Shaping the Future: Sam Fox School Strategic Plan 2022-2032

The Sam Fox School’s 2022-2032 strategic plan, Shaping the Future, builds on the historic strengths of our disciplinary programs and the ways we have worked across art, architecture, design, and museum to contribute to contemporary society in meaningful and impactful ways.

Now, the school is looking ahead to a new era of disciplinary exchange; delving deeper into critical discourses and working toward solutions as we collaborate with university partners, join forces with community stakeholders, and engage our national and global networks.

The Sam Fox School’s 2022-2032 strategic plan represents three key areas where we will have the most impact and achieve distinction:

Digital Transformation in Art, Architecture, and Design

We will harness the power of transformative digital tools in architecture, art, design, and museum to advance and critically assess emerging technologies that shape our world; to access and widely disseminate impactful research, creative activity, and scholarship; and to practice and teach at the cutting edges of our fields.

Leadership in Sustainable Practices

The Sam Fox School will make critical, design-centric contributions toward collaborative research that addresses our global climate crisis. We will shape the future of the built environment through resilient design solutions, a commitment to environmental justice locally and globally, dissemination of creative work that promotes awareness and action around climate and environment, and the education of sustainable design leaders.

Strengthening Local, National, and Global Communities

We will work for social justice, healthy environments, and stronger communities—including a focus on projects with and for St. Louis—through academic and museum programs; collaborative research initiatives; and mutually beneficial industry, practice, and cultural partnerships in architecture, art, and design.

Our plan also outlines Core Investments for Success—investments in people, programs, and relationships that will build academic and research excellence, educate leaders, support access and equity, and drive opportunities for achievement across the school’s academic units and the Kemper Art Museum.

Over the next decade, the Sam Fox School and our partners will affirm the power of design, architecture, and art to ask difficult questions, demonstrate relevance, sow passion and action, iterate innovative solutions, and reap stronger outcomes for local and global communities. Please read more about Shaping the Future and progress toward our goals.