College of Art/Graduate School of Art

Dean: Jeff Pike Director of Externam Progams: Melinda Compton Carter

Home Page: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~artweb/washUSoa/

Founded in 1879, Washington University's School of Art is the oldest university-affiliated art school in the nation and the only art school to have fathered a major metropolitan art museum. Over the years, the School of Art has been home to some of the giants of 20th century art, including such figures as Max Beckmann and Philip Guston. In 2003, the School of Art placed 21st in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of graduate and professional schools, with the sculpture program placing 13th.

In recent years, the School of Art has joined with the School of Architecture, Gallery of Art, Department of Art History & Archaeology in Arts & Sciences and the Art & Architecture Library as part of the new Sam Fox Arts Center, a campus-wide umbrella organization for the study and promotion of visual culture. Plans call for the development of collaborative, interdisciplinary curricula and programs as well as the creation of new facilities designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Fumihiko Maki.

Individual programs within the School of Art include:

* Island Press, the School of Art's collaborative print workshop, was founded in 1979 and continues to produce limited editions and one-of-a-kind prints with nationally known visiting artists. Working in collaboration with a master printer, faculty and students, artists like Juan Sanchez, Joyce Scott, Annette Lemieux and Juane Quick-to-see Smith have created large scale pieces that explore non-traditional printmaking and papermaking techniques.

* Des Lee Gallery, located in the heart of St. Louis' historic Washington Avenue Loft District, was recently voted Best Gallery in St. Louis by readers of The Riverfront Times. The Des Lee is among the region's most prominent non-commercial venues and has earned a national reputation for showing work by local and internationally known contemporary artists such as Matthew Carter, Juan Sanchez, Franco Mondini-Ruiz, Shimon Okshteyn and Josely Carvalho. Moreover, the gallery is located in the University Lofts Building, a $5.6 million redevelopment project that aims to help young artists live and begin their careers in St. Louis by offering School of Art alumni loft-style apartments at rent restricted rates.

* The Nancy Spirtas Kranzberg Studio for the Illustrated Book introduces students to all aspects of publishing, from image-making and creative writing to printing, papermaking, graphic design and historical scholarship. The studio builds on the university's renowned Olin Library Special Collections, home to one of the most acclaimed collections of artists' books in the Midwest.

* The University City Sculpture Series, now in its 15th year, allows art students to propose, build and install artwork in public spaces throughout Washington University's northern neighbor. The program — the only one of its kind in the United States — is co-sponsored and funded by the City of University City, the Regional Arts Commission, St. Louis, and the University City Municipal Commission on Arts and Letters.

* Create Studio, a professional graphic design studio staffed by students from the Visual Communications Program. Founded in 1972, this nationally emulated, first-of-its-kind program gives students on-the-job experience in managing all phases of the design process, from meeting with clients and developing design briefs to creating finished art and shepherding projects through printing and delivery.

News Stories & Tip Sheets:

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Freund Visiting Artist Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum announce new residency June 15, 2009 -- Notion Nanny (2007) Installation artist Allison Smith will serve as the inaugural Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Visiting Artist in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Smith is known for creating large-scale works that critically engage popular forms of historical reenactment along with crafts and other traditional cultural conventions to redo, restage and refigure historical memories. Launched in partnership with Washington University's Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, the Freund Visiting Artist program joins a similar collaboration between the Sam Fox School and the Saint Louis Art Museum, which was initiated in 1995.

Freund Fellows Bruce Yonemoto and Ian Monroe win Freund Fellowships from Saint Louis Art Museum and Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts June 12, 2009 -- Courtesy photo Ian Monroe, The Tesseract The Saint Louis Art Museum and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis jointly announce the selection of artists Bruce Yonemoto and Ian Monroe as the Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Teaching Fellows for the academic years 2009-10 and 2010-11, respectively. The Freund Fellowship consists of two month-long residencies in the Sam Fox School's Graduate School of Art and a Currents exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum. The collaboration was established in 1995.

MFA Thesis Exhibition at Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum May 8 to July 27 May 1, 2009 -- Hye Young Kim, Awakening Moment I Download The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will present its annual MFA Thesis Exhibition in the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum May 8 to July 27. The exhibition will feature thesis projects by 27 master of fine arts candidates in the Sam Fox School's Graduate School of Art. Works will explore a wide range of thematic territory, from formal concerns to social issues, ecological simulations and scientific research. Media include painting, printmaking and sculpture as well as photography, video and site-specific installation.

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Faculty Experts:

Showing 5 Experts.

Stanley Strembicki Strembicki is a nationally and internationally exhibited photographer. Major portfolios range from 12 years of photographing Mardi Gras in New Orleans and Carnival in Italy to figure studies, digital works, photographs in and around Memphis and Graceland, urban landscapes of Italy and Western Europe, ... Expertise: Mardi Gras, New Orleans, Carnival in Italy, figure studies, digital works, Memphis, Graceland, … Direct contact: (314) 935-8406 / strembicki@wustl.edu

Denise Ward-Brown Director of Graduate Studies, Associate Professor of Sculpture Denise Ward-Brown is an internationally exhibited sculptor who frequently explores African and African-American themes and history. She has based works on topics ranging from the Middle Passage, when slave ships brought captive Africans to the New World, to stories by author Toni Morrison and contemporary ... Expertise: Middle Passage, slave ships, Toni Morrison, contemporary funeral rituals in Ghana Direct contact: (314) 935-8401 / ddwardbr@wustl.edu

Patrick Schuchard E. Desmond Lee Professor for Community Collaboration Patrick Schuchard Download Schuchard is a widely exhibited aritst whose current practice weaves elements of painting, sculpture, architecture, public policy and even city planning into remarkably whole cloth. Recent projects range from studio portraiture, book illustrations and public murals to University Lofts, a $5.6 million ... Expertise: community development, entrepreneurship, murals, painting, portraiture, public art, sculpture Direct contact: (314) 935-8664 / wpschuch@art.wustl.edu

DB Dowd Professor of Art DB Dowd is a professor of Ccommunication Design and American Culture Studies. He holds a joint appointment in the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts and the College of Arts & Sciences at Washington University. Direct contact: (314) 935-8403 / dbdowd22@wustl.edu

Jeff Pike Dean of Art Jeff Pike Download Since being appointed dean in 1999, Pike has overseen significant expansion of the School of Art's initiatives in digital media, which are rapidly becoming integrated into all curriculum areas, as well as a major renovation of facilities in Bixby Hall. The school's Carolyn Roehm Electronic Media Center ... Expertise: Interdisciplinary study, Sam Fox Arts Center, graphic arts Direct contact: (314) 935-6525 / jpike@art.wustl.edu

Showing 5 Experts.

Related News Clips:

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Show More Clips

The Mythic Imagination of Beckmann in Exile The New York Times Aug. 8, 2008 -- Art review of the exhibition "Max Beckmann: Self-Portrait With Horn" at New York's Neue Galerie. In 1947 Beckmann moved to the United States, where he took a teaching position at WUSTL. He also taught at the art school of the Brooklyn Museum.

Winners of the 2008 Awards for Distinction Announced ArtDaily.org Jan. 7, 2008 -- Ronald Leax, WUSTL professor of art, received a CAA award as part of their eleven Awards for Distinction for 2008. These annual awards honor outstanding member achievements and reaffirm CAA's mission to encourage the highest standards of scholarship, practice, and teaching in the arts.

Maki Designs Art Complex in St. Louis Art in America, Dexigner.com and 2 others Jan. 16, 2007 -- The January issue of Art in America includes a story on architect Fumihiko Maki, who was commissioned by WUSTL in 1960 to design Steinberg Hall as a home for the university's highly regarded art collection. Nine years ago he was selected again to design an entire arts campus, to be called the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts. It opened in October. The article mentions current exhibits organized by museum director Sabine Eckmann, chief curator Lutz Koepnick, and others.

An ancient masterpiece or a master's forgery? The New York Times and 1 others April 19, 2005 -- A scholar has suggested that ''Laocoon,'' a fabled sculpture whose unearthing in 1506 has deeply influenced thinking about the ancient Greeks and the nature of the visual arts, may well be a Renaissance forgery -- possibly by Michelangelo himself. WUSTL art history professor William Wallace comments.

Area graduate schools rank among best nationwide Baltimore Sun and 5 others April 1, 2005 -- WUSTL's and SLU's graduate schools were among the top 50 on U.S. News and World Report's 2005 list of best graduate schools nationwide. WUSTL medical school was ranked No. 3 nationwide for research after Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University. Washington U. has been in the top 10 since the rankings began in 1987. Washington U.'s business school ranked No. 32; law school ranked No. 24; social work and physical therapy programs ranked No. 2 and occupational therapy programs No. 3 in the health category; engineering ranked No. 34; and education ranked No. 40. (Includes links to U.S. News & World Report: Complete Guide to Medical Schools and Top Medical Schools - Research.)

Teaching (by) design Visual communications majors tutor aspiring artists
June 6, 2003 — Nationally speaking, high- school-level courses in graphic design, as opposed to general art or special projects such as yearbooks or student newspapers, are surprisingly rare. So when venerable University City High School launched a new graphics class last year, a group of visual communications majors in the School of Art readily agreed to help tutor students in the fledgling program.

Blind and visually impaired Web users offered taste of multimedia future
April 9, 2003 — Blind and visually impaired Web users can experience some of the Internet's increasingly expansive potential thanks to a group of senior design students at Washington University in St. Louis.