Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis

The School of Fine Arts at Washington University was founded in 1879, and the first dean was Halsey C. Ives.  It was the first art school to be a part of a university, and it is the only art school to have founded a major city art museum, the Saint Louis Art Museum. The funds to construct the building were provided by Wayman Crow.  The purpose of the school was to train artists, designers and craftsmen to work in St. Louis. The first building for the school at Nineteenth and Locust Street housed the museum and classrooms for the students, and the school was known as the St. Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts. 

In 1909 the school moved to the campus in Forest Park. In 1907, the museum was separated from the school, and it became known as the City Art Museum (later the Saint Louis Art Museum in 1972), and the school changed its name to the Washington University School of Fine Arts.  Halsey C. Ives became the first director for the City Art Museum, and Edmund H. Wuerpel became dean of the school. 

The school was housed in a building originally constructed for the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and by 1921 it needed to be replaced. In 1927 the school moved into their new building, Bixby Hall. $250,000 was given  for the building by William K. Bixby.  St. Louis artist Fred Conway began his career at Washington University as a student in 1916, and he later was a member of the faculty.  Other artists who taught at the school in this period include Victor S. Holm, Gustav von Schlegell, Gustav Goetsch, and Fred Green Carpenter.  

In 1938, Kenneth E. Hudson became dean. During his tenure, the school began offering a Bachelor in Fine Arts degree.  After World War II, artist Phillip Guston and Max Beckmann taught at the school, as well as Paul Burlin, Arthur Osver, Fred Becker, and Howard Jones. In 1960 a new building, Steinberg Hall was finished, enabling Washington University to display its museum collection on campus. Along with the museum, the building also contained a library and auditorium. 

The next dean was Lucian Krukowsky, who served from 1969 to 1976. During his tenure, the Masters of Fine Arts program was begun in 1970. In 1977, Roger DesRosiers became dean. During his tenure, a $100,000 endowment was given to the school by the Louis D. Beaumont Foundation to fund a visiting professor. The artists that were visiting professors during this period include Gyorgy Kepes and Richard Hunt. DesRosiers also began the Summer Institutes during his tenure.

In 2006, the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts was founded. The new school merged the university’s College of Architecture, College of Art and the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum into one unit. Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton announced this new school in January 2005. This was begun as a way to promote interdisciplinary studies among the different art programs at Washington University.

Select Sources

Washington University, University Libraries, Research Guides, Fine Arts Education, accessed May 18, 2021, https://libguides.wustl.edu/universityarchives/fine-arts-school.

Sam Fox School, Washington University, ”History,” accessed May 18, 2021, https://samfoxschool.wustl.edu/about/history.

“Washington University School of Fine Arts Commemorates Its First Century,” The Arts (October 1979): 1-2.

Sally Bixby Defty, “The First 100 Years of Washington U.’s School of Fine Arts,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 11, 1979. 5D.

Contributors

Roberta Wagener, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Record Published

Published on September 20, 2021