Life at the Sam Fox School
What’s it really like to be a Sam Fox School student? Scroll down to get a glimpse of studio life, meet our students, and see what’s happening right now on our side of campus.
Recent Happenings
The Sam Fox School Recognition Ceremony took place on May 12 in the Varsity Gym. WashU’s Commencement took place the following morning on Francis Olympic Field. Congratulations to all our 2024 grads!
Recent Happenings
Senior BA students and Second Majors exhibited art and design work at The Chapel on Alexander, opening on April 27.
Recent Happenings
The 2024 BFA in Communication Design Capstone Exhibition opened in Steinberg Gallery on April 25, displaying books, posters, animatics, and websites by seniors. View all the projects on their website.
Recent Happenings
Graduating MFA-IVC students exhibited their thesis work at the High Low Gallery. The show is open from April 19–May 7.
Recent Happenings
The school presented awards to seven alumni from art and architecture on April 18, 2024. Get to know each of our recipients from their interviews.
Recent Happenings
This UnConference, “The Stories We Carry: Stewarding Identity Through Process,” fostered collaboration on design approaches that integrate personal narratives.
Recent Happenings
BFA Juniors in the studio art program exhibited work at their year-end show, “Ouch” at the Des Lee Gallery March 28–April 6, 2024.
Recent Happenings
On March 29, the Sam Fox School hosted its second annual AI + Design symposium, featuring panels on the creative design process and machine-augmented vision.
Recent Happenings
Students presented their work with 4theVille on the organization’s ongoing cultural boulevard plan to community guests and critics at Sumner High School.
Recent Happenings
Sr. lecturer Michael Allen’s course delves into the history of American urban planning. Students presented their work at midterm reviews through staged debates, mini performances, and games.
Recent Happenings
Sr. lecturer Ian Trivers and MUD students visited Alton, Ill., the site of a proposed flood wall development project. Students met community members and investigated alternate ecological solutions.
Recent Happenings
MLA students pulled soil core samples from a site in south St. Louis and ran analysis on them under the guidance of asst. prof. Seth Denizen and researcher Dr. Christina Siebe.
Recent Happenings
39 Sam Fox School undergrad architecture students took part in the annual Laskey Charrette design competition in February. Teams fabricated a photo of a room into a diorama.
Recent Happenings
The Sam Fox School’s career office hosted an architecture / landscape architecture / urban design career fair where students had the opportunity to mingle with top architecture firms.
Recent Happenings
2024-02-09–The annual cross-disciplinary art show “Parabola” opened at the Des Lee Gallery on Feb. 9. The show features a juried selection of work from artists across all graduate programs at WasU.
Recent Happenings
Comics critic, educator, curator, and editor Bill Kartalopoulos met MFA-IVC students and delivered a public lecture on the history and cultural relevance of comics to kick off the spring semester.
Recent Happenings
Fall final reviews are in the books! It was a joy to see and share all of the work our graduate architecture students have done this semester. Congratulations!
Recent Happenings
Graduate architecture students in the fall 2023 419 Housing Studio worked on housing projects in New Orleans, Halifax, San Juan, and Barcelona.
Recent Happenings
Freund Fellow Crystal Z Campbell’s class took a private tour of the Urban Archaeology: Lost Buildings of St. Louis exhibition at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation with exhibition curator Michael Allen.
Recent Happenings
“Make Art/Work” opened at the Des Lee Gallery on November 10. The exhibition highlights the diverse creative practices that our staff explore outside of work at the Sam Fox School.
Recent Happenings
The Distinguished Faculty Award recognizes outstanding commitment to the intellectual and personal development of students. Watch his video profile.
Recent Happenings
Charles Johnson—award-winning writer, philosopher, educator, and cartoonist—gave the conference’s keynote address on damaging racial stereotypes in comics and historical Black cartoonists.
Recent Happenings
Master of Urban Design students worked with guests James Rojas (Place It!) and John Kamp (Prairieform) at the annual Informal Cities workshop, opening with a walking tour of STL’s Cherokee St.
Recent Happenings
Artist William Villalongo and data scientist Shraddha Ramani visited Island Press to conduct local research and work with students on a portfolio of new prints for their ongoing project.
Recent Happenings
Ezra Kong, BS ’16, is a community-based facilitator and practitioner, and head of the Design Futures Forum. They led a discussion and workshop on design and social justice for students on Oct. 20.
Recent Happenings
Illustrator Sam Kalda visited campus and conducted one-on-one reviews with MFA-IVC students during midterms.
Recent Happenings
First-year architecture students took a guided trip to the Missouri Botanical Garden to study how architecture intersects with environment at the St. Louis institution.
Recent Happenings
David Samuel Stern, MFA ‘06, conducted studio reviews with MFA-VA students during his trip to campus to mark the unveiling of his Weil Project Wall piece, Unknown (American), 2023.
Recent Happenings
Artist Marie Lorenz—whose work is rooted in the exploration of narrative of New York City’s waterfronts—visited campus to deliver a lecture and conduct studio visits with MFA-VA students.
Recent Happenings
2023-09-14 – MFA-VA 2nd year students exhibited summer project work at the Des Lee Gallery, September 14–October 13, 2023.
Recent Happenings
Graduate landscape architecture students transformed a parking space on Delmar Blvd into a pop-up pollinator garden as part of ASLA’s national Park(ing) Day event.
Recent Happenings
Students and faculty gathered outdoors on Jordan Plaza to celebrate the start of another academic year with yard games, t-shirts, and ice cream sandwiches.
We’re located in an ideal spot on the East End of the Danforth Campus, right across from beautiful Forest Park.
St. Louis is a vibrant, exciting place to practice architecture, art, and design.
In our study abroad programs, our students take their practice across the globe.
Get to Know Our Students
Joni P. Gordon’s multidisciplinary work confronts displacement, colorism, her ancestry, and racial identity through screen printing, paint, thread, wool, brown paper, and more.
Mad Green’s thesis project, “Queer Fight Club,” explores exclusion and rage through the social practice work of building a kickboxing community.
Sarah Moon, MFA-VA ‘24 brings us into her surreal dreamscape world of bright colors and playfulness.
Samantha Neu’s thesis work, Homesick, asks us to bring awareness to our bodies’ presence, inviting us to consider how we could climb or slide on the sculpture she’s created.
Hidden webcams, deepfakes, virtual bodies. Emily Elhoffer hopes her sculpture poses “a sense of uncanny othering… of being out-of-place.”
Lynne Smith hopes viewers of her work will arrive as they are, opening themselves to connection and expanding perspective.
Micah Mickles confronts the 20th anniversary of his father’s sudden passing by rebuilding the family archive and creating an assemblage, “Rayfield,” infused with tradition and preciousness.
Hatzikos’ thesis explores water, motion, our sense of time and place. “I decided that what really mattered was exploring the longing and distance from a place I’m no longer able to access.”
Jordan Geiger’s thesis work is incredibly subtle, using white thread on white fabric. “I hope the blankness draws the viewer in and that they feel a sense of discovery as the image becomes apparent.”
Join a Student Group
Students have numerous opportunities to make their mark on campus—including through student groups and student chapters of professional organizations based out of the Sam Fox School.
Take a Fox Fridays Workshop
Fox Fridays is a weekly, no-stress workshop series where students from across campus can learn new tools, techniques, and processes.
Sep 20, 4:30 – 5:30pm • Kuehner Court, Weil Hall
Sep 21, 9:30am – 12:30pm • Steinberg Gallery
Sep 27, 9am – 12pm • Kuehner Court, Weil Hall
Upcoming Events
Sep 20, 5 – 9pm • 725 Kingsland Ave. University City Lewis Collaborative and TechArtista
Reception for Retrospective: Nabil
Join us for the exhibition opening “Retrospective: Nabil” an art exhibition by Nabil Mousa at Techartista & Lewis Collaborative, curated by Tahia Farhin Haque.
Nabil Mousa unveils a profound exploration of abstraction, blending personal narrative with artistic innovation. Born in Syria in 1966 and shaped by pivotal moments in U.S. history and his own journey, Mousa’s work reflects a deep engagement with themes of identity, resistance, and transformation.
Mousa’s retrospective, showcased here, harnesses his mastery in colour and gestural abstraction to delve into the complexities of beauty and cultural heritage. Inspired by Arab visual traditions, these works embody a dialogue between past and present, reflecting on societal and personal struggles while celebrating resilience and hope. Through painting and mixed media, Mousa’s creations resonate with a commitment to arts activism and social justice, inviting viewers to contemplate the intersections of personal and collective experience.
Tahia Farhin Haque, an artist and MFA candidate at WashU, curates the space all year long for TechArtista and Lewis Collaborative. The Curator-in-Residence program is a collaboration between the MFA in Visual Art program in the Sam Fox School and Techartista at the Lewis Collaborative. This program creates opportunities through the arts for engagement and overlap between the Sam Fox School, WashU, University City, and the larger creative ecosystem in the St. Louis area.