Students in the School of Fine Arts work on their freehand drawing in March 1929, shortly after the school moved from what had been the British Pavilion in the 1904 World's Fair to its current location in Bixby Hall. Less than a decade after the move, the school — under the leadership of Dean Kenneth E. Hudson, who served from 1938-1969 — rose into the upper tier of the nation's professional art schools. Hudson instituted a bachelor of fine arts degree and hired internationally recognized faculty such as Max Beckmann, Philip Guston and Arthur Osver. Perhaps more significantly, Hudson helped revolutionize the training of artists by creating a broad-based core program required of all students before advancing into the more specialized major areas — model found today in art schools across the country.
Washington University is celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2003-04.
