Message from the Dean

Hello, and welcome to the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at WashU. As the first new dean in two decades, I’m thrilled to be joining this community at such a pivotal time for higher education and research in art, architecture, and design. Our school is an incredibly unique place. Here, creativity, technology, and experimentation shape our everyday lives: from the handmade object to the machine-made environment, and from researching and exhibiting the past to envisioning and designing the future. The Sam Fox School is unparalleled.

As part of a leading research university, the Sam Fox School is comprised of scholars, creatives, innovators, makers, and visionaries from different fields and backgrounds who share a commitment to personal expression, meaningful problem-solving, and improving the world around us.

Our uniqueness is built into our history. In 2006, the College of Art, College of Architecture, and Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum — each with a rich history more than a century in the making — combined to form the Sam Fox School. Together, we became a hub for interdisciplinary inquiry, creating a shared platform for art, architecture, and design to thrive in a culture of experimental visual language, vanguard space-making, and rigorous intellectual dialogue.

Two decades later, we are a dynamic community that takes risks, expresses feelings, and captures the complexity and brilliance of art, architecture, design, and the spaces and ideas in between. From our histories to our tomorrows, the Sam Fox School aims to elevate individual vision and foster collective improvement. This is why our alumni span the globe, applying the skills they developed at WashU in critical thinking, collaborative partnerships, and creative reasoning to their careers as leading architects, designers, artists, entrepreneurs, curators, arts administrators, and community leaders.

I invite you to explore our programs, research, and student work. I am excited for what’s to come in this new chapter of the Sam Fox School at WashU. Thank you for taking the time to get to know us. We look forward to welcoming you to this exceptional place.

Warmly,

Charlie White
Ralph J. Nagel Dean
Professor