continued success of research at Washington University.

Read Vice Chancellor Kharasch’s comments on sequestration risks in the WUSTL Federal Funding Newsletter.

The team is tracking broad institutional and national research issues and assessing their potential impact on the schools, faculty and research at Washington University.

The group also is developing communications about issues critical to the research community, such as the ongoing fiscal cliff discussions in Washington, D.C.

Kharasch recently sent to the research faculty on the Medical and Danforth campuses the first in a series of communications on federal funding issues.

In the newsletter, Kharasch encouraged WUSTL scientists to let their elected officials know their feelings about sequestration – large cuts to discretionary spending – which would have the most immediate impact on federal research.

In Wrighton’s letter to Missouri and Illinois elected officials, he reiterated his concern about the impact potential spending cuts would have on research, medical care and financial aid.

“While it is important to take a comprehensive approach to addressing this fiscal morass,” he wrote, “it is vital that any solution protect those core investments and tax provisions that help educate students, provide quality healthcare, and promote research and development — all of which enable enhanced national security, increased entrepreneurship and private investment, and economic competitiveness.”

New consortium of leading universities will move forward with transformative, for-credit online education program

2012-11-15 00:00:00

Courtesy image

Through a state-of-the-art virtual classroom, students in Semester Online will participate in discussions and exercises, attend lectures and collaborate with peers while guided by renowned professors — as close to the on-campus class experience as is currently possible online.

Today, a group of the nation’s leading universities announced plans to launch a new, innovative program that transforms the model of online education.

Consortium members include Brandeis University, Duke University, Emory University, Northwestern University, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Notre Dame, University of Rochester, Vanderbilt University, Wake Forest University and Washington University in St. Louis.

The new online education program, Semester Online, will be the first of its kind to offer undergraduate students the opportunity to take rigorous, online courses for credit from a consortium of universities.

The program is delivered through a virtual classroom environment and interactive platform developed by 2U, formerly known as 2tor.

Beginning in the fall of 2013, Semester Online will be available to academically qualified students attending consortium schools as well as other top schools across the country. Information about Semester Online courses and the application process will be available in early 2013.

The consortium anticipates adding a small number of institutions prior to next year’s launch.

Initial Semester Online courses will feature primarily the same faculty and curricula as their brick-and-mortar counterparts, with additional courses designed for the online format to be included in the future.

Through a state-of-the-art virtual classroom, students will participate in discussions and exercises, attend lectures and collaborate with peers while guided by renowned professors — as close to the on-campus class experience as is currently possible online.

Semester Online will offer students unprecedented opportunities for curricula enhancement. They will have the chance to take advantage of unique course offerings from some of the most prestigious institutions in the country, courses they would not otherwise have access to.

They will be able to work, travel, participate in off-campus research programs or manage personal commitments that in the past would have meant putting their studies on hold.

Semester Online also provides exciting opportunities to consortium faculty members. Participating professors will have the chance to take part in a first-class online learning experience and engage with the best and brightest students across the country.

“There isn’t any question that online education is an important and impactful extension of our academic offering,” said Ed Macias, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs of Washington University in St. Louis and catalyst for organizing the consortium.

“The challenge has been developing a web-based program that mirrors the richness and robustness of the in-classroom experience and applies credit toward earning a degree. Semester Online does just that. The program will be a significant step forward.”

“This is another way to test, learn from and benefit from the opportunities and challenges the online and digital worlds provide for us. We’re doing this to offer our students even better options to enrich their education,” said Peter Lange, provost of Duke University.

“Students from all over the country, or even from abroad, will be able to attend these online classes in real time—classes of about 15 to 20 students taught by professors at some of the nation’s leading universities,” said Daniel Linzer, Northwestern University provost.

“These courses will expand curricular options for students and will enable consortium schools to work collaboratively to develop the most innovative and successful ways to utilize new learning technologies."

“Now, no matter where they are in the world, students will have the opportunity to engage in internships and work experiences, travel or manage personal commitments while continuing their collegiate academic journey,” said Earl Lewis, Emory University provost.

The consortium is partnering with 2U, formerly known as 2tor, the leader in creating online academic experiences universities. Semester Online will feature many of the same elements that 2U offers its prestigious master’s degree program partners, including live class sessions that connect students and professors; compelling, richly produced, self-paced course materials; and a strong social network that allows students to connect and build relationships with peers online.

“By making for-credit online undergraduate coursework a reality for these top schools, Semester Online represents an important milestone for undergraduate education, one that will influence the wider adoption of for-credit online learning across all of higher education,” said Chip Paucek, co-founder and CEO of 2U.

“Semester Online demonstrates 2U’s mission to help great schools go online and provide high-quality learning experiences for credit, empowering students to continue their education as they follow their ambitions, anywhere.”

“All of us will be working with our respective faculty, staff and students to operationalize the program and develop guidelines for our students prior to launch next fall,” said Macias. “There are further issues to resolve, however, it is tremendously exciting that this group of leading institutions has come together and is committed to moving forward the concept of Semester Online.”

For more information, please visit semesteronline.org. Additional information about Semester Online courses and the application process will be available in early 2013.

###

About Semester Online
Semester Online is the first-of-its-kind program to offer for-credit undergraduate courses through a consortium of top-tier universities that includes Brandeis University, Duke University, Emory University, Northwestern University, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Notre Dame, University of Rochester, Vanderbilt University, Wake Forest University and Washington University in St. Louis. In partnership with 2U, formerly known as 2tor, Semester Online offers rigorous, online, for-credit courses to college students from anywhere in the world. For more information, please visit semesteronline.org.

About 2U, Inc.
2U, Inc., formerly known as 2tor, Inc., partners with top-tier universities to deliver rigorous, selective graduate degree and undergraduate for-credit programs online. Founded in 2008 by John Katzman and a team of education veterans, the company provides universities with the technologies, infrastructural support and capital they need to transform their on-campus programs into high-quality, web-based programs. 2U is one of the highest-funded education technology start-ups in the United States. 2U has partnered with prestigious colleges and research universities to deliver the following groundbreaking online programs:

• USC Rossier Online: Master of Arts in Teaching, Master of Arts in Teaching –TESOL and Master’s of Education in Advanced Instruction from the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education
• MSW@USC: Master of Social Work (MSW) from the University of Southern California School of Social Work
• Nursing@Georgetown: Master of Science Degree in Nursing from Georgetown University School of Nursing & Health Studies
• MBA@UNC: Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School
• MPA@UNC: Master of Public Administration (MPA) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Government
• @WashULaw: Master of Laws (LL.M.) in U.S. Law from Washington University School of Law
• MPH@GW: Master of Public Health (MPH) in International and Rural Health from the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services
• Semester Online: For-credit undergraduate program through a consortium of leading universities

WUSTL leads effort to launch transformative Semester Online program

Jessica Martin — 2012-11-15 00:00:00

Through a state-of-the-art virtual classroom, students in Semester Online will participate in discussions and activities, attend lectures and collaborate with peers while guided by renowned professors — as close to the on-campus class experience as is possible online.

Washington University in St. Louis has taken a leadership role in helping to shape the future of online education by being a catalyst to bring together a consortium of the nation’s leading colleges and universities that plans to launch Semester Online.

This program is transformative and a new model for online education, offering undergraduate students the opportunity to take rigorous online courses for credit from consortium schools.

“WUSTL has been deliberate in its approach to online education, looking for an opportunity that extends the reach of our academic offering, while providing a learning experience that is as rich and robust as our in-classroom experience,” says Edward S. Macias, PhD, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at WUSTL and leader in organizing the consortium.

“Semester Online will be a first of its kind, offering credit toward a degree and the very latest in online education technologies and techniques.”

In addition to WUSTL, consortium members include Brandeis University, Duke University, Emory University, Northwestern University, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Notre Dame, University of Rochester, Vanderbilt University and Wake Forest University.

Beginning in fall 2013, Semester Online will be available to academically qualified students attending consortium schools as well as other top schools across the country.

Information about Semester Online courses and the application process will be available in early 2013. The consortium anticipates adding a small number of institutions prior to next year’s launch.

Macias

“All consortium schools will be working with their respective faculty, staff and students to operationalize the program prior to launch next fall,” Macias says. “There are some details to finalize, however, it is tremendously exciting that this group of leading institutions has come together and is committed to moving forward the concept of Semester Online.”

They will be able to work, travel, participate in off-campus research programs or manage personal commitments that in the past would have meant putting their studies on hold.

The consortium is partnering with 2U, formerly known as 2tor, the leader in creating online academic experiences for top colleges and universities.

Semester Online will feature many of the same elements that 2U offers its prestigious master’s degree program partners, including live class sessions that connect students and professors; compelling, richly produced, self-paced course materials; and a strong social network that allows students to connect and build relationships with peers online.

WUSTL School of Law is working with 2U to offer @WashULaw, an online Master of Laws in U.S. Law for Foreign Lawyers set to begin classes next semester.

For more information, visit semesteronline.org. For a related story, click here.

Additional information about Semester Online courses and the application process will be available in early 2013.

Material Monster: Packaging Purgatory

2012-11-06 00:00:00

Students from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, led by sophomore Caitlin Lee, installed Packaging Purgatory, a public art project built from recycled laboratory packing materials, in the Dula Foundation Central Courtyard last Sunday, Nov. 4. The installation was timed to coincide with the conference “URBANISM(S): Sustainable Cities for One Planet,” which takes place Nov. 9-10. All photos by Sid Hastings/WUSTL Photo Services.

Every day, laboratories from around the university must dispose of boxes, bubble wrap, packing supplies and other waste items. Indeed, in the United States, packaging makes up about one-third of municipal solid waste.

Last summer, Susan Shen, a neuropathology student in the School of Medicine, approached the student-led Art Council in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts with a proposal: instead of recycling such materials, would it be possible to transform them into art?

The result is Packaging Purgatory, the inaugural installation by Material Monster. A subgroup of the Art Council, Material Monster works to collect and reuse recyclable materials for a variety of creative endeavors.

For Packaging Purgatory, Caitlin Lee, vice president for Art Council, and fellow Material Monster volunteers created a three-part installation utilizing hundreds of colorful rectangular plastic plates. Originally created to package pipette tips, the plates were collected for the group by WUSTL’s Environmental Health & Safety department.

Using Ziploc ties, Lee and other students knitted the plates together and, on Oct. 27, wrapped them around a series of tree trunks near Olin Library.

Then, Nov. 4, the installation migrated east to the Sam Fox School, where it took the form of both freestanding sculptures (the “exoskeletons” of the previously wrapped trees) and additional tree wrappings. All will remain on view during the upcoming conference “URBANISM(S): Sustainable Cities for One Planet,” which takes place Nov. 9 and 10.

The final iteration will come next week when the project moves to the School of Medicine’s Farrell Learning and Teaching Center.

Sandra Brennan, 73, longtime assistant to dean of Sam Fox School

Liam Otten — 2012-11-02 00:00:00

Sandra Brennan with Connor Duermit, a sophomore architecture major in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Duermit received the Susan T. Morgan Scholarship, which Brennan sponsored, in 2011.

Sandra Brennan, longtime assistant to the dean of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, died at her home in Webster Groves Monday, Oct. 29, following a long illness. She was 73.

A fixture in Givens Hall for 22 years, Brennan was renowned for bringing brownies, hugs and words of encouragement to student architecture reviews and late-night cram sessions alike.

“Sandy was the unofficial School of Architecture matriarch, and her overwhelming kindness, generosity and compassion made Givens a home for me and for so many others,” says Jason Cheng, a 1998 alumnus. “While I am saddened by her passing, I am so grateful for having the opportunity to know her.”

Lea Oxenhandler, a 2009 College of Architecture graduate, recalls Brennan patiently walking her family through the admissions process before she even arrived on campus.

“Once I got to Wash. U, Sandy was my self-proclaimed ‘other mother,’" Oxenhandler says. “She always brightened my days, especially in the most stressful review times. One evening, after missing a few classes due to illness, I came into the studio to find a note from Sandy and a bowl of warm chicken soup on my studio desk.”

“Sandy cared for us all as individuals,” adds Susan Morgan, a 2001 architecture alumnus, who received the Sam Fox School’s Young Alumni Award in 2011. “She knew our hometowns and whether we had an older brother or a younger sister. She knew what time the crew race was and brought the whole team brownies before a basketball game if there was even one architecture student on the team.”

Brennan is survived by her sons Christopher David McMillan (LA ’98) and Thomas John “T.J.” Brier (Kimberly) and by her twin grandchildren, Taylor Jamieson and Elizabeth Catherine. Thomas, her husband of 42 years, died in 2002.

"Sandy was a remarkable individual who touched the lives of many students, faculty, and staff during her 20-year tenure," says Carmon Colangelo, dean of the Sam Fox School. "Her warm and welcoming smile, kind and encouraging words, energetic spirit, motherly advice — and of course, her famous fresh-baked brownies — will be sorely missed by her Sam Fox School family. Our condolences go out to Sandy's sons and their families during this very difficult time."

A memorial service was held Sunday, Nov. 4, in Steinberg Hall Auditorium. The family requests that gifts in Brennan’s honor be made to the Sandy Brennan Student Travel Fund, Campus Box 1210, Washington University, One Brookings Dr., St. Louis, MO 63130-9989.

URBANISM(S): Sustainable Cities for One Planet

Liam Otten — 2012-10-30 00:00:00

The world is getting smaller. Digital technologies collapse distances while modern infrastructure perforates old borders.

But cities are getting bigger. Today, more than 20 cities top 10 million inhabitants. By 2030, estimates the United Nations, 60 percent of the world’s people will live in urban areas.

That growth represents the key challenge of the 21st century, says John Hoal, associate professor and director of the Master of Urban Design (MUD) program in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. But it also represents an important opportunity.

“In many ways, the future of sustainability will be decided in and through the design of the city and its necessary supply chain,” Hoal says. Issues relating to climate change, CO2 emissions, pollution, congestion, sanitation, water, energy, food, housing — all will need to be solved, or not solved, within the context of the city.

“From our perspective, the emerging global cities are actually more important to the future of the world than many nations,” Hoal adds. “At their best, cities tend to be the places for the effective creation of wealth, culture, opportunity, diversity, productivity and innovation, and at their worst, places of pollution and slums.”

URBANISM(S): Sustainable Cities for One Planet

In November, the Sam Fox School will present “URBANISM(S): Sustainable Cities for One Planet,” an international symposium exploring the future of global urban design.

The two-day event will feature dozens of speakers and panelists investigating both the potentials and demands of sustainable cities. Topics will range from the ecology, infrastructure and social life of the city to its role as a hub for creativity and innovation.

The Giant Interactive Group Corporate Headquarters in Shanghai was designed by Morphosis, the interdisciplinary cofounded by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne. Photo by Iwan Baan.

Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne will deliver the Fumihiko Maki Lecture, the symposium’s keynote address.

Titled “Combinatory Urbanism: The Complex Behavior of Collective Form,” the talk will survey a handful of Mayne’s recent projects and research, which together amount to a manifesto for strategically re-envisioning the practice of urban design. Notably, Mayne’s work builds upon the book Collective Form, which was written by Maki, a fellow Pritzker winner, during his tenure as faculty at Washington University.

Other speakers will include Hoal and WUSTL architectural historian Eric Mumford, as well as Teddy Cruz, Chris Reed, Ken Greenberg, Mitesh Dixit, Felipe Correa, Douglas Voigt, Eric Zencey and Nan Ellin.

“The world today is rapidly urbanizing,” says Bruce Lindsey, dean of architecture and the E. Desmond Lee Professor for Community Collaboration. “It is growing more socially complex and economically integrated, and is ever more confronted by vast shifts in natural resources.

“We’re honored to welcome some of the nation’s leading thinkers on these issues,” Lindsey adds. “The intent of the symposium is to discuss and debate the future of urban design education and practice.

“At the same time, we hope to demonstrate the many powerful ways that art and design can contribute to the challenges ahead.”

Master of Urban Design

URBANISM(S) comes as part of a series of events celebrating the 50th anniversary of the MUD program. Founded in 1961 by Maki and Roger Montgomery, the program is the second oldest in the nation. Alumni are now at major planning, architecture, landscape architecture and urban design practices around the world.

As part of the symposium, Hoal will lead a discussion of the MUD program’s distinguished history, as well as a discussion speculating about the profession’s next 50 years.

RSVPs and sponsors

“URBANISM(S): Sustainable Cities for One Planet” takes place in the Sam Fox School’s Steinberg and Givens halls, and in the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. All three buildings are located adjacent to one another near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards.

All sessions are free and open to the public, though RSVPs are requested. For more information or a complete schedule, visit samfoxschool.wustl.edu/events/urbanisms. RSVP to samfoxschool@wustl.edu.

The symposium is sponsored by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and by HOK, Christner, SOM, Arcturis and The Lawrence Group.

Clinton Global Initiative University application workshops begin Nov. 1

2012-10-26 00:00:00

A series of application workshops will be held for students interested in the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) to be held at Washington University in St. Louis April 5-7, 2013.

The workshops will focus on application criteria and developing the required Commitment to Action. A Commitment to Action is a concrete plan that addresses a pressing challenge in one of CGI U’s five focus areas: education; environment and climate change; peace and human rights; poverty alleviation; or public health.

Students may apply as individuals or in groups up to four. Selected participants will be able to further develop their commitments over the course of the CGI U meeting with support and insight from international experts.

President Clinton launched CGI U in 2007 to engage the next generation of leaders on college campuses around the world. The annual CGI U meeting brings together students, youth organizations, topic experts and celebrities to discuss and develop innovative solutions to pressing global challenges.

The early decision application deadline for CGI U is Friday, Nov. 30, and a final deadline is Wednesday, Jan. 30.

The first workshop will be held from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1, in Brown Hall, Room 118.

Remaining workshops:

Thursday, Nov. 8, at noon-1 p.m. in Danforth University Center, Room 233
Monday, Nov. 12, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in Connor Auditorium, Farrell Learning and Teaching Center at the Medical Campus
Tuesday, Nov. 13, from 8-9 p.m. in College Hall, South 40

RSVP in advance to workshops at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ClintonRSVP

Up to 200 WUSTL undergraduate, graduate and professional students will be able to participate in CGI U and there will be additional volunteer opportunities during the meeting.

Visit www.cgiu.org to learn more about the program. For more information about the workshops, contact Robin Hattori, assistant director of the Gephardt Institute for Public Service, at 314-935-8628 or rhattori@wustl.edu.

Environmental advocate calls for global movement to solve climate crisis

Barb Rea — 2012-10-25 00:00:00

For decades, author, educator, environmentalist and activist Bill McKibben has been telling us things we don’t want to hear — presenting scary scorched Earth scenarios due to carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Unlike many other climate experts, he also is leading a global grass roots campaign to try to stop this from happening. His initiative, 350.org, is a global call to action to solve the climate crisis.

McKibben

McKibben will bring his message to Washington University in St. Louis Thursday, Nov. 1, and deliver the keynote address for the Sustainable Cities Conference. His talk, “350: The Most Important Number in the World,” begins at 7 p.m. in Graham Chapel on the Danforth Campus. The talk and the conference are free and open to the public. For details about the conference, see below.

The number 350 refers to 350 parts per million CO2, the number climatologists say is the scientific “cliff” leading to irreversible environmental damage. The bad news is that we’re already past that threshold with approximately 390 parts per million CO2 in the planet’s atmosphere.

Since McKibben established 350.org in 2009, he has mobilized millions of people to bring attention to this serious condition. Phil Valko, director of sustainability for the university, says he hopes that McKibben’s speech will inspire the community to think seriously and creatively about solutions.

“The first eight months of 2012 were the hottest on record for the United States, accompanied by an arctic ice melt unprecedented in recent history,” Valko says. “Nonetheless, meaningful discussion and problem-solving around climate change has been conspicuously absent from our national dialogue. Bill McKibben will elevate this important dialogue in St. Louis Nov. 1 to kick off the Sustainable Cities Conference.”

With the publication of The End of Nature in 1989, McKibben became firmly established as an important environmental writer known for his ability to present scientific information to the general public. It is now considered a classic.

Several best-selling books followed, shaping public perception and deepening understanding of the way culture feeds the machinery that contributes to the destruction of the planet. Through his books, website, essays and op-ed statements, McKibben strives to send his message to the masses. He is a frequent contributor to several national magazines and newspapers, as well as popular online news sites, such as the Huffington Post.

McKibben graduated from Harvard University with a degree in journalism. A former staff writer for The New Yorker, he is now a scholar in residence at Middlebury College. In addition to being inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, his honors include being awarded Guggenheim and Lyndhurst fellowships.

For information on the Assembly Series presentation, visit assemblyseries.wustl.edu.

The Sustainable Cities Conference:
The conference runs Nov. 1-3 and is sponsored by the university’s Office of Sustainability with assistance from many campus partners and the City of St. Louis. It will offer a variety of programs and workshops designed to explore and share innovative ways to improve the urban landscape. To learn more about the conference, read Record story.

For a list of speakers and events and to register for the Sustainability Cities Conference, visit http://sustainablecities.wustl.edu/.

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts is presenting a related conference: URBANISM(S): Sustainable Cities for One Planet. Scheduled for Nov. 9–10 on the WUSTL campus, the conference commemorates the architecture school’s 50th anniversity.

For information on URBANISM(S), visit

http://www.samfoxschool.wustl.edu/events/urbanisms.

Video: A collaboration of hands and minds

2012-10-22 00:00:00

http://youtu.be/OTS6flxOcvs

James Siena is a New York-based artist whose complex, rule-based linear abstractions, or “visual algorithms,” result in intensely concentrated, vibrantly colored, freehand geometric patterns.

This fall, Siena served as the Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Visiting Artist at Island Press, the nationally known print shop in WUSTL’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

While on campus, Siena spent a week in the studio, working with students, master printer Tom Reed and Island Press director Lisa Bulawsky to create a trio of large-scale prints.

Community Day at Kemper Art Museum Oct. 20

2012-10-16 00:00:00

Families enjoying the fall 2011 Community Day. Photo by Whitney Curtis.

Good design can help solve community problems.

Design with the Other 90%: CITIES, a major survey exhibition now on view at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, collects dozens of smart, collaborative projects from around the globe, from personal water purifiers to a bicycle-powered cell phone charger.

On Saturday, Oct. 20, six St. Louis non-profit organizations will visit the Kemper Art Museum to present their own community design challenges.

Organized by Alicia Ajayi, Colleen Dougherty and Michelle Wiegand, all students in WUSTL’s Brown School, the event will allow each non-profit to solicit advice about its particular design needs, from branding campaigns and wayfinding signage to building and office restoration.

The “Community Design Challenge” comes as part of the museum’s fall Community Day, a free afternoon of all-ages activities, which takes place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Other events will include scavenger hunts, art-making, button-making and readings of the children’s books Ish by Peter H. Reynolds (11:30 a.m.) and Iggy Peck Architect by Andrea Beaty (2:30 p.m.).

Local artists Tom and Lori Hunt will lead a series of drawing activities inspired by Notations: Contemporary Drawing as Idea and Process. Artist Maria Ojascastro will lead an all-day workshop on the “recycled city,” while dancer Alice Bloch will lead movement activities inspired by Design with the Other 90%: CITIES (12:30 and 1:30 p.m.).

At 1 p.m., curator Peter MacKeith, associate dean and associate professor of architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, will lead a tour of Design with the Other 90%: CITIES.

All events are free and open to the public. The Kemper Art Museum is located near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards. Refreshments will be served throught the day.

Community Day is made possible by a generous gift from the estate of L. Max Lippman Jr.

For more information, call (314) 935-4523 or visit kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu.

Provost offering interdisciplinary teaching grants; workshop for prospective applicants Oct. 23

2012-10-11 00:00:00

Interdisciplinary faculty collaboration is fast becoming a hallmark of Washington University in St. Louis. To help support interdisciplinary teaching, the Office of the Provost announces the second round of the Interdisciplinary Teaching Grant Program.

“The global challenges facing the next generation are not constrained by disciplinary lines and will require innovative ways of thinking about social problems and trends,” says Marion G. Crain, JD, the Wiley B. Rutledge Professor of Law and vice provost at WUSTL.

“Cross-disciplinary teaching and learning is critical to preparing our students to meet those challenges. The Office of the Provost created this program with an eye toward encouraging collaboration across school and departmental lines, both to enhance interdisciplinary learning opportunities for students and to enrich faculty teaching and foster research partnerships across disciplinary boundaries.

“The goal of these courses is to model intellectual discourse across disciplines in ways that are synergistic rather than polarized.”

The application deadline for the teaching grants is Dec. 1. To assist prospective applicants in putting together proposals, the provost will hold a workshop from 3:30-5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 23, in Danforth University Center, Room 234, facilitated by faculty who were successful in the previous round.

Up to four courses will be funded beginning in academic year 2013-14, renewable for a second year. The program will fund up to $40,000 per interdisciplinary course, to be split between the two participating schools or departments.

Last year, the provost supported four courses through the Cross-School Interdisciplinary Teaching Grant Program. This year, the committee also will consider interdisciplinary proposals that cross department lines in addition to those that cross school lines.

Successful proposals will involve a new teaching collaboration between at least two faculty from different disciplines who are affiliated with different schools at WUSTL or with different departments within a single school; preference will be given to cross-school collaborations. Novel or innovative disciplinary combinations likely to yield fresh insights for students and faculty alike are strongly preferred.

A persuasive case must be made that the intellectual frameworks characteristic of the disciplines represented are fundamentally distinct from one another and yet simultaneously synergistic.

Proposals must be fully elaborated, visualizing the course from the perspective of the student experience and reflecting careful thought and planning on topics such as how faculty will manage course scheduling conflicts across schools or departments, grading obligations, and experiential learning, if any, incorporated in the course.

A committee of faculty and administrators with representation from all WUSTL schools will review proposals and make recommendations to the provost for eventual funding.

The Interdisciplinary Teaching Grant courses from 2012-2013 are:

• Adolescent Health — Katie Plax, MD, associate professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine, and Juan Pena, PhD, then assistant professor at the Brown School

• Economic Realities of the American Dream — Steven Fazzari, PhD, professor of economics in Arts & Sciences and associate director of WUSTL’s Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy, and Mark R. Rank, PhD, the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare in the Brown School

• Interrogating Health, Race, and Inequalities — Shanti A. Parikh, PhD, associate professor of anthropology and of African and African-American studies, both in Arts & Sciences, and Vetta Sanders-Thompson, PhD, associate professor at the Brown School

• Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Geriatric Care — Brian Carpenter, PhD, associate professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences; Nancy Morrow-Howell, PhD, the Ralph & Muriel Pumphrey Professor of Social Work in the Brown School; and Susan Stark, PhD, assistant professor of occupational therapy in the School of Medicine

The complete grant request for proposal is available at http://provost.wustl.edu/cross-school-interdisciplinary-teaching-grant-rfp.

Past successful grant proposals are available on the Office of the Provost’s website, http://provost.wustl.edu/policies-reports-resources.

RSVP for the Oct. 23 proposal workshop to Crain at mgcrain@wulaw.wustl.edu.

Sam Fox School at Venice Architecture Biennale

Liam Otten — 2012-09-28 00:00:00

Light Houses: On the Nordic Common Ground, on view at the Nordic Pavilion at the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale. The exhibition was curated by WUSTL’s Peter MacKeith and is one of three projects in the Biennale — arguably architecture's foremost international showcase — that have ties to the Sam Fox School.

Asphalt is at once omnipresent and overlooked. It shapes our cities and enables our highways, yet remains largely in the background of our environmental perceptions.

Last fall, students from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ newly created Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) program sought to examine this most mundane of materials through the lens of surface parking.

Master of Landscape Architecture students installing Parking Plot just off Wydown Boulevard last year.

Working under the direction of Dorothée Imbert, program chair; Natalie Yates, assistant professor; and visiting critic Paula Meijerink, students designed and installed Parking Plot, a cleverly subversive experiment that aims to reinterpret asphalt and broader notions of just what constitutes “urban nature.”

Now, Parking Plot is one of two projects with ties to the Sam Fox School included in the U.S. Pavilion of the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale — arguably the profession’s leading international showcase.

Also included is 1415, a St. Louis redevelopment project led by former visiting artist Theaster Gates Jr.

In addition, Peter MacKeith, associate dean of the Sam Fox School and associate professor of architecture, curated the Nordic Pavilion in its entirety.

An authority on Nordic architectural culture — and an honorary consul to Finland — MacKeith spent much of the last two years organizing Light Houses: On the Nordic Common Ground. The exhibition showcases conceptual models demonstrating Nordic ideals of "light-ness" and "house-ness," as interpreted by 32 leading architects from Finland, Norway and Sweden.

“It is a significant honor to have a project in the Venice Biennale,” says Carmon Colangelo, dean of the Sam Fox School and E. Desmond Lee Professor for Collaboration in the Arts. “To have three is an impressive achievement and speaks to the vision and talent of our students and faculty.

“These projects represent the work of a number of our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and visiting artists and architects,” Colangelo says. “We are incredibly proud of them all.”

Common Ground

This year’s Biennale was organized by Sir David Chipperfield, the celebrated British architect who recently designed a major expansion of the Saint Louis Art Museum. Titled Common Ground, the exhibition aims to highlight the collaborative nature — and social thrust — of contemporary architecture.

Cathy Lang Ho, curator of Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good, included Parking Plot in the U.S. Pavilion exhibit at the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale.

In that spirit, the U.S. Pavilion presented Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good. Curated by Cathy Lang Ho with the New York Institute for Urban Design, the exhibition collects 124 projects that expand the functionality, sustainability and livability of cities. It earned one of four Special Mentions from the Biennale International Jury, which praised its “celebration of the power of individuals to change society.”

“Parking Plot, project 81 in Spontaneous Interventions, could be described as a landscape performance,” Imbert says. “It demonstrates how our asphalt landscape can be altered with minimal means and how significant urban vegetation is.”

To begin, Imbert, Yates and Meijerink secured the loan of two WUSTL parking spaces, just off Wydown Boulevard, and then conducted a workshop with the MLA class.

After agreeing to a strategy, students identified drainage patterns and sites at which to locate future plantings. Next, they rented a concrete wet saw; cut (at great physical expense) two strips across the parking spots; and planted sumac, juniper, honeysuckle and other “volunteers” collected from the urban forest growing on the former Pruitt-Igoe housing site downtown.

“Parking Plot is a bit of agitprop,” Imbert says. “It is a plot on parking and the impervious, hot asphalt of contemporary cities.” And, since students continue to monitor the plants, “it is also a test plot for urban vegetation, and a suggestion that tough is beautiful.”

Sam Fox School students working as part of Somethingness: Ways of Seeing and Building, a CityStudioSTL studio that helped transform a dilapidated St. Louis structure into a new arts center.

Gates, meanwhile, led a small army of volunteers to transform a dilapidated mixed-use building — located at 1415 Mallinckrodt, in the Hyde Park neighborhood — into an arts center for students at nearby Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church and School.

That workforce included students who participated in Somethingness: Ways of Seeing and Building. The summer 2011 design-build course was a project of CityStudioSTL, which works with local groups to conceive, design and ultimately construct publicly minded projects. Students spent several weeks shoring up the structure and building a small amphitheater in the rear of the property.

“The 1415 project represents architecture as a form of civic and social engagement,” says Bruce Lindsey, dean of architecture and the E. Desmond Lee Professor for Community Collaboration.

“Questions of design and construction become a way to explore the nexus of race, history and community,” Lindsey says. “It is architecture as cultural research.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APlBR3HaEtYBruce Lindsey, Theaster Gates and Belinda Lee discuss CityStudioSTL.

Nordic Light House

Social and environmental themes also underscore MacKeith’s exhibition for the Nordic Pavilion.

Visitors touring Light Houses at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Sverre Fehn, the Pavilion has long served as both physical and metaphorical “common ground” for Finland, Sweden and Norway. For Light Houses, MacKeith elected to celebrate the structure’s 50th anniversary by selecting 32 architects born after 1962 — 10 from Norway and 11 each from Finland and Sweden — and inviting them to create model conceptual homes reflecting their personal philosophies of architecture.

“Contemporary Nordic architectural culture offers both exemplary approaches and significant constructed works addressing the most challenging circumstances of our time,” MacKeith says. “The classic hallmarks of Nordic architecture – simplified form, frugal use of materials and sensitive treatment of daylight and the natural setting – embody the basic principles of responsible, sustainable architecture.”

MacKeith adds that the Pavilion owes much in its design to the Sam Fox School’s architecture program. In addition to MacKeith’s curatorial work and exhibition design, 2004 alumnus Philip Tidwell served as assistant curator and designer; and Juhani Pallasmaa, a former Raymond E. Maritz Visiting Professor of Architecture and recipient of the school’s 2012 Dean’s Medal, designed the exhibition pedestals.

"This is what MacKeith is inviting you to do,” architecture critic Cate St. Hill writes for Building Design UK. “Come into this open house, walk among the (‘Light Houses’), contemplate the designs, even touch a few if you would like, all a welcoming change from being brainwashed with endless information as with some of the other pavilions.

“The result is simple, highly tactile and very Scandinavian."

The 13th International Venice Architecture Biennale remains on view through Nov. 25 in Venice, Italy.

http://youtu.be/eWAdk-2hEokThe Nordic Pavilion

William Lenihan and Eileen G’Sell Oct. 4

2012-10-01 00:00:00

Poet Eileen G'Sell will perform with guitarist William Lenihan Oct. 4 as part of the Jazz at Holmes Series.

“Improvisation isn’t a matter of just making any ol’ thing up,” jazz great Wynton Marsalis once observed. “Jazz, like any language, has its own grammar and vocabulary.”

At 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4, guitarist William Lenihan and poet Eileen G’Sell will put that analogy to the test with “The New Beat Generation,” an evening of improvised music and poetry, presented as part of the Jazz at Holmes Series.

“This will be a nearly completely spontaneous endeavor with perhaps a few thematic cues to improvise from,” says Lenihan, director of jazz studies in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences.

“Jazz, improvisation and poetry, as well as composed music and poetry, share an extensive historic connection across the world,” Lenihan adds. “We thought it would be interesting to explore our own work together, and to bring light to these complimentary worlds of communication."

G’Sell earned a MFA from WUSTL’s Writing Program in Arts & Sciences in 2006. She is a lecturer in English as well as publications editor at the Kemper Art Museum. Her poetry has been published (or is forthcoming) in journals such as the Conduit, Boston Review and Harp & Altar.

William Lenihan

Lenihan has performed and/or recorded with Ron Carter, Michael Brecker, Bob Brookmeyer, Chick Corea, Dave Weckl and other notable musicians throughout the United States and Europe. He records for Rearward Schema Records in Milano, Italy. His latest release is UKITUSA, just out this month. Previous recordings include Cyclo, released on Caligola Records, Venice, Italy.

Also performing will be drummer Steve Davis, teacher of applied music, and bassist Eric Stiller.

Jazz at Holmes

All Jazz at Holmes concerts are free and open to the public and take place from 8 to 10 p.m. in Holmes Lounge, located in Ridgley Hall, on the west side of Brookings Quadrangle.

The series will continue the following week, at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11, with trumpeter Bob Ceccarini performing “Tin Pan Alley and the Music of Jerome Kern.” Todd Decker, assistant professor of music, will introduce. Subsequent concerts will include:

Oct. 25
Saxophonist Ron Goff and his quartet

Nov. 1
Saxophonist Rob Nugent and vocalist Kim Fuller
“Music of Cannonball Adderley and Nancy Wilson”

Nov. 8
Lenihan and his group
“Electric Miles and Hendrix Confluence.” The concert will mark what would have been the 70th birthday of Jimi Hendrix.

Nov. 15
Dancer Ashley Tate and the St. Louis Creative Artists Jazz Ensemble
“Freedom Jazz Dance”

Nov. 29
Kim Fuller Quartet
“Songs of Love, Work and Protest Songs”
Introductory remarks by Patrick Burke, associate professor of music.

Dec. 6
WUSTL Jazz Studies student groups

For more information, call (314) 862-0874; visit ucollege.wustl.edu/jazz; friend Jazz at Holmes on Facebook; or email staylor@wustl.edu.

Jazz at Holmes is sponsored by Washington University’s College of Arts & Sciences, Student Union, Congress of the South 40, Department of Music, University College and Summer School, Campus Life, Danforth University Center and Event Management, Community Service Office, Office of Student Involvement and Leadership, Greek Life Office, and Office of Residential Life.

Washington University in St. Louis selected to host Clinton Global Initiative University April 5-7, 2013

2012-09-26 00:00:00

Chelsea Clinton announced during the annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York on Sept. 25 that Washington University in St. Louis will serve as the host of the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U), April 5-7, 2013, on the Danforth Campus.

Building on the successful model of the Clinton Global Initiative, which brings together world leaders to take action on global challenges, President Bill Clinton launched CGI U in 2007 to engage the next generation of leaders on college campuses around the world. Each year, CGI U hosts a meeting where students, youth organizations, topic experts and celebrities discuss solutions to pressing global issues.

“Washington University is proud to serve as the host of the 2013 Clinton Global Initiative University,” says Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton.

“We look forward to warmly welcoming the many CGI U visitors to our campus and to St. Louis in April," Wrighton says. "Public service and global leadership are at the heart of our mission. We share President Clinton’s vision for preparing young people who will contribute to solving the world’s most urgent problems.”

The meeting at WUSTL will bring together nearly 1,200 attendees to make a difference in CGI U's five focus areas: education, environment and climate change, peace and human rights, poverty alleviation and public health.

“Washington University was selected for this leadership role in part because of our institutional commitment to training the next generation of civic leaders,” says Amanda Moore McBride, PhD, director of the university’s Gephardt Institute for Public Service and associate dean at the Brown School.

“The excitement and spirit of CGI U will be felt through university events leading up to and after the annual CGI U Meeting, from the Gephardt Institute's current election activities through the Faces of Hope celebration.”

Approximately 200 WUSTL undergraduate and graduate students will be able to directly participate in CGI U and there will be additional volunteer opportunities during the meeting.

Visit www.cgiu.org for more information and to apply to CGI U.

Clinton Global Initiative

President Bill Clinton, founding chairman of the Clinton Global Initiative and 42nd president of the United States, hosts the closing session of the 2012 Clinton Global Initiative University meeting with Jon Stewart, host and executive producer of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” on Comedy Central. George Washington University hosted the 2012 CGI U meeting.

Design, innovate and disrupt are keys to new interdisciplinary courses

Melody Walker — 2012-09-10 00:00:00

What happens when you put some highly creative architecture professors in an art studio with some intensely quantitative business professors and ask them to solve a problem?

Design thinking.

This hybrid approach to problem solving will be the focus of a new interdisciplinary executive education seminar taught by faculty members from Washington University’s Olin Business School and the College of Architecture.

“We are taking advantage of how different disciplines within the university approach and solve problems,” explains Panos Kouvelis, PhD,senior associate dean and director of executive programs at Olin.

“Design thinking has been popularized as a transformational way to solve problems. Architects and artists approach problems in a very creative way. At the same time we would like to approach problems in a creative way, but within a business context. We want to find the synergy between the two ways of thinking.”

Kouvelis will team-teach or “coach” the new course titled, “design.innovate.disrupt” with Bruce Lindsey, dean of the College of Architecture/Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design at Washington University; and Samuel Chun, PhD, assistant dean of executive programs & senior lecturer in management practice.

“Design is a process for discovering innovative solutions to solve complex problems within dynamic contexts,” Lindsey says. “Business is nothing if not dynamic, and innovation is the competitive landscape.”

The course is designed for generalists and welcomes students from all backgrounds. The three-day course will take place in an art studio where participants will be challenged to create a prototype that aspires to both design and business best practices. The professors promise it will be an intensive mental workout and, if successful, will transform the way students solve problems.

Dual approach to energy & environment

Olin’s executive education program is launching another interdisciplinary course this fall on energy procurement and risk management. Offered by Washington University’s School of Engineering & Applied Science and Olin, the two-day program will involve a live case study and audit of a building’s energy use, environmental impact and sustainability from a profit and loss perspective.

“Scientists don’t necessarily think about the business aspect when designing or inventing things,” says Chun, who will co-teach the course with John Murphy, research associate at the School of Engineering & Applied Science.

“We [business professors] think about the cost and benefit, the economics of the business model, but we don’t always ask deeper questions about the macro view.”

Chun says engineers bring an excellent macro view to problem solving and, together with the business professors, will be able to build a good business case for energy management.

This will be the first in a series of energy- and environment-themed courses offered by the business and engineering schools.

Energy & Environment — Putting Power Behind Energy Management

When: Tuesday, Oct. 30, and Wednesday, Oct. 31

design.innovate.disrupt. — Designing Business Innovation
When: Wednesday, Oct. 24; Thursday, Oct. 25, and Friday, Oct. 26

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