Arts & Entertainment

March 1, 2011

The pedagogy of gaming

The growing suspicion that video games are culturally and artistically relevant is attracting attention from an unlikely source—the academic world.


The business of gaming

If you still think video games are for teens in the rec room, it might be time for a closer look at what’s become the biggest entertainment phenomenon since television.


The science of gaming

UW faculty, students and alumni are using computer-game technology to solve some of humankind's most vexing problems.


December 1, 2010

Market man

Ben Franz-Knight, '96, is executive director of the Pike Place Market Preservation & Development Authority, the organization that oversees the 103-year-old Seattle institution.


Special collection

The Henry Art Gallery, UW Libraries and UW Press are teaming up to bring the beauty of the Seattle Camera Club to the public.


'What Work Is'

“What Work Is” was featured in the 2010 UW Common Book, You Are Never Where You Are. Since 2006 the UW has chosen one book for all freshmen to read.


September 1, 2010

Hot in Hollywood

Standing 6 foot 4, Joel McHale is a tall man in Hollywood. And now, he’s a big man in Tinseltown.


June 1, 2010

Stage to screen

Lynn Shelton, ’87, parlayed a UW degree in drama into a 10-year career on the stages of New York. But she found her true calling when she opted to pursue a career behind a camera.


March 1, 2010

Hard-hitting alumni

What comes to mind when you think of the Rat City Rollergirls? If it’s tattooed women and fast, physical action, you’re not alone. But that’s not the whole story.


Visual flair

Two reasons why the Emmy Award-winning TV series 'Mad Men' is so highly acclaimed are its visual style and historical authenticity. Assistant costume designer Allison Leach has had a big hand in both.


September 1, 2009

Books of revelation

Marilynne Robinson, ’68, ’77, has authored three novels, each of which is regarded as a major contribution to American letters.


March 1, 2009

Haunted hallways

When Kevin Rupprecht, '06, accepted the job of principal at Forks High School, he didn't realize he was signing on to be a minor celebrity as well.


Just call her a scholar

Ellen Dissanayake is working in a field she invented: evolutionary aesthetics, the study of art-making as an innate human behavior that helps us survive.


Evolution of art

Ellen Dissanayake came up with a paradigm-changing theory: Art-making evolved as a behavior that contained advantages for human survival-and those advantages went far beyond what Charles Darwin ever imagined.


The healing arts

Last fall, the UW School of Medicine and the Henry Art Gallery teamed up to offer a new course to help medical students develop their diagnostic skills by visiting art museums.


March 1, 2008

One popular geek

Call it “Revenge of the Nerd.” Rainn Wilson was, by his own admission, a hopeless misfit in high school. But when he made a recent appearance at a Kane Hall event, the adoring undergrads had to be turned away by the hundreds.


December 1, 2007

Comedy mind

For comedian and 1996 alumnus Drake Witham, the road to success has been a long, bumpy and filled with detours.


UW ceramic arts program is in good hands with Patti Warashina

The UW’s ceramic arts program is ranked among the top five in the nation. Ceramic artist Patti Warashina, ’62, ’64, is one of the reasons why.


December 1, 2006

100 books by Huskies

To celebrate the literary achievements of our UW community, the editors of Columns asked 15 faculty, alumni and book publishing professionals to help choose 100 outstanding books by 100 UW authors.


The black TV book

Kathleen Fearn-Banks once worked in TV, and now has written the dictionary on an important part of its history.