Momentum Spring 2023

MOMENTUM

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

A Culture of Care

Given what I know of my parents, I was likely an infant the first time we went into a museum, far too young to claim that memory with any honesty. Had I to guess, it was likely the Detroit Institute of Arts, my hometown museum. As a youngster, I especially loved the twenty-seven panels that make up what I have always considered “The Rivera murals.” These images of industry reminded me of my father and his work in Ford Motor Company’s foundry and exalted, in my young mind, the essential importance of hard work to the individual, the collective and the society.

The museum did then and does now fill me with wonder—each image the result of another human’s imagination, their attempt to communicate something about the world in which they live, the world they envision, worlds simultaneously similar and different from my own. The museum, and that museum in particular, was, after books I obsessively read, a vital place of discovery and human connection.

Indeed, museums reflect society—our history and culture—back to itself. In this way, cultural caretaking is a great responsibility that we all bear for ourselves and each other.

For this issue, we’ve asked people how the RISD Museum excites and inspires them and how they view their role as caretakers of culture. For some, the museum provides a space to experience joy and practice generosity; for others, it is a place to learn and find community. I prefer to experience museums listening to jazz and, whenever possible, alone—all the better to muse and ponder and dream. How do you like to experience museums?

I hope you’ll enjoy reading about different ways people make meaning via museums: experiencing exhibitions together, quietly contemplating a work of art, discovering a new cultural tradition, studying an artifact intensely, or donating their time, resources and expertise.

Our students also share stories about how they learned to strengthen connections in new ways during the pandemic’s most isolating days. I’m in awe of how their enthusiasm and resolve have grown and how they discovered new possibilities and passions through art making.

For many of us, art and design allow us to be more authentic and to know ourselves more deeply. This spring, as I reflect on my first year as RISD’s president, I remember fondly the opportunities I’ve had to get to know the RISD community. From connecting with students, faculty and staff on campus through dinners, listening sessions, studio visits and more, to meeting alumni and friends at events worldwide, I continue to be impressed and inspired by all of you.

As the temperatures warm and crocus bloom, these stories will energize you, inspiring joy in your creativity and calling you higher as a keeper of culture.

Crystal Williams President, Rhode Island School of Design

INSTITUTIONAL

The Institutional

division is dedicated to advancing RISD’s mission by fostering lifelong relationships with alumni, parents, friends and organizations to strengthen goodwill and philanthropy.

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SOCIAL

The Great Connector

John Beug P 05 loved helping artists find their way. A fund created in his memory keeps that spirit alive.

Photo by Saam Gabbay

John Beug, who funded the Carolyn Mayer-Beug Foundation Studies Studio in his late wife’s memory, has a tree planted in his honor outside of the Woods-Gerry Gallery.

“RISD was like a playground for him,” says Lindsey Mayer-Beug 05 FAV. She’s referring to her father, former RISD Trustee John Beug P 05, who passed away in October 2022.

To honor their father’s spirit of mentorship and love for RISD, Lindsey and her twin, Lauren Mayer-Beug 05 FAV, created the John H. Beug (P 05) Fund to provide financial support for students studying Film/Animation/Video, including course materials, internships and global travel experiences.

John, an artist and painter at heart, was a creative force. He got his start producing films such as Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke before pivoting to producing iconic music videos, including Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” and A-ha’s “Take on Me.” Joni Mitchell, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, REM and Quincy Jones count among the many artists John worked with over the course of his career. The documentaries When You’re Strange, about The Doors, and Runnin’ Down a Dream, about Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, won him Grammys. His most recent film, Travelin’ Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall, was released last year.

Though Lindsey and Lauren joke that their dad’s demeanor could appear gruff or even intimidating, he liked to say, “I’m not just a suit” and relished witnessing artists at work and ideas take flight.

From all the voices offering the sisters stories and condolences, a theme emerged: “Your dad was such a mentor to me. I will always remember his kindness and friendship.”

“We always called him ‘the great connector,’” remembers Lauren. “He had a passion for connecting like minds and creative people and always encouraged people to keep making things.”

And he was a mentor to his daughters, too, assuring them that they could find their own paths, encouraging them when they experimented with animation and puppetry, and teaching them that happiness and passion are generative, artistically fulfilling pursuits.

With the John H. Beug (P 05) Fund, his legacy of mentorship continues. “This fund was his big wish,” says Lauren. “He wanted kids to have

experiences they didn’t think they would be able to have, like an internship or going abroad. He was such a proponent of finding good stories to tell with your art.”

Making a life and career out of telling stories is something Lauren and Lindsey learned from both of their parents. Their mother, Carolyn Mayer-Beug P 05, was a talented music video director and producer who died on September 11, 2001, just as the twins started their freshman year at RISD.

“RISD brought us all closer together as a family— before and after 9/11,” Lindsey says. “I hesitate to put words in our father’s mouth, but I think he was drawn to becoming a trustee because, without a doubt in my mind, our mother would have wanted to be involved.”

During John’s 15 years as a trustee, he was known for recruiting talented, passionate people and making them feel at ease. Lindsey and Lauren are gratified to see members of the community honor his memory by donating to the fund. It reminds them that RISD will always be part of their story.

“Being a student was such a magical time. To remember the things we created back then is a gift mixed with a little bit of magic,” Lindsey says. “Our dad lived vicariously through us, I think, watching our enthusiasm and growth as artists. I know he’d want us to keep making things and continue to be inspired, just as he did.”

“It has taken me many years to understand how much RISD shepherds creative thinking, including the trustees,” says Lauren. “It’s humbling to know these truly generous people who see the talent in young artists. Our dad really did love RISD so much. I hope the fund does him justice.”

To donate to the John H. Beug (P 05) Fund visit engage.risd.edu/beug

“This fund was his big wish. . .He was such a proponent of finding good stories to tell with your art.”

Painting with Thread

Kevin Wu 23 TX weaves colors and textures from the natural world into his designs.

“It all started during quarantine,” Kevin Wu 23 TX remembers.

That’s when he got his first house plant, a pilea peperomioides with leaves that reminded him of lily pads in the koi pond back home in Southern California. The plant became his roommate in February of 2021, when he was a sophomore. It was a time when COVID precautions could have left him feeling lonely. But the pilea kept him connected, first to nature and home, then to a community of online plant enthusiasts who shared tips and even cuttings so he could grow his collection, and then to his practice as a textile artist.

Before that first plant and the botanical motifs he weaves and prints on different fabrics, Wu, the recipient of the Warren Family Scholarship and the Marc Harrison Scholarship, was a high school student in Tustin, California, who considered becoming a veterinarian. But he couldn’t shake his love for art, so he began researching the paths of alumni from different schools and talking to his art teachers about their experiences. Soon, Wu began to think RISD was a place where he could belong. When RISD’s acceptance letter and scholarship offer arrived, Wu considered it a sign. “When I got in, I was like, ‘well, that’s settled!’ My scholarships are the reason I’m here.”

As a freshman, he turned his attention and research to RISD’s curriculum. “I had a portfolio of illustrations and paintings and I wasn’t sure what else I could do. I did my best to look at all the majors and hear from faculty,” he says. A Wintersession course exposed him to textiles, and he was intrigued. “It was a rug making class, very intense,” he remembers. “We wove beautiful samples in different colors using the amazing yarn room. I learned to paint with thread.”

Now a senior, Wu jokes that the trajectory of a textiles student is to learn everything by hand and then re-learn it on a printer. But he’s excited by the technology he can use in his designs. In his final fall semester, Wu took courses that taught him to work with Stoll knitting machines and a jacquard loom, an electronic machine that creates complex patterns such as brocade and damask, as well as a course on functional textiles that can detect stimuli from touch to temperature.

“I had been weaving by hand for a few years and honestly, I enjoyed it. But weaving takes a long, long time. Learning that there are machines that can weave my designs exactly as I imagine them is quite amazing,” he says.

Wu’s scholarships and support from the Materials Fund have made all the difference for him. On a

Wu says that his approach involves moving slowly and methodically, inspecting his work as he goes. “With textiles, you can’t go backwards,” he explains. “But if you notice a mistake as you make it, you can fix it and all will be fine.”

basic level, his scholarships made attending RISD possible and the materials support means he can be more creative, purchase an upgraded yarn or experiment with a new fabric. But in other ways, the scholarships are a show of support and a vote of confidence. He had the opportunity to meet donors Helga and Harry Warren, both P 11, at last spring’s Celebration of Scholarships dinner, something he calls an amazing experience.

“It’s nice to know there are people out there who support my work,” he says. “This unconditional support makes education affordable and is a genuine, real way someone can help a student who is learning and exploring. It’s incredible.”

The late Marc Harrision, former faculty member and chair of Industrial Design, was a pioneer in the field of universal design. His work, most famously for Cuisinart, was dedicated to making mainstream products accessible for users of all abilities. Harrison received an honorary degree from RISD in 1999. RISD honors his legacy with the scholarship and the Marc Harrison Fund, which supports the development of courses in the Division of Architecture and Design that explore innovation in sustainable design.

“Learning that there are machines that can weave my designs exactly as I imagine them is quite amazing.”

Ripple Effect

Susie Matthews MAT 98/ MFA 04 CR underlines the importance of arts education.

Walking through OVERLAP, the light-filled exhibition space and gallery in Newport, Rhode Island that Susie Matthews MAT 98/MFA 04 launched in the winter of 2023, the work of artists and designers is everywhere. It is not only in the large paintings by Sue McNally that spark questions about how memory alters the way experiences are rendered, or among the ceramics, sculpture, textiles, jewelry and glass pieces in the retail gallery. It is in the building itself, which Matthews, working with Jim Estes BArch 71, transformed from a former plate glass repair shop into an art studio and a bright, welcoming space for the public.

Designed with a workshop and studio in the back where Matthews, a ceramicist and textile artist, can make her own work, OVERLAP can accommodate dynamic community programming.

“This is my teaching place,” Matthews says. “A lot of the things I learned in my Master of Arts in Teaching program, surprisingly, come into running the gallery because it really is about educating people. For me, the real goal is to show people things that they perhaps were not aware of, or to help an artist articulate their vision and present it.”

As an artist and educator, Matthews, who grew up in Stonington, Connecticut and New York City and now lives in Jamestown, Rhode Island, was influenced by RISD faculty like Paul Sproll, who led RISD’s Department of Teaching + Learning in Art + Design for nearly three decades, as well as ceramic artists like Larry Bush P 09, Denise Pelletier and Jacquelyn Rice P 91.

Now, Matthews is part of a broad network of artists, including many who manage the difficult balancing act of teaching part time while maintaining their practices. Knowing how demanding teaching can be, and how important it is for faculty to have time not only to teach but to “think and learn,” she says, Matthews has chosen to honor that essential work and create an endowed professorship at RISD.

“I realized that, for me, the teacher is the most important part. Facilities and resources are important too, of course, but if you don’t have good people there teaching you, what do you have?” Matthews says. “To me, that’s the most important thing— supporting the people.”

To carry out her vision, Matthews joined the Jesse + Helen Rowe Metcalf Society by including RISD as a beneficiary in her will and creating the Susan M. Matthews (MAT 98/MFA 04 CR) Professorship When fully established, the position can be held by a faculty member working in any discipline at RISD.

While estate planning is a practical necessity, Matthews says, it also offers an opportunity to express one’s values.

“Arts education ripples out,” Matthews says. “If you teach an architect about sustainable design and they then make beautiful buildings that are environmentally responsible, it has a larger effect. We have to keep looking for beauty and hope and also creative solutions, creative thinking.”

Matthews says she is also glad to have the opportunity to strengthen RISD at a time when it is looking to the future in a principled way.

“RISD is a really great institution, and it is doing important, forward-thinking and challenging things right now,” Matthews says, “like pushing for diversity, equity and inclusion. It is becoming more diverse, more international. RISD is making efforts to build financial resources that will bring greater stability to the institution and more opportunities for creative people and creative solutions.”

If you are interested in learning more about gift planning at RISD, please contact Rebecca Dupras, senior planned giving officer at rdupras@risd.edu or 401 427-3151.

“RISD is a really important part of Rhode Island, so supporting RISD is also doing something good for the greater Providence and state community. RISD, by bringing in that creative energy, supporting rigorous art and design, has an impact that extends far beyond campus.”

In the Studio, Again

Emily Van Heusen 24 PR had a long journey back to RISD, but now she’s exactly where she needs to be.

Emily Van Heusen’s RISD connection goes back. Way back.

“My dad would have me in the stroller in the studio space all the time,” Van Heusen says, laughing. “I was with RISD from the very beginning.”

For a while, it seemed like Van Heusen’s RISD experience would be limited to the days she spent as a baby watching as her father, Brian Carlson 96 FAV P 24, worked through his courses. But after two stints at West Coast community colleges, her discovery of printmaking and receiving scholarship opportunities, she found her way back to RISD in her mid-twenties.

Van Heusen moved to Santa Cruz, California with her family when she was seven years old. There, she drew and painted while cultivating a deep appreciation for the natural world. “California’s landscape is impeccable,” she says. “I lived in the mountains but was 10 minutes from the ocean. Salamanders in rotten logs, creepy crawlies, tide pools, sea anemones, shells. I was always surrounded by nature.”

In 2020, Van Heusen combined her dual passions in order to make a difference in her community. She was living in Portland, Oregon and, as lockdowns began, decided to start art classes online. And as COVID spread, so did wildfires.

The record-breaking 2020 wildfire season affected Van Heusen in Portland, where toxic smoke filled the air. Her family in Santa Cruz had to evacuate their home. She reports, “Most of our neighbors lost their homes. The fire came within feet of our old wooden deck, the house my sister was born in, but it didn’t catch. That level of fire was traumatizing.”

“I took a printmaking class willy-nilly over Zoom,” she remembers. “I fell in love. Suddenly, I knew it was the thing I felt like I’d been missing forever. That’s when I got passionate about going back to a four-year school and recognized that I had the ability to help my community from afar.”

With a DIY printmaking setup in her apartment, Van Heusen began selling prints and donating proceeds to communities in Portland and Santa Cruz that had been affected by the fires. She was active on social media and became enthralled with prints’ power to connect and share information.

The experience led her to RISD, where she declared a major in Printmaking and a concentration in Nature-Culture-Sustainability Studies. “I want to support the people that I love and the land that I love. I want to make the most informed art about the world around us,” she says.

Van Heusen chose RISD because she knew it was where she would get the most rigorous education. Her scholarship, supported by the RISD Fund, allowed her to make that choice. RISD Fundsupported scholarships are an important complement to endowed scholarships and make up roughly ten percent of the school’s annual scholarship budget. “I had all my schools and all the financial aid packages on the table,” Van Heusen explains. “It’s still a challenge to make it work, but I know that RISD is the best place for me.”

She is enjoying rediscovering East Coast favorites, from New England speech patterns that remind her of family (“people sound like they’re mean, but they’re not!”) and Italian food (“I live on Federal Hill. Ugh, the food is amazing!”). She’s also exploring new creative directions.

When Van Heusen started printmaking via a Zoom class, she had the freedom to explore. “It was very homegrown. I could do it wrong but still get it right,” she reports. “Printmakers can get very, very specific in the details of their practice. But this experience was so open-ended and organic, there was room for growth.”

“I like to work very large and colorful,” Van Heusen says. “I focus on the life-death cycle but it’s mostly been the life side for a long time. Now, I’m starting to integrate the darker side of things. I love working with textures and making things drippy and bodily. And I love cutting prints and repurposing things. I make a print, which is life, then I kill it off. But then I turn it back into life by collaging it into something else.”

“I want to support the people that I love and the land that I love. I want to make the most informed art about the world around us.”

Advocates and Ambassadors

For nearly 70 years, the RISD Museum Associates have championed art as an essential public resource.

About 2000 visitors of all ages attended Super Art Sunday on February 18, 2023.

Photo by Erik Gould

The Museum Associates’ 2018 event “A Day with Diane: A Woman Inspired,” with fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg GP 22 sold out before invitations were printed. “She is a wonderful speaker,” Metcalf says. “Every so often at the podium, she would ask, ‘Do you still want me to keep chatting away?’ And it was a chorus of ‘yes, please, yes, please’!”

On a Sunday afternoon in February, the RISD Museum is abuzz. From the first floor to the sixth, in galleries, lecture halls and common spaces, artists guide young makers as they create new works from upcycled fabric, paper and magazine clippings and use printed layouts to design their own galleries. A second-grader talks with the exhibitions manager about a print in the “Take Care” exhibition, and visitors relax beside “campfires” made of fabric, paper and string lights in the Norman and Rosalie Fain Family Education Program Gallery, which the teenage artists in the RISD Art Circle have transformed into an immersive nighttime campground experience, complete with the sound of crackling flames.

This is Super Art Sunday, a free public event sponsored by the Museum Associates, a group of dedicated museum members and volunteers that has, in its 67-year history, emerged as a leading philanthropic supporter of the museum while encouraging generations of visitors to engage closely with art and design.

“The RISD Museum Associates are great champions of the museum and a rare example of a long-term collective effort that succeeds, year after year, in having a significant cultural impact,” says O’Neil Outar, vice president of Institutional Advancement.

“A hallmark of the group, even as its membership has changed over time, is its steadfast dedication to working collaboratively, and their efforts have greatly strengthened the museum.”

The group was founded in 1956, when 27 women responded to Museum Director John Maxon’s request for a volunteer organization that would produce social events. They formed a nonprofit dedicated to stimulating public interest in and support of the museum, fostering the growth of its collections and increasing public awareness and use of its facilities.

Now, the Museum Associates’ impact can be found everywhere in the museum, from its physical spaces and collections to the museumgoers walking the galleries because an associate has encouraged them to visit.

Photo by Elizabeth Watsky Photography

“The RISD Museum Associates are great champions of the museum and a rare example of a long-term collective effort that succeeds, year after year, in having a significant cultural impact.”

“For well over a half-century, the associates have provided vital support to the museum’s core work,” said Sarah Ganz Blythe P 22, interim director of the RISD Museum, “including care of the collection through conservation, providing access through exhibitions and learning opportunities and maintenance of the Radeke Garden at the center of the museum complex.”

This work is done in close collaboration with museum leadership. “The museum’s priorities are our priorities,” said Kristen Jones Connell, chair of the Museum Associates and ex officio member of the Museum Board of Governors. “That’s how we approach our work, discovering each year what specifically is needed in terms of support.”

Recently, Connell said, there has been an increased commitment to museum programming for learners of all ages and a focus on meeting fundraising goals even as the pandemic forced the group to forgo its annual spring fundraiser for several years. That marquee event has drawn luminaries like Paloma Picasso and featured speakers like the late fashion

editor and icon André Leon Talley and the event producer, designer and author David Stark 91 PT. This spring, that tradition resumed with a conversation followed by cocktails with curator and art historian Katy Hessel, author of the book The Story of Art Without Men on May 6.

Because Hessel’s book illuminates the unheralded efforts of women artists from 1500 to the present day in a way that is both of interest to art historians and accessible to readers with little prior subject-area knowledge, it aligns with the associates’ dual emphases on thoughtful engagement with art and broad accessibility.

For Ewa Metcalf, a member of the RISD Museum Board of Governors who has been involved with the Museum Associates for many years, museums are community anchors and museum visits are instantly transformative.

“You know, if you’re taking a walk, you can stop by, even for 20 minutes, and always learn something new,” Metcalf said. “You’ll see something in a different light, or you’ll admire it for its beauty, or it strikes you as something that’s beautiful.”

The Museum Associates as a group work hard to ensure this kind of experience is available to all those who can benefit from it—which is to say, everyone.

Some associates are practicing artists or studied art or art history, as Metcalf did, or have curatorial and gallery experience, as Connell does, and some work in fields outside of the arts. But all commit “the time, will and willingness” to advocate for the museum and do the hard work of fundraising, Metcalf says, and that group effort deepens camaraderie.

Now, the associates are focused on expanding the group’s membership with a focus on diversity of backgrounds and perspectives. And while the associates was originally an all-women group, Connell noted, it is now inclusive of all genders.

“We are very proud to be female-founded, like RISD itself, but very happy to be where we are now, inclusive and expanding, a group of really talented, interesting people who have a lot to offer to the museum and to each other.”

The Museum Associates have helped the museum acquire works of art and design, including the oil painting Pipe and Mug by John Frederick Peto, pictured.

“For well over a half-century, the associates have provided vital support to the museum’s core work. . . including care of the collection through conservation, providing access through exhibitions and learning opportunities and maintenance of the Radeke Garden at the center of the museum complex.”

To learn more about the Museum Associates, please contact Tammie Worthington-Witczak, associate director, Donor Relations, Museum and Volunteer Engagement at tworthin@risd.edu or 401 339-0146.

Photo by Erik Gould

Aleece Mount MLA 23 reimagines the relationship between people and places.

From the Ground Up

How do communities become reliant upon practices that undermine their own viability? Can a declining rural region remake itself from the soil up? These are some of the big questions Aleece Mount MLA 23 asks in the thesis project that will cap off her threeyear Master of Landscape Architecture program at RISD.

Mount is investigating whether community members in a rural area of West Virginia can regenerate miningpolluted soil and revitalize the local economy by shifting their interaction with—and expectations for—the land. This requires her to look closely at the cultural practices that drive land management, and to assess the chemical and biological composition of the soil itself.

The latter is not a challenge for Mount, a native of southern New Hampshire who came to RISD with a bachelor’s degree in public health, a concentration in environmental and occupational health and a deep background in the life sciences and physical sciences.

“Surprisingly, organic chemistry has helped me in many, many ways in landscape architecture,” Mount says. “Some of that comes from understanding soil chemistry, microbiology, soil biology and how all the material that you work with actually functions.”

She chose the program after researching a long list of landscape architecture programs, because RISD offered both a theoretical foundation in design and an emphasis on physical making.

“RISD very quickly rose to the top,” Mount says, “and the financial aid that I was able to get—the Joe Gebbia (05) Fellowship made grad school possible. It made a huge difference. The ability to focus on my studies and not have to work a ton of outside jobs made it much more doable.”

“Even having a few hours a week when you’re not in class or working, to let ideas come to the surface is huge,” Mount says.

At RISD, Mount has found pathways for exploring the intersection of art, science and conservation, including a graduate assistantship through the RISD x Hyundai Research Collaborative. In that role, she worked with a high-speed camera to capture insect movement in the Hyundai Studio at the Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab and assisted with a summer 2022 biomimicry workshop alongside Hyundai Motor Group designers and engineers working on the next generation of transportation, among many other projects.

In “Art & Science of Conservation,” a Wintersession global studies course on the island of Hawaii, Mount learned about indigenous philosophies of land management that can inform sustainable design practices. The Hawaiian word ‘āina generally refers to land and has several definitions, but the course’s native Hawaiian teachers defined it as “all that cares for you and all that you care for.”

The reciprocal philosophy focuses on actively tending the land for human, animal and plant purposes, and aligns with Mount’s readings on the practices of present-day Native American tribal nations of Central California. It is a departure from the approach that says the only way to increase biodiversity or preserve land is to leave it untouched. Mount finds this idea compelling, and hopes to focus her post-graduate work on facilitating a sustainable relationship between people and the land, preferably in rural communities.

“If you have an intimate knowledge of the land and how it works,” Mount says, “then you can learn to live on it sustainably.”

Preparing to finish her degree in May, Mount says, “I feel like I’m ready to bring the conceptual into the here and now, assess how these things actually manifest and work on how to solve these problems in a real-world setting.”

“If you have an intimate knowledge of the land and how it works, then you can learn to live on it sustainably.”

Green prioritizes service to the RISD Museum while maintaining a teaching and professional practice where he trains future orthopedic surgeons, performs research, cares for thousands of patients and performs over 400 surgeries a year.

Making Time for What Matters

For Dr. Andrew Green, serving on the RISD Museum’s Fine Arts Committee is a labor of love.

When Andrew (Andy) Green was an undergraduate at Princeton University studying biology, he needed to satisfy a history course requirement, so he enrolled in a course in Italian Renaissance painting and sculpture. Then he took another art history course, and another, eventually taking the equivalent of a full year’s coursework in art history as he completed his bachelor of science.

“It clicked,” Green says. “The idea of how art reflects current society, how people create things based upon what they’re experiencing—that had never clicked for me until I took those courses.”

Now, Green is an internationally recognized orthopedic shoulder and elbow surgeon who helped develop shoulder replacement implants, a professor of orthopedic surgery and chief of the Division of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery at Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School. Busy as he is,

he makes time to serve as vice chair of the RISD Museum Board of Governors and chair of its Fine Arts Committee, the advisory body that oversees the growth and evolution of the museum’s collection.

Asked how he finds time to convene the committee meetings and work with museum leadership and staff, he says, “I just do. For a meeting, I may have to close my office early on occasion, but I enjoy it so much.”

That service helps the museum thrive, says Sarah Ganz Blythe P 22, interim director of the RISD Museum.

“Andy and his fellow committee members provide essential support to the museum, overseeing the development and stewardship of the collection. The RISD Museum is devoted to engaging deeply with art, artists and the public, and the insights and advice provided by Andy and the committee deepen our responsiveness as an institution.”

Visiting museums with his family as a young child in Queens, New York spurred Green’s early love of art. Later, living in Great Neck, Long Island, he took classes in sculpture and ceramics. He says that the hands-on use of materials in those classes contributed to the skillset he uses now in his orthopedic practice, manipulating and shaping objects in surgery.

Green admires how RISD Museum curators, in choosing items for exhibitions, aim to help students think about their own hands-on work in the studio. “RISD is very much about making, so the curators will consider how a piece like a textile, ceramic or other object was produced and constructed,” Green says.

For Green, who visits museums when he travels, the RISD Museum stands apart for the thoughtfulness of its exhibitions and the way they are curated with storytelling in mind. Among his favorite RISD Museum exhibitions is 2009’s “The Brilliant Line: Following

the Early Modern Engraver 1480-1650.” Unlike some exhibitions he has seen elsewhere that amount to simply an accumulation of works by one artist, or by artists with similar backgrounds, “The Brilliant Line” highlighted defining moments in the history of engraving, clarifying how and why engraving evolved, and why that matters to viewers.

In addition to learning from curators, Green says, a great pleasure of serving on the Fine Arts Committee is helping the museum fulfill its mission. That is something he does not only with his time, but through more than two decades of philanthropic support for the museum’s annual fund, acquisitions, capital projects and other priorities.

In recent years, Green says, there has been an increased focus on building collections with an emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion, on establishing goals for the Asian art collection and on continuing to boost the museum educators’ ability to engage with local schools and the broader community.

And just as Ganz Blythe and former Museum Director John Smith have enabled curators to do thoughtful, forward-thinking collection development, Green says, his role is to learn, enjoy and support the museum and “simply continue the good work.”

Green admires how RISD Museum curators. . . aim to help students think about their own hands-on work in the studio.

Unique and Exceptional

Karen Hammond wants you to make RISD part of your legacy.

Photo by Erik Gould

When Karen Hammond lived in Providence, she often found herself walking down College Hill.

“I would use the RISD Museum as my walkway,” she remembers. “It was a really great way to feel a part of the RISD community, but also to put some pep in my step and experience a period of visual joy.”

It was visits to the museum, the quick solo ones as well as the longer, more educational trips with her children, that first brought Hammond, now Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees, to RISD. Her passion for the museum led to positions of the Museum Board of Governors and the institution’s Board of Trustees. Along the way, Hammond came to deeply appreciate RISD’s approach to education.

She so thoroughly believes in RISD’s ability to create a culture of curiosity, creativity and joy for its students and members of the Providence community that, in addition to making regular donations, she recently named RISD in her estate plans.

When asked why she made this commitment, Hammond reflects on her overall interest in educational causes. But there is something different about RISD. The work that students do is important, she says art and design matter. But what is really special is the approach to that work. In students, she sees grit, determination and integrally, an embrace of failure.

“So many students fear failure. But learning, trying, failing and trying again is an important part of growing up,” she explains. “You learn through experience, and RISD encourages its students to do that in a thoughtful way. The education that students receive, the work that they do it’s unique and exceptional.”

In order to facilitate her giving to RISD, Hammond and her husband created a donor-advised fund, which she recommends to anyone looking to streamline their philanthropy. Though she has a special place in her heart for scholarships, she typically makes unrestricted gifts, saying, “I implicitly trust RISD to make the best decisions about where the funds are most needed.”

Hammond has named RISD a beneficiary of her donor-advised fund, something that she considers a no-brainer. “I can say where I want my money to go, or I can leave it to somebody else to decide for me,” she says. “I can’t figure out why I would let somebody else decide!”

She has a message for her fellow RISD supporters: “Planned giving is so easy. I encourage anyone who loves RISD to consider it. A donor-advised fund is just one way to make a planned gift, and what’s best for me might not be best for others. But you can meet with the planned giving team and see what options are available. If RISD is important to you, why not make it part of your legacy?”

And Hammond has just one more recommendation. If you’re walking down College Hill and need to get from Benefit to Main Street, add thirty minutes to your trip and stop in the RISD Museum. You might reacquaint yourself with an old favorite or discover something entirely new.

To learn more about how you can support RISD through your estate plans, including via donor-advised funds, contact Rebecca Dupras, senior planned giving officer, at rdupras@risd.edu or 401 427-3151.

“You learn through experience, and RISD encourages its students to do that in a thoughtful way. The education that students receive, the work that they do—it’s unique and exceptional.”

RISD on the Go

Last fall, RISD held “RISD in Your City” receptions for alumni, parents and friends in major metropolitan areas across the United States as well as gatherings with members of the Centennial, 1877 and Jesse + Helen Rowe Metcalf Societies, who make leadership, legacy and loyalty gifts.

Hosted by the Alumni Association, the events were a wonderful opportunity for attendees to connect with President Crystal Williams and each other, learn about new developments on campus and come together as a creative community in support of RISD.

Photo above: Amy Gregg 92 GD P 25 and RISD President Crystal Williams.

At right, top to bottom: Liz Levine-Rigie, Mitchell Rigie 78 IL, a friend and Kiwon Wang MFA 91 JM. Pamela Rohland 89 PT, Carl Henschel 01 IA, President Williams and Dina M. Zaccagnini Vincent BGD 93/MAT 03. Alex D. Hoye 95 PT and friend. Ng’endo M. Mukii 06 FAV and Dora Mugerwa 15 FD. Alise Spinella 04 PT, Zoe Rosenfeld and Tanya Aguiñiga MFA 05 FD.

Photo on p. 3: Shanming Shi P 21, President Williams and Mingyuan Shi P 21.

The Centennial, 1877 and Jesse + Helen Rowe Metcalf Societies recognize donors who make leadership, legacy and loyalty gifts. For more information, contact Institutional Advancement at giving@risd.edu or 844 454-1877.

RISD Contains Multitudes

What kind of place is Rhode Island School of Design?

The answer contains multitudes, and that’s one of the things that makes RISD so invigorating. We are the college and the museum, both important in making RISD a site of education and exploration. As one of the first art and design schools in the country, we have deep roots in the past as our community focuses their creative practices on today’s most critical social, political and environmental challenges. Design, fine arts and the liberal arts are at the core of our curriculum, but the natural sciences and a deep investment in our physical world inform so much of the making that happens here. Our students and alumni work across disciplines and media, exploring new ideas and techniques in Wintersession or connecting art and activism.

RISD is wide-ranging, and you can see that in the stories in this issue. Karen Hammond, Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees and a member of the Museum Board of Governors, is passionate about both the museum and the college. She named RISD a beneficiary of her donor-advised fund, something she urges RISD supporters to consider. Emily Van Heusen 24 PR, who has a scholarship supported in part by the RISD Fund, finds inspiration in art and nature. Kevin Wu 23 TX, recipient of the Warren Family Scholarship and the Marc Harrison Scholarship, first learned to weave by hand and then embraced technologies that allow for more complex creations. Because RISD provides space for all of this and more, the learning never stops.

You can see this expansiveness in the RISD community, as well. RISD is our students, but it is also our alumni, donors and volunteers. This is never more clear than at Commencement + Reunion Weekend. Last year, for the first time in many years, we combined these two important events. This new tradition brings our community together for a celebration of all things RISD.

I hope you will join us for Commencement + Reunion Weekend 2023, held from June 1 through June 4. Just like RISD itself, the weekend contains multitudes. There will be dancing at the Artists’ Party on the eve of graduation; a host of familyfriendly activities organized by the Alumni Association; museum events and RISD Craft, among other activities.

As I look forward to these events, I’m reminded that donors and volunteers celebrate RISD all year long. When a volunteer hosts an event in their city or mentors a student, or when a donor makes a gift or includes RISD in their estate plans, it is an incredible vote of confidence in our community.

In March, we celebrated Founders Day and alumni demonstrated an altruistic spirit yet again, with Global Days of Service and events like family art classes at a women’s shelter in Miami and a book drive in New York City. Our donors and volunteers are good neighbors, no matter where they are.

Thank you for all that you do.

O’Neil Outar Vice President of Institutional Advancement

FAMILIES WEEKEND

Save the Date

October 7–8, 2023

Connect with RISD and enjoy a weekend of family-friendly events, including RISD Craft, departmental office hours, student support sessions, an alumni career panel, a President’s Reception and more!

families.risd.edu/families-weekend

RISD FUND Shaping the Future

Your generosity ensures RISD students have the financial support to explore their creativity, inspire innovation and thrive in the studio and beyond. Thank you.

You can continue to make a difference for our students and their futures by making a gift online at give.risd.edu/Momentum

Rhode Island School of Design 20 Washington Place Providence, RI

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