Charlie White

Highly regarded artist and academic leader Charlie White joined Washington University in St. Louis in July 2026 as the Ralph J. Nagel Dean of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. In this role, White oversees the school’s academic units—the College of Art, Graduate School of Art, College of Architecture, and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design—as well as the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, one of the nation’s leading university art museums.

A widely recognized artist, director, and academic leader, White’s vision and student advocacy have helped to build nationally recognized programs at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the University of Southern California (USC). As head of the School of Art at CMU, White established a tuition-free MFA, increased facilities and resources for students and faculty alike, and elevated undergraduate and graduate programs to the rank of #2 in the nation according to US News & World Report (2026).

Prior to his leadership position at CMU, White served on the tenured faculty at USC’s Roski School of Art and Design, where he established the Intermedia Program in 2003 and played a key role in redesigning the prestigious MFA program, which he directed from 2006 to 2012. In his more than 25 years as a leader at some of the nation’s top universities, White has offered expertise and intensive engagement in institutional advancement, pedagogical vision, and sustainable fiscal growth while supporting free expression and experimentation in art and culture.

White’s career as an artist and creative producer spans three decades of institutional exhibition, film and media production, publication, writing, and photography. His works have exhibited at Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Domus Artium, Salamanca, Spain; Oslo Kunstforening, Oslo, Norway; Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; ZKM Museum, Karlsruhe, Germany; and Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, among other institutions. Monographs of White’s photography have been published by powerHouse Books, New York; JRP-Ringier, Zurich; and Goliath Books, Frankfurt. White has also designed and produced commercial campaigns for Nike, Adidas, and Diesel brands; directed award-winning music videos; created campaigns for Constellation Beverages and Adidas Adicolor; and photographed Balenciaga’s 2018 winter campaign. White and his work have been discussed in Village Voice, Artforum, Frieze, The New Yorker, The New York Times, WIRED, W Magazine, Aperture, NPR, Cool Hunting, and V Magazine, among other national and international publications and productions.

In 2016, White fully shifted his focus to academic leadership and advancing the creative work of others. He has been recognized as a student advocate and respected leader in undergraduate and graduate art education. In his leadership roles, White has helped to facilitate the founding of the ICA Pittsburgh, raised student funding resources, increased faculty research and activity, built significant community and institutional relations, challenged and reformed graduate tuition models, and developed new spaces and places for expanded experimentation and learning.

As White takes on the role of dean of the Sam Fox School, his focus will be on supporting and enhancing opportunities for the next generation of artists, architects, designers, and scholars; expanding resources for research, scholarship, creative activity, and practice; and elevating the importance of the Kemper Art Museum as a space for experiential learning and social impact.