RISD Undergraduate Admissions Viewbook 2017/18

Rhode Island School of Design

Create a community 18 Discover your process 40 Sharpen your focus 66 Chart your course 156 Expand your inquiry 174 Feel at home 188 Make the future 206

Open RISD

“I’m looking for a conversation...

Students here are phenomenal: hardworking, on point, willing, smart and engaged in active dialogue.

That’s a community I want to be a part of.”

Keetra Dixon Assistant Professor of Graphic Design

Create a community

Students at RISD quickly discover that the studio isn’t only where art is made, it’s also where community is created. By talking openly about process, collaborating on projects and exchanging techniques and ideas, you and your peers will grow together as thinkers and makers.

You’ll stretch the limits of your creative abilities and encourage each other to make better work.

In group critiques you’ll share valuable discoveries about the many ways art and design impact the world.

The studio community is energized by different levels of experience —first- and second-year students regularly learn alongside upperclass and graduate students. The mix of styles and approaches you find will suggest new directions in your own process, and the community you create will lead to supportive, productive relationships with the potential to last a lifetime.

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Vaughan RISD’s

crazy—in a good way. It's a healthy crazy—everyone always seems to be doing something cool. There’s so much going on. You can just be like, “I’m going to see this,” then someone’s like, “Wait, did you see this?” And you’re like, “Wait, no, I was at that.” But that’s how you decide your future...map out this, this and this. Okay, I got it.... RISD’s like Chutes and Ladders. You know Chutes and Ladders?

Kendra Hmmm, Vaughan Well,

no.

it’s this board game where you start at the bottom left—

Kendra [laughter]

Wait, is this Snakes and Ladders?

Vaughan [laughter] Kendra Yeah,

Yeah, maybe. Probably?

we have that game, we just call it something different in Asia.

Vaughan Then

you know how it is—you go along and if you get a ladder you go up, and if you get a snake or a slide you go down. RISD’s like that, but not in a negative sense, more like you could one day get invited to a show by a friend and then your other friend says, “Hey, let’s go get some pizza” and then at the pizza shop you end up meeting some people you didn’t know from school and you go to visit their studio. Maybe they’re in Painting and you’re in Apparel but you’ve never been to Painting before.

You just meet so many people here, it’s gnarly [laughter].

Kendra [laughter]

In Graphic Design most of our work is done in front of computers, so sometimes we’ll visit our friends in Textiles and do our homework in the Textiles studios. The studio environment isn’t exactly a place, it’s more like the people you're inspired by and who you want to work with. You find them, you bring your work over. think it’s good to get techniques from your friends and apply them to your own major. I’ve done pattern work for Industrial Design and Textiles. It’s so fun, oh my god…I still paint and sculpt to get clothing ideas.

Vaughan Lewis Carman junior Apparel Design

Vaughan I

Kendra I

actually thought about doing a double major because I kind of view myself as both an artist and a designer...at least I like to do both. I started with a very fine arts background—not that I went to a fine arts high school—but I was more drawn to conceptual art and painting, that sort of thing. I basically chose to major in Graphic Design on a whim. I never really thought of myself as a graphic designer. Before I declared, I probably wouldn’t even have laughed about Comic Sans. I’d be like, “Hey guys, what’s so bad about Comic Sans?”

Vaughan [laughter]

Oh man...I also feel like I struggled with confidence at first. Usually in the studio everyone’s working, making stuff, but if you have questions you should not be afraid to ask your classmates or teachers or whatever. Relationships with other students or with faculty, they are

literally what you make of them. They take effort, like any relationship.

Bonding with a teacher can be one of the coolest things. If you end up being able to vibe over something you’re making with the person who’s trying to help you do better work, that’s like—it’s amazing, like you’re working on something together.

Kendra I

feel the same. At RISD the professors are so open to students—you know, to what they think and their ideas. Maybe I notice it more because where I come from, in Singapore, teachers tell you what to do and you just, you know, listen to “The studio environment them. I was actually really by how open it was isn’t exactly a place, it’s surprised when I first got here, and more like the people naturally that came with a of difficulties when it you’re inspired by and lot came to speaking up in who you want to work class. I don’t know if you remember from our first with...” year, but I was really quiet in the beginning. I think it was a mixture of being shy and also being more interested in certain types of critique than others. If you ask me to critique in a way that's purely formal I’d be like: “I like this line...great composition?” That’s it…

Vaughan Yeah,

but you were good in crit. I always find myself going like “Oh, I like this,” and that’s like the worst crit you can ever give.

Kendra [laughter]

That’s always the kind of crit I don’t want to give!

Vaughan [laughter]

Yeah, here’s some advice for new students: don’t just just say, “This is cool” or “This is dope” or “That's awesome.”

Kendra I

Kendra Xu junior Graphic Design

am always interested in the thinking behind a piece—in what people have to say about why they started the process and their rationale for choosing different materials. To me that has so much more potential for interesting conversation. Now that I’m in Graphic Design I crit a lot more. I've discovered that I’m so interested in talking about future technologies—just, like, new interfaces and possibilities. The professor ends up calling on me directly for work that has technology-oriented processes.

I mean, in crit I don’t think you should force yourself to say things just for the sake of saying things­—it’s not about being heard—but more like: Can you contribute something meaningful to the conversation? Can you be sensitive to rationales? Give people your thoughts, because what you think has value, instead of being like, “Oh, this is not important” for whatever reason...no! You have to share what’s on your mind because your classmates really do want to hear it.

1,999 456 undergraduate students

first-year students

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10:1

average undergraduate class size

student-to-faculty ratio

RISD’s community by the numbers

425 faculty members

478

93%

87%

first-year persistence rate

graduate students

undergraduate graduation rate

2016 figures from RISD Factbook

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RISD’s community comes from all over the world Canada

RISD

Bahamas Mexico Guatemala Costa Rica Colombia

Trinidad and Tobago Venezuela

Ecuador Peru

Brazil

Argentina Chile

New Zealand

RISD students come from around the US and all over the world to live and learn in Providence, a city known for its excellent universities and cultural institutions. You’ll join a broad-minded, globally influenced student body and benefit from RISD’s diverse learning community.

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Switzerland Denmark Germany Austria Sweden Russia

UK Netherlands

Poland

France Portugal

Spain

Ukraine

Kazakhstan

Hungary Italy Greece

Turkey Iran Kuwait

Egypt

UAE Saudi Arabia Jordan Israel

Cameroon

Japan

Pakistan India

Hong Kong

Taiwan

Thailand Vietnam

Nigeria Ghana

South Korea

China

Lebanon

Singapore

Philippines

Malaysia Indonesia

Australia

33% international students

57

nationalities represented

2016 figures from RISD Factbook

name + major Adam

(Furniture Design) born in Minneapolis; grew up in Barcelona and Sāo Paulo words of wisdom Accept that you and your work will change drastically—don’t hang on to anything too tightly yet. from

Deepti (Film/Animation/Video) San Jose, California favorite process ink transfers or watercolor bleeding through paper words of wisdom Take risks! It’s now or never.

Genevieve (Architecture) California foothills favorite tool projector what does the future hold? fast cars and desert dust name + major from the

David (Sculpture) Jersey trait I admire in a classmate honesty words of wisdom Make work that speaks to you. favorite material found materials

name + major

name + major

from

from New

name + major

name + major Sebastien

from

Maddie (Painting) Northampton, Massachusetts RISD clubs, etc. RISD BAAD recent read Broadly (Vice’s online feminist magazine) favorite material glitter

from

France

favorite process milling

(Industrial Design)

and turning or war or progress, spaceships, cyborgs.... I’ve said too much. what does the future hold? Chaos

Abdullah (Apparel Design) Egypt and France recent read The Portrayal of Love secret talent I’m the 42nd best equestrian show jumper in Egypt. artist of interest Raf Simons

Olivia (Graphic Design) Johns Creek, Georgia words of wisdom Following all the rules is not fun. artist of interest M.I.A., Kathleen Kye RISD clubs, etc. SAGC and The Cook Book

name + major

name

from

from

Ilsa (Painting) Portland, Oregon; grew up in Mauritania, France and Morocco trait I admire in a classmate The ability to come up with something that no one else could.

Momo (Glass + FAV) Beijing, China recent read The Razor’s Edge artist of interest Rebecca Horn

name + major

name + major

from

from

Caroline (Sculpture) Suffield, Connecticut favorite corner of RISD bottom left recent read the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe favorite tool hammer

Shenzi (FAV + Illustration) Dominican Republic, Switzerland, Michigan and California RISD clubs, etc. I was an Orientation leader. artist of interest Luke Pearson

name + major

name + major

from

from

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studio, inspiring and challenging the creative community with their knowledge, experience and perspective. You’ll be able to form close, constructive bonds with your professors thanks to small class sizes (16 is average) and a low student-to-faculty ratio (10:1).

Full-time faculty members also act as academic advisors, helping you discover your process and guiding you towards a future that will make the most of your talents and interests.

Given the caliber of students at RISD, professors are as excited about teaching as they are about creating their own work. Faculty members are studio artists who exhibit all over the world, designers with successful practices and scholars whose research is connected and complementary to the study of art and design.

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RISD faculty are a vital force in the

The visiting artists, designers, critics, curators, activists, innovators and scholars who come to RISD are some of the world’s most interesting creative leaders. Invited to campus for artists talks, lecture series, studio visits and more, they represent a diverse range of talent and accomplishments.

The close, collaborative atmosphere nurtured on campus means you’ll have the visiting professionals on an individual basis, discuss their research and find connections between their insights and your own work.

James Carpenter

opportunity to interact with many of these

Recent visitors include: Virgil Abloh Ayad Akhtar Hilton Als Kevin Beasley Martin Boyce James Carpenter Emory Douglas Chitra Ganesh Theaster Gates Samara Golden Theo Jansen Christina Kim Natalie Jeremijenko Rick Lowe Guy Maddin Penn Masala Annie Mok Farshid Moussavi Jayson Musson Toyin Odutola Faith Ringgold Rafael Rozëndaal Carolee Schneemann Shahzia Sikander Kehinde Wiley Andrew Young Xiaowen Zhu

Shahzia Sikander

Sputniko! John Waters Lawrence Weschler

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Michael Maltzan alumnus + visiting architect

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“We would all be in studio together, late at night—painters, glassblowers, architects—and the specifics of your discipline didn’t matter, the cohesion of your ideas and your beliefs brought you together.”

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Discover your process

Since its founding in 1877, RISD has been built on a progressive, creative vision. It was established by members of the Rhode Island Women’s Centennial Commission, who decided to invest the group’s extra savings in the creation of an art school. This decision, made when women didn’t yet have the right to vote, set an innovative tone that continues to guide the RISD community in the 21st century.

Today this legacy of risk-taking plays out in studios, classrooms and galleries across campus.Students learn to question everything— previously held assumptions, ways of working and underlying structures. By considering social and historical contexts as they acquire new skills and techniques, they develop unexpected and original approaches to art and design.

In the spirit of RISD’s founders, students embrace experimentation and come to see uncertainty as an important part of the learning process. They graduate with the confidence to develop innovative, new ideas and shape unique, productive futures.

Innovation

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Experimentation

Experimental & Foundation Studies

first-year program, you’ll pursue questions and develop ideas through studio exploration, critical analysis and academic research. In taking three studios—Drawing, Design and Spatial Dynamics —that each meet one full day per week, you’ll work on an ongoing series of challenging assignments outside of scheduled class time.

EFS faculty are active professionals who model a diverse range of creative practices—from traditional modes of art making such as drawing and painting, to interactive approaches that embrace new media and the use of digital fabrication technologies. By presenting a variety of teaching styles and philosophies, EFS challenges you to find your own voice.

You’ll move through EFS studios with the same group of 20 students each semester and benefit from valuable dialogues that emerge when you work side by side and participate in group discussions and critiques. In time it will become clear that acquiring knowledge is a collaborative, experimental and evolutionary process.

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In Experimental and Foundation Studies, RISD’s

In the Design studio you’ll explore how to organize visual and other sensory elements in order to better understand qualities of perception and convey meaningful messages through objects, spaces and experiences. Assignments allow for a range of inquiries—from scientific to philosophical to cultural—as they provide a framework for you to develop deep concentration, personal expression, dedicated research practices and critical understanding of visual and non-visual phenomena.

Drawing

In this studio you’ll pursue drawing as both a way to investigate the world and an activity essential to art and design practice.

The studio becomes a laboratory where you’ll explore materiality, imagined situations, idea generation and the translation of the observable world. You’ll come to see Drawing as a distinct discipline and one that permeates the boundaries of Design and Spatial Dynamics.

First-year studios Spatial Dynamics

In the Spatial Dynamics studio you’ll consider force—the consequence of energy—and its effects on structure. You’ll explore physical, spatial and time-based phenomena through a range of analogue and digital processes while becoming familiar with mediums and materials that have a broad range of organic and synthetic characteristics. Assignments reference historical and theoretical perspectives and include areas of inquiry that connect to other disciplines such as the sciences, music, dance, film and theater.

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Design

You Lu • Spatial Dynamics

First-year student work

Florence Liu • Design

Ningjing Sun • Design

Izabela Clarke • Drawing

Xiaoben Wang • Drawing

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Josh Allen • Drawing

Sophie Wang • Spatial Dynamics

Anneka Javat • Spatial Dynamics

Pedro One

reason I love this place is that you come here as a freshman and there’s a guy who’s like “Yeah, I’m going to be an architect,” and then he takes these classes and he’s like, “Wow, no. I’ve thought so much about this. I’m not an architect. I’m a painter.” Or people who want to do industrial design end up doing sculpture because...or people who thought they were fine artists maybe find that their thinking is more structured and that they want to do furniture.

Paula That’s

what I think is interesting—everyone has to go through the same experience no matter what your intentions in life are. If you’re going to be a designer or you’re going to be a glassblower, it doesn’t matter. To me, the power of the first year is that moment to question, to pause. I know it’s not really a pause because you’re super busy—but it could be.

How do you even know you’re an artist without questioning the fact that you’re going to be an artist? People take it for granted sometimes.

Pedro Yeah,

I think Foundation year is the time to maybe admit that you were wrong about some things and do things that you’ve never done before. It’s fun to try stuff.

Maybe something explodes “How do you identify or something breaks...I’m now, not being the pretty bad at making. So admitting that I have a only artist—because failure in craftsmanship, but here everyone is maybe someone else has a failure in being more concep- artistic? I mean, how tual in their projects or just do you start to think of letting go, I don’t know...this is a good place for both of us yourself differently?” to be. It’s definitely a place to challenge the notion I’ve always had that I’m not good at making. Like, why can’t I draw a perfect portrait? I really want to do a perfect portrait because it’s something formal and I feel like if I’m going to be at RISD I want to get it right. It takes a lot to draw a face 40 times, to see that it sucks—but pursuing it makes you a stronger artist, for sure. do you identify now, not being the only artist—because here everyone is artistic? I mean, how do you start to think of yourself differently?

Pedro Bello Abrante first-year student Experimental & Foundation Studies

Paula How

Pedro Well,

in the time of “millennials” everybody can be creative. A lot of people are against that idea, but I love it. I love that now everyone has a voice, which maybe diminishes other voices...but if you think that it’s important for you and for the people surrounding you, going to art school is a good risk to take.

Paula I

artist.

mean, this is the interesting thing—you don’t need a degree to be an

Pedro Right.

I don’t think you do.

Paula Exactly,

so why do you go to art school? I think there are a lot of very interesting answers. I’d go to art school because I’d be exposed to certain things, I would have access...no one has a shop in their house, you know?

But in terms of the human resources and— Pedro Yeah,

it’s the people and the resources and I think history is pretty important...

Paula What

do you mean? Art history, for example?

Pedro By

learning history you’re empowered to make stuff that is actually... you put your work into a larger conversation, you’re not just involved by yourself. And then you’re also here, you’re involved, you’re finding these people and you’re talking to them. Sometimes it feels business-like, but it’s also very, like, “Hey, I want to know what you’re doing. I want to know what’s up. I want to work here.” And this is the place for it. There are very cool people here.

Paula Yeah.

Pedro It’s

only my first year and I’ve met people who I think have changed my work a lot. Teachers and students.

That’s so good, already in your first year. It should be like that, you know? You meet people who are not just in Foundation, right?

Paula

Pedro Yeah,

but you have to work for it. You live with other Foundation students at the Quad, and you go to classes and take Liberal Arts with people in Foundation year. So you kind of have to go to a senior show and be like, “Hey, what’s up?” which is scary to anyone, but it’s part of the experience.

And then that prepares you to have more conversations— Paula Exactly!

Pedro I

felt ready and I wanted to have them. Or maybe I wasn’t ready, but I just decided.

Paula That’s

Pedro And

you know what? People at RISD, including me, can sometimes be full of themselves—but they’re ready to talk about it, which is great. I think that it’s great.

Paula Gaetano Adi Associate Professor, Programs Head Experimental & Foundation Studies

a good attitude. You’re never going to be 100%—it’s all about taking risks here.

Liberal Arts

improving your skills in the studio, liberal arts classes will challenge you to think broadly about exciting new areas of study and larger social and ethical questions.

RISD’s emphasis on liberal arts studies enriches the studio experience and equips graduates to make meaningful contributions to their communities. Courses blend contemporary and historical thought and cover a range of subjects including anthropology, archaeology, art history, biology, climate change, creative writing, literature, performance studies, philosophy, psychology, religion and more. As active scholars engaged in research connected to the study of art and design, liberal arts professors will spark your imagination and expand your awareness.

The critical frameworks you develop through these studies will allow you to approach projects in any discipline with greater context and confidence.

You’ll learn to articulate ideas with independence and intelligence, think creatively and analytically, and nurture a lifelong curiosity about the world.

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As you’re developing your process and

“RISD’s broad liberal arts curriculum cultivates the often unexpected ways that scholarly and professional inquiry can animate one another.

How can gender theory influence architecture?

What is the connection between postcolonial literature and textiles? The possibilities are limited only by motivation and imagination.”

Dan Cavicchi Associate Provost, Research|Global|Practice

Studio Work Understanding the history of art, architecture, design and visual culture has been integral to a RISD education since the college was founded in 1877. Research and teaching among HAVC faculty members emphasize critical theories of art and archaeology, art criticism, museum studies and art historiography. In addition, a global orientation is built into the entire program, with professors sprecializing in areas ranging from ancient China to contemporary Africa.

Literary arts at RISD emphasize the fundamental interrelationships not only between writing and reading, but also between creative and critical processes. In particular, the curriculum aims to promote understanding of the relationship between literary and other forms of cultural production and to promote diversity and global awareness by exposing you to a range of cultures—past and present, local and global, mainstream and marginalized— through literature.

Liberal Arts

History of Art + Visual Culture (HAVC)

Literary Arts + Studies (LAS)

History, Philosophy + the Social Sciences (HPSS)

The multidisciplinary curriculum in HPSS offers the opportunity to explore diverse scholarly approaches to human experience—past and present—and to foster the knowledge of self and of others that is the hallmark of liberal arts learning. HPSS offers introductory and advanced courses in anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy, political science, psychology and religion. Other classes explore interdisciplinary issues and topics aligned with contemporary art and design practices, such as aesthetics and sustainability.

risd.edu/liberal-arts

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You’ll take a third of your classes in Liberal Arts, a division that includes three departments:

Selected Liberal Arts courses ȸȸ Architecture of Utopia ȸȸ Art After Stonewall: Gender, Identity and Visual Culture in the US, 1970–90 ȸȸ Blake and Hogarth ȸȸ Caribbean Literatures ȸȸ Communicating Sciences Through Animation ȸȸ Digital Poetics ȸȸ Environmental Disasters ȸȸ Ethics of Humanitarian Design ȸȸ Femme Fatales and Domestic Nuns ȸȸ Geology: Dinosaurs to Diamonds ȸȸ Global Englishes ȸȸ Global Environmental Change ȸȸ Investigating the Botanical World ȸȸ Islamic Art and Architecture in India ȸȸ Jazz in America ȸȸ Literatures of Africa ȸȸ Noir Goes Global ȸȸ Optics: Making Holograms ȸȸ Philosophy of Food ȸȸ Reimagining Cities ȸȸ Women in the International Political Economy

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“At RISD I get to educate people who create the culture we live in—the products we use, the buildings we inhabit, the films we watch, the books we read our children and the advertisements that engulf us. What students learn and how they apply it really can make a difference in the world.”

Jennifer Prewitt-Freilino Associate Professor and HPSS Department Head

risd.edu/liberal-arts

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First year at a glance

Monday

Design I

Fall

Wednesday

Tuesday

History of Art and Visual Culture I

Spatial Dynamics I

Thursday

Literature Seminar: Design in Words

Friday

Drawing I

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Spring

Monday

Topics in History, Philosophy and the Social Sciences

Tuesday

History of Art and Visual Culture II

Thursday

Spatial Dynamics II

Wednesday

Drawing II

Friday

2–3 days a week

Design II

Open Elective

Wintersession Each semester of your first year includes three studio courses (Drawing, Design and Spatial Dynamics) and two courses in the Liberal Arts division covering introductory topics in literature, art history, history or the social sciences. During Wintersession (a condensed, five-week semester in January and February), you’ll choose an open elective course offered by a degree-granting discipline or Liberal Arts department. The critical thinking, making and research skills you develop during your first year will continue to inform your process as you move on to a major department.

Sharpen your focus

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Apparel Design BFA

Architecture BArch / MArch

Ceramics BFA / MFA

Film /Animation / Video BFA

Furniture Design BFA / MFA

Glass

BFA / Post-B / MFA

Graphic Design BFA / MFA

Illustration BFA

BFA / MID

Interior Architecture BFA / MA / MDes

Jewelry + Metalsmithing BFA / Post-B / MFA

Painting BFA / MFA

Photography BFA / MFA

Printmaking BFA / MFA

Sculpture BFA / MFA

Textiles BFA / MFA

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Industrial Design

Apparel Design BFA

An intense immersion in design and making fosters the development of a unique voice and creative trajectory.

In Apparel Design students develop their conceptual vision through studio projects that build technical skills and promote experimentation. The program guides majors through each stage of the design process—from developing sketches to constructing wearables—while encouraging unexpected approaches to material and form. Students learn drafting, draping and construction and become proficient in the use of high-end software for drawing and rendering. Practical skill-building is given context through the study of history and culture and elevated by access to dedicated equipment, including industrial sewing and knitting machines, 3D printers and specialized scanners.

Students benefit from regular exposure to the fashion industry. During Wintersession, seniors in Apparel Design intern at fashion houses and studios in New York City and in the spring they present thesis collections in a runway show that provides valuable professional experience.

After RISD some alumni go on to launch their own brands and find a market niche, while others work for established retailers such as Anthropologie, Calvin Klein, the Gap and others. Many pursue interests in costume design, shoe design, materials research and more. risd.edu/apparel

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Architecture BArch / MArch

As part of an art college, Architecture at RISD differs from comparable programs at universities or technical colleges.

By studying architecture, students develop their abilities to think visually and design through a process of inquiry, reflection and invention. They learn to communicate through drawing, making, writing and discussing ideas with others as they define a personal approach to the discipline.

Architecture students have access to a range of software and equipment in dedicated fabrication facilities and a model shop. Students tackle the technical demands of building through hands-on construction and learn to be socially, sustainably and ethically responsible in their work. While history, theory and technical components are valued in this program, Architecture emphasizes the creative process as a way for students to gain a foundation as thinkers and doers, poised to make a difference in the world.

Alumni make their mark as creative professionals in many different ways. Some launch their own practices designing and building residential and/or commercial projects, while others join larger established firms or smaller studios. In addition to practicing as architects, alumni stand out as sustainability specialists, author/illustrators, educators, health care designers and more. risd.edu/architecture

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Ceramics BFA / MFA

A discipline with a wide array of applications, Ceramics combines depth of skill with the spirit of collaboration.

Ceramics offers a rigorous, hands-on investigation of clay and its histories, along with an exploration of contemporary practices and concepts. The small size of the department allows for one-on-one work with faculty and constructive interaction between undergraduate and graduate students, complemented by critiques, lectures, demonstrations and field trips.

The Ceramics studios are well equipped with gas and electric kilns of various sizes, a large and fully stocked raw materials room with a glaze spray booth, and a plaster work room. Students experiment with throwing, building, molding, glazing and firing and develop new techniques using specialized tools and equipment, including workstations for handling images, glaze formulation and remote kiln firing. The sculptural qualities of ceramic work are explored, as are digital fabrication methods.

Alumni are skilled artists capable of using their creative talents and spatial design skills in a variety of meaningful, inventive ways—from teaching to making studio art to designing and creating physical products and prototypes.

risd.edu/ceramics

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Film /Animation / Video BFA

A wide range of techniques and technologies are used to investigate aesthetic and conceptual questions associated with the time-based art of the moving image.

In Film/Animation/Video (FAV) students explore the art of the moving image and master the tools needed to convey a creative vision via film, animation, documentary, interactive media and more. The major explores both history and contemporary practices within the broad scope of the discipline, while providing instruction in writing, directing, editing and production.

FAV students pursue tracks in Live Action, Animation or Open Media and are exposed to a wide range of techniques including CGI, hand-drawn animation, stop-motion animation and digital effects.

The department provides access to specialized equipment, software and studio space. FAV encourages the investigation of technical and conceptual questions central to creating strong content with a unique voice.

Graduates write, direct and produce original content and often collaborate with others as animators, cinematographers, and much more. Some work as filmmakers while others land at gaming companies, networks and film studios such as PBS, Pixar and Dreamworks, among others.

risd.edu/fav

Furniture Design BFA / MFA

As one of the few undergraduate programs of its kind, Furniture Design offers an intensive immersion in furniture, objects, research and materials.

Furniture Design offers full immersion in the process of making furniture and objects, alongside the in-depth study of materials. Students investigate some of the most important questions facing designers today—from how to take advantage of changing technologies to how to respond to evolving economic conditions and lifestyles.

Furniture Design students have access to state-of-the-art design and production facilities including an expansive wood studio, a metal shop, digital fabrication resources including a Rapid Prototype Machine and a CNC router, and specialized design software such as SolidWorks and Rhino.

Furniture Design majors often work with sponsored research partners— from both the commercial and nonprofit worlds—and have opportunities to showcase their work at professional venues and exhibitions around the world. Graduates go on to become thinkers/makers who work as industry designers, studio artists, teachers, entrepreneurs and more.

risd.edu/furniture-design

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Glass

BFA / Post-B / MFA

Glass is a dynamic discipline with limitless potential and an immense amount of impact on the worlds of art and design.

Students approach glass both as a material with remarkable range and a studio discipline with limitless potential, incorporating sculpture, architecture, design, craft and decorative art. They discover a flexible discipline built on a unique history that incorporates expanding dialogues around innovation and creative practice.

In addition to full access to a Hot Shop, Cold Shop and kiln and casting rooms, all students are also given individual studio spaces and access to installation spaces both within the department and elsewhere on campus. A small department, Glass fosters close interactions among students and faculty. Studio work, critiques and both group and individual projects fuel ongoing dialogue about contemporary art, craft and design.

Graduates go on to work in a surprisingly wide arena, often establishing individual studio practices and continuing to push the possibilities of the material through exhibitions, curatorial work and writing. They design products, teach, lead residency programs and work in applied fields like architectural glass as they continue to explore this extraordinary medium.

risd.edu/glass

Graphic Design BFA / MFA

In Graphic Design, students explore, interpret and shape today’s informationrich world.

Multifaceted and encompassing a broad range of media, Graphic Design moves from the discipline’s formal, aesthetic and analytical foundations to explorations of the changing contexts and uses of visual communication. In the studio, students learn the value of typography, imagery, grids and systems while creating a wide range of print design and digital media.

Encouraged to experiment, students make use of a wide range of traditional and digital resources for project development, including an extensive wood and metal type collection, silkscreening studio and 3D printers.

Graphic Design graduates leave RISD prepared to work in almost any field. Some run their own design studios, and others work for large corporations specializing in web and interactive media. They create everything from package design to title sequences for film and television to visual identities.

risd.edu/graphic-design

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Illustration BFA

At RISD the approach to illustration is defined by intention not media.

Using the same tools found in painting, photography, film and graphic design, illustrators create imagery that aims to convey powerful meaning and messages.

Students in Illustration maintain a state of constant conversation with the wider culture as they gain experience in traditional methods and cutting-edge technologies advancing their discipline.

By mastering the ability to draw and paint thoughtful, engaging images, students graduate ready to write and illustrate books, contribute editorial illustrations to print and digital publications, create surface designs for products, work in web or game design, become character designers or communicate concepts through one of the many other creative paths open to illustrators.

risd.edu/illustration

Industrial Design BFA / MID

Explore modes of systematized production to make everything from sustainable products to alternative technologies.

Drawing on its historic contributions to responsible, human-centered design, Industrial Design teaches students to use critical thinking and the design process to bring new value to companies, communities and citizens. Professors with diverse expertise guide students as they research user experiences to create well-conceived and executed objects, products and systems that make everyday tasks more streamlined, thoughtful or fulfilling.

ID majors work with a wide range of materials and technologies in their design process—they develop ideas through sketching and drawing and move on to making models and working prototypes in dedicated fabrication facilities.

Alumni go on to innovate in various ways—by starting their own businesses, joining forward-thinking studios and working for organizations and corporations. Graduates contribute to almost every field imaginable by designing medical devices, household products, alternative transportation vehicles, nanotech devices, new materials and much more.

risd.edu/industrial-design

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108

Interior Architecture BFA / MA / MDes

Engage in a rich and expansive discipline focused on the reuse and transformation of existing structures.

At the intersection of architecture, conservation and design, Interior Architecture takes an innovative approach to the reuse of existing buildings. And unlike the fields of interior design and decoration, it looks less at the application of surface materials than at understanding the design of buildings from inside out.

In Interior Studies—as the undergraduate program is known—students take advanced design studios that allow for specializations in adaptive reuse. Students use digital and manual means to research and recommend alterations and renovations that give buildings new life. They have access to a fully equipped wood shop and 3D model-making facility outfitted with fabrication technologies, including a CNC machine, laser cutter and rapid prototyping machine. As they discover current practices, students develop into socially and environmentally responsible professionals.

Alumni launch their own practices designing residential and/or commercial interiors and join established firms or studios. Many go on to make their mark as sustainability specialists, set designers, educators, home furnishings designers and more.

risd.edu/interior-architecture

Jewelry + Metalsmithing BFA / Post-B / MFA

Explore the intriguing relationship between jewelry and the body.

Spanning from traditional goldsmithing to experimental processes and materials, Jewelry + Metalsmithing offers a tight-knit community of students and faculty fully engaged with the discipline. Critical analysis and an open exchange of ideas support each individual’s exploration of jewelry and its relationship with the body.

Working in close proximity, undergraduate and graduate students bounce ideas off each other as they hone technical skills and become adept at using a wide range of metals and other materials.

They are provided with workbenches and have access to a range of software and equipment for casting, enameling, electroforming, milling, machining and more.

J+M majors graduate with a strong grasp of their expressive capabilities and a solid foundation on which to build a career as a jewelry artist, production designer, metalsmith, teacher or gallery owner—or any number of entrepreneurial pursuits that involve designing and making.

risd.edu/jewelry

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Painting BFA / MFA

Painting at RISD encourages respect for tradition as well as the freedom to break disciplinary boundaries.

Painting majors engage in a search for meaning and cultural representation through the development of strong visual skills, critical reasoning abilities and understanding of historical and social contexts. Professors encourage both freedom and rigor by embracing a wide range of aesthetic attitudes and offering flexible programs.

The studio environment is a place where ideas about the discipline’s traditions and boundaries are openly examined and exchanged, challenged and refined.

Throughout the program, the conceptual and expressive aspects of painting are central as students build their skills through technical training and hands-on effort.

After RISD, Painting alumni go on to pursue a wide range of interests in the art world. Many establish gallery connections and work as studio artists, while others pursue creative work as curators, critics, performance artists, arts administrators, gallery owners, event planners, set designers and illustrators.

risd.edu/painting

BFA / MFA

Discover why anyone can take a picture but not everyone is a photographer.

Students immerse themselves in the making, presentation and interpretation of photographic images, exploring photography as both a language and a craft.

Ultimately, they learn how to use cultural signifiers, symbols and metaphors in the content and structure of image making.

After learning the fundamentals of film processing and darkroom printing, students move on to experiment with digital capture, high-end printing at medium and large scales, video, installation work and other approaches.

Photography alumni pursue a wide range of options after graduation, with some going on to specialize in commercial or editorial photography and/or video, and others teaching, running their own businesses or making and exhibiting fine art photography. Most become lifelong imagemakers adept at expressing unique ways of seeing the world.

risd.edu/photography

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Photography

Printmaking BFA / MFA

Explore traditional and experimental techniques and develop a unique framework for creating, reproducing and presenting images.

Printmaking at RISD supports the development of artists dedicated to visual exploration and expression using intaglio, lithography, screenprint, relief and related photo-processes.

Through the mastery of traditional and contemporary techniques, including digital and alternative print methods, students develop focused direction. They work in a well-equipped facility with state-of-the-art equipment and separate floors allocated to lithography, intaglio and screenprint studios.

After RISD, Printmaking alumni go in many different directions, often pursuing interests they’ve defined through multidisciplinary exploration as students.

Many become practicing fine artists who exhibit work all over the world. Others run galleries, curate shows, write art criticism, teach and launch small startups, making an impact on the contemporary art world in a wide variety of ways.

risd.edu/printmaking

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Sculpture BFA / MFA

Explore individual sensibilities while learning the technical and conceptual skills you need to realize ideas in three dimensions.

Sculpture at RISD focuses on the growth of the individual as a creative practitioner able to express conceptually strong ideas in three dimensions. Students are encouraged to push beyond obvious solutions and disciplinary boundaries as a means of producing ambitious, experimental work through a command of process and the considered use of materials.

Through a curriculum that builds on acquired skills, students work together with every material imaginable—from wood and metal to digital mediums—to develop a deep understanding of historical and contemporary contexts. They have access to a fully equipped woodshop, foundry and digital fabrication facilities.

Alumni go on to establish themselves as successful studio artists and designers or pursue their interests as art critics and writers, curators, teachers, arts administrators, exhibition designers, performance artists, special effects designers and more.

risd.edu/sculpture

Textiles BFA / MFA

Influenced as much by technology as it is by tradition, Textiles involves a lot more than weaving on a loom.

In Textiles students experiment with new materials, technologies and techniques to create innovative fabric and fine art.

Professors work with them to encourage the development of a personal vision and an understanding of larger artistic, historical, social and cultural contexts.

Students work with high-end equipment used in the field—multi-harness handlooms, computer-interfaced looms and an electronic Jacquard loom—to master advanced weaving techniques, while hand-operated and electronic knitting machines allow for further exploration of knitted fabrics.

Many graduates go on to work as surface, pattern and fabric designers for large corporations or small studios, while others create experimental knitwear, establish small production companies, produce performance pieces, make fine art, teach, curate, run galleries and more.

risd.edu/textiles

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Ariana I

think one way to be resourceful at RISD is to take what you can from your own major but also kind of push at the walls of the others. It’s not, like—there’s no central headquarters where all the good things at RISD happen, you know?

Matthew [laughter]

Yeah.

Ariana They

happen in the studios, they happen in common spaces at 3:00 in the morning when people are talking. They happen when you run into someone on the street that you haven’t seen in a couple of months. All those moments are ones I’ve really tried to prioritize, especially this year as I become more comfortable in my own discipline, in Sculpture.

Matthew I

think it's good to remind yourself to take one foot out of the picture. Industrial Design is kind of like a buffet. You pick out very specific dishes. I try to shift around a little bit—I have always been fascinated by furniture, so I’ve taken two or three Furniture classes now. For me, I feel like it’s very important to make sense of the things I’m exploring. And then, in my own way, ask: How do I apply that? is just...in “I feel like learning general you have to be pretty really happens when scrappy. I think I’ve become a lot more confident in you’re between being on-the-spot problem solving. comfortable and being Like, oh shit, something really horrible just happened very uncomfortable. to my project. It’s just the The more you push material that I tried to use this time didn’t work. That yourself into discomhappens in Sculpture all the fort, the steeper the time. And that was something that used to freak me learning curve, the out. In Foundation year, faster you can learn when something like that happened, I’d automatically something.” blame myself—like, What could I have done better? Why didn’t I prevent this? Now I’ve accepted it as a normal part of life.

Ariana Sculpture

Matthew Yeah,

I think that the process of discovery is kind of laden with failures...oh, failures.

Matthew Lim senior Industrial Design

Ariana I

also think RISD has given me the confidence to believe that if I do something long enough, or with enough thought and enough effort, I’ll find reason and purpose in it.

Matthew I’m

actually starting to buy the idea that failure is just a way for you to get to somewhere else. I think someone said that if you’re not

failing it means you’re not trying hard enough. Or you’re not...you’re being too comfortable. And that’s what I’ve come to acknowledge as learning.

I feel like learning really happens when you’re between being comfortable and being very uncomfortable. The more you push yourself into discomfort, the steeper the learning curve, the faster you can learn something.

Ariana Yeah,

I think I’m at the point where I’m uncomfortable if I haven’t kind of drastically failed in a couple of weeks. Like, I should probably start a different project, or I should, you know, do something weird. Right now, I’m in that boat. I’ve been making these architectural forms with cardboard molds all semester, because it’s been really productive—I can make a lot of them and recombine them in different ways once they’re made. So it’s kind of just like building blocks, like a Lego system. And it was amazing that my professor let me do that, follow one idea for so long.

But now, at this final push, I’m getting really uncomfortable, because they’ve been well received...people like them, they’re pleasant to interact with. I must be doing something wrong. I haven’t had a catastrophe— nothing’s broken, nothing’s made me, like, deeply unhappy. I need to inject some new variable into my process now, because I feel like I’m sitting too comfortably with it. And I don’t think that’s necessarily an unhealthy or compulsive behavior, I just think that’s something that RISD does challenge you to think about.

Matthew Yeah.

I think no matter what discipline you’re in, it’s this idea of exploration, like, where does your current point lead you?

If you succeed or you fail, whatever...but, what’s next? I feel like we’re always about what’s next, like everything we do is always in progress.

Ariana It’s

never finished.

Matthew It’s

never finished, it’s always in progress. Another way to look at it is that it’s always a bridge to something else. You know, a means to an end, and never an end in itself. Which is pretty interesting and somewhat refreshing, I think.

Ariana Martinez senior Brown|RISD Dual Degree Urban Studies / Sculpture

Tools for making From wood and metal shops to glass furnaces, glaze rooms and editing studios, RISD offers a range of specialized spaces to make art.

Each of the 16 studio departments contains “home spaces” for majors, along with the specialized facilities and high-end equipment, software and peripherals used in various professions. Working with fellow students in the studio and with professors and technicians, you’ll master the use of both digital and manual tools and refine your making skills.

In every department, faculty members emphasize the conceptual and visual principles behind the work being made— principles that will remain relatively constant regardless of how technologies change over time. By incorporating these principles into your own process of critical thinking and making, you’ll graduate ready to make meaningful work for the rest of your life.

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Jamie Chen • Graphic Design

Student work

Jeff Shen • Industrial Design

Jamall Osterholm • Apparel Design

Sophie Crowley • Illustration

143

Silas Cheo • Painting

Courtney Brendle • Illustration

Savannah Barkley • Film / Animation / Video

Abigale Wu • Ceramics

145

Connor McCann • Printmaking

Anya Petit • Glass

Adam Blake • Apparel Design

Alexandra Amy • Textiles

Chelsea Alexander • Graphic Design Cayla Gao • Film / Animation / Video

147 Heejin Kim • Painting

Michael Boroniec • Ceramics

Yeonjung Hong • Jewelry + Metalsmithing

David Huang • Illustration

Zai Rutter • Photography

Marisa O'Donnell • Painting Hanson Cheng • Architecture

149

Ji Chandrvirochana • Textiles Lucy Yip • Industrial Design

Max Pratt • Furniture Design

Zoe Schlacter • Textiles William Samosir • Sculpture

Matthew Bohne • Architecture

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Julie Benbassat • Illustration

Dhvani Behl • Printmaking Yidan Zeng • Glass

John Shen • Photography

Jiho Kim • Industrial Design

Hakyung Jeong • Textiles

153 Anya Smith • Interior Architecture

Anrui Zhu • Apparel Design

Song Kang • Illustration

Joyce Lin • Furniture Design Yuko Okabe • Illustration

Hong Kyu Park • Industrial Design

Dora Ozel • Interior Architecture

155 Adam Linn • Printmaking

Haejung Choi • Graphic Design

Brandon Lipchik • Painting

Brian Oakes • Sculpture

Avery Albert • Apparel Design

Anthony Anderson • Jewelry + Metalsmithing

Qi Guo • Architecture

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Leah Aegerter • Sculpture

Sarah Crist, Lauren Klein • Furniture Design, Textiles

Chart your course

Beyond the studio Barron Webster / Graphic Design 1st year

Made first performance art piece. winter Took a hot glass class.

Loved the hot space on the snowy nights, didn’t love the blisters. spring Discovered coffee (working at Carr Haus)! fall

2nd year

Interned at DirecTV in NYC as a product designer. spring Became a teaching assistant (discovered teaching is harder than it looks). summer Interned on the Google Maps team in CA. winter

Nicole Buchanan / Photography 1st year

2nd year

Bought first down coat and snow boots in preparation for winter. spring Challenged by making a camera obscura out of cardboard. Failed the first time.

spring Took

fall

neuroscience at Brown. summer Interned at Carl Van Vechten Gallery at Fisk University. Assisted with West African artifact exhibit and archived the Stieglitz collection.

Hilary Wang / Glass 1st year

First true New England fall. spring Started work-study at 2ndLife (back when it was operating out of a shipping container). fall

2nd year

Artist’s Ball!

Biked to Tillinghast Farm. spring Decided to transfer into the Glass department. fall

winter

When you explore the array of learning opportunities at RISD, your education becomes a journey that’s unique, dynamic and engaged with the world.

3rd year

4th year

After RISD

fall Took

a course on propaganda and realized degree could be used for nefarious purposes. spring Invited artist Rafael Rozëndaal to speak at RISD.

fall Interned

with Metahaven in Amsterdam. spring Thesis! Made many books while having existensial crises (it all turned out OK though).

summer Started

3rd year

4th year

After RISD

fall Became

an RA for Nickerson Hall. Traveled to Capetown with a class studying the history of slavery in Rhode Island, Haiti and South Africa. winter Interned for a wedding photographer.

fall Continued

work on thesis, The Skin I’m In. spring Showed work to Arlette Kayafas (a gallery owner in Boston) at Portfolio Review, which led to representation.

summer Had

3rd year

4th year

After RISD

winter Traveled

fall

to Japan to work at the Toyama City Institute of Glass Art and learned about vending machines that automatically sort eggs. spring Ate first clam cake.

Applied for Arctic Circle Residency. winter Sledgehammered old radiators in the snow for iron cast class. spring Traveled to Czech Republic with classmates to visit glass factories.

work at Google Creative Lab in NYC.

first solo show at Gallery Kayafas reviewed by the Boston Globe.

Interned at porcelain factory for Arts/Industry program in Kohler, WI. winter Traveled home to Taiwan. spring Worked at Chrysler Museum of Art Glass Studio. fall

“We value personal discovery through work—wherever your work might lead. For me, this makes the RISD experience enormously important and valuable.”

Charlie Cannon Department Head + Associate Professor of Industrial Design

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Wintersession

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For five weeks between the fall and spring semesters, RISD offers a change of pace.

Wintersession encourages crossdisciplinary exploration and the pursuit of off-campus interests.

During Wintersession, you’ll learn alongside peers in other majors and explore new processes and perspectives. A Sculpture student may immerse herself in furniture design while an Architecture major experiments with the electronic Jacquard loom.

Wintersession is also a time when faculty present innovative new offerings—from performance art workshops to targeted project research to travel-study options.

While some students spend this time developing new skills and knowledge in highly focused studios or liberal arts classes, others intern in New York, Paris, Los Angeles or closer to campus. Small groups travel abroad for field studies in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

But whatever you choose to do during Wintersession, you’ll appreciate the opportunity between semesters to refresh your outlook and expand your creative reach.

risd.edu/wintersession

Drawing

RISD’s newest concentration offers an opportunity for deep engagement with a key aspect of research at RISD: the notion of drawing as speculation. Through studios highlighting the discipline’s fundamental connection to innovation and discovery, students come to understand drawing as both a practice integral to all art and design disciplines and as an end in itself for the creation of resolved works of art. Students are encouraged to think critically about the history and evolving presence of drawing in the world and consider the evolution of their own work in this context.

Concentrations Nature–Culture–Sustainability Studies

Computation, Technology + Culture

The interdisciplinary concentration in Nature–Culture–Sustainability Studies (NCSS) invites undergraduates to shape individualized courses of study focused on the environmental humanities and the interconnected phenomena of contemporary life. Through the 21-credit concentration, students pursue issues related to biomimicry, emerging technologies, global warming, hybridity and sustainability, among other options, while developing an informed planetary perspective and broadbased critical thinking and problem solving skills.

In the interdisciplinary Computation, Technology + Culture (CTC) concentration, students gain an understanding of the ideas and techniques of writing in programming languages while engaging with related critical analysis, history and theory.

They hone the ability to write source code, author software and program machines for making works of art and design. As they gain knowledge in this area, students are able to move beyond being software users constrained by proprietary software and become cultural producers and artist-programmers.

risd.edu/concentrations

Students who wish to complement their studio major with an in-depth study in the humanities and social sciences may elect to pursue a concentration in HPSS. Such study enables students to fully explore the department’s course offerings while fulfilling Liberal Arts requirements in a way that is most meaningful to them.

Working across the disciplines of HPSS requires intellectual curiosity, excellent communication skills and the ability to bring together disparate methods and approaches.

Often interdisciplinary in nature, concentrations at RISD allow you to enrich your creative process beyond a chosen discipline and delve deep into a particular area of interest.

LIterary Arts + Studies

Students in the Literary Art + Studies concentration may opt to focus on courses in literary history and traditions, critical theory and creative writing, postcolonial literatures and cultures, environmental humanities, race and gender or film and performance. Concentrators may take courses in as many of the areas covered by the department as possible or develop a personal course of study that allows for deeper exploration of a range of literary genres, periods and theoretical approaches.

History of Art + Visual Culture

The concentration in History of Art + Visual Culture is designed for students who wish to complement a studio major with in-depth studies in art history, theory, criticism and museum studies. They will learn to identify and use art historians’ methodologies for interpreting works of art from various times and places and to translate insights from art historical studies to creative work produced in a studio setting.

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History, Philosophy + the Social Sciences

As neighbors on College Hill, RISD and Brown University share a historic and highly collaborative relationship.

Because artists and designers draw inspiration from a wide range of sources, you’ll appreciate the opportunity to cross-register for courses at Brown at no extra cost (Brown students are able to do the same at RISD). RISD’s dynamic Liberal Arts program is specially designed to elevate the education of young artists and designers, and the scope of Brown’s course offerings—from foreign language to computer science, math and urban studies—allows you to further engage in subjects of particular interest to you.

Beyond the classroom you’ll have ready access to Brown’s libraries and athletic facilities. Lectures, concerts, performances and special events open to both campuses present exciting opportunities for students to collaborate and build community.

BROWN|RISD Dual Degree Program

RISD and Brown offer a dual degree program for exceptionally motivated students who want to integrate a broad range of academic and artistic interests. This undergraduate program, which requires a separate application and acceptance by both institutions, combines the rigorous programs and unique resources of each institution and enables students to earn both a Bachelor of Arts (AB) degree from Brown and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree from RISD in five years.

ȸȸ American Sign Language

ȸȸ Introductory Czech

ȸȸ Ancient Egyptian Religion + Magic

ȸȸ Intro to Music Theory

ȸȸ Astronomy Before the Telescope

ȸȸ Medieval Philosophy

ȸȸ Basic Chinese

ȸȸ Planning Sustainable Cities

ȸȸ Beginning Modern Dance

ȸȸ The 1001 Nights

ȸȸ Biotechnology in Medicine

ȸȸ The Palaces of Ancient Rome

ȸȸ Cities of Sound: American Pop Music

ȸȸ Urban Agriculture

Brown

RISD

ȸȸ Globalization/Social Conflict

Selected RISD courses taken by Brown students ȸȸ Architecture of the House

ȸȸ Making of Design Principles

ȸȸ Cryptography

ȸȸ Mapping Information

ȸȸ Design + Entrepreneurial Thinking

ȸȸ On the Matter of Color

ȸȸ History of Dress

ȸȸ Queering Photography

ȸȸ Illuminating the Ocean

ȸȸ Science and Social Controversy

ȸȸ Inside the Museum

ȸȸ The Human Figure in Context

ȸȸ Literature of Organized Crime

ȸȸ Traditional Japanese Aesthetics

ȸȸ London: World City

ȸȸ Transnational Social Movements

risd.edu/brown

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Selected Brown courses taken by RISD students ȸȸ Aesthetics + Sexuality

Through immersion in an unfamiliar culture, you’ll discover fresh ways of seeing, connect your learning to broader contexts and grow as a citizen of the world.

RISD and the world Given our increasingly connected world, it’s more important than ever that creative thinkers pay close attention to global developments and understand how to communicate across cultures.

If you choose to pursue an experience abroad, you’ll find support from RISD Global. This hub for discourse and cross-cultural literacy is dedicated to reciprocal exchanges of ideas and practices through immersive learning experiences.

Whether you travel to study a specialized craft during Wintersession, enroll as an exchange student at a highly regarded art school abroad or intern overseas during the summer, you’ll discover how exciting and inspiring the world can be when you open your imagination to everything it has to offer.

RISD programs in Rome and Seoul

RISD’s longstanding European Honors Program (EHP) in Rome and its newer RISD in Seoul program offer intensive experiences abroad for highly motivated students interested in working on independent and experimental studio projects.

Led by RISD faculty members and visiting critics, these full-semester experiences allow for in-depth study of the art, design, history and culture of each vibrant city, along with the ancient traditions of the countries as a whole.

RISD Global Exchange

RISD also offers exchange programs with 42 partner schools schools in Asia, Europe and Latin America. The experience allows students to remain in their discipline but pursue their studies from a completely different cultural perspective.

gpp.risd.edu

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Recent global learning opportunities include (Wintersession and summer courses) ȸȸ Argentina: Hi/Low Tech

ȸȸ Iceland: Artistic Practice in 24-Hour Light

ȸȸ Canada: Haida Made

ȸȸ Italy: Shoe Design + Prototyping

ȸȸ Cuba: History, Culture + Printmaking

ȸȸ Japan: Paper, Temples, Prints

ȸȸ Denmark: Seminar on Scandinavian Design

ȸȸ Morocco: Crafting the CIty

ȸȸ France: Photography in Paris

ȸȸ Portugal: Material Practices

ȸȸ Guyana: Art + Science

ȸȸ South Korea: Housing Hybrids

Dennis Could

I just ask you: what has your favorite project been this year?

That’s such a general question, but I’m curious.

Yasemin I’m

doing an independent study this semester...I’m making a documentary about Sri Lanka.

Dennis Oh

right, yeah.

Yasemin I

wanted to get out of Providence for Wintersession. So I found a course going to Sri Lanka, called Northern Visions. I wanted to go, but I wanted to do something that would make sense, because I’m not in Textiles, and I’m not in Architecture. I was the only filmmaker going on the trip. So, what could I do? I thought, OK, I’m gonna take a camera.

Dennis Good,

good.

Yasemin So

I took the camera and I went. I didn’t really know anything about doing interviews but I learned a lot from practice, by trying to just ...behave like a kid, you know? Like, OK, what am “You’re saying you’d I shooting now? Why am I never done something shooting this? When I started doing interviews, there was of that caliber before, a funny moment when I but you learned so ran out of questions. I was honest and said, “I am out much in the process. I of questions, so I’m going to also think we’re never change the position of the camera.” [laughter] I literdone learning.” ally said this to the person I was interviewing! And the person, who is the head of a mission there, completely embraced that. He was like, “OK.” I took a breath, he took a breath, and we continued.

Dennis Amazing.

Yasemin I

was so anxious about these moments, but now I can see how much I learned and that’s why it has become my favorite project. When I got home I was like, “OK, I’m going to do a documentary with all this footage, because I have a lot.” And I do—I have, like, 180 gigabytes.

Dennis Krawec sophomore Industrial Design

Dennis Oh

my goodness! I want to see it.

Yasemin I’ll

hopefully have a screening. For me, as an artist coming out of RISD, I want to be able to spot problems and say, “Look at that. Did you know about that?”

Dennis You

want to bring things to light.

Yasemin Yeah.

I am certainly on the hunt for stuff that is not known, stuff that is overlooked, stuff that is unjust. I have that justice/peace side of me.

Dennis I

get that.

Yasemin That

would be my parameter for success—if I am able to tell the stories that fascinate me, and tell them well, you know? I should be able to respectfully, authentically tell stories to other people in a way that will interest and fascinate them.

Dennis That’s

awesome...there’s that idea that you just throw yourself into it—you’re saying you’d never done something of that caliber before, but you learned so much in the process...I also think we’re never done learning. Your peers often know things that you don’t and you know things that they don’t. It’s this dialogue where you help them, they help you. It influences you, you gain much more knowledge. For example—yesterday, actually—someone was like, “I know you do a lot of soft goods and I’ve never used a sewing machine. Do you think you could show me how to use one?” It’s like, “Of course, totally.” Then a couple weeks ago I didn’t know how to cut blue foam. And someone was like, “Oh, you use the hot wire in the shop.” It’s so vital to have all these different people around you in the making space. They have things to bring to the table, to the meal that we’re all having. Like, they bring this dish, and you bring this dessert, you know? Everyone just kind of feasts together and ends up full and happy and not hungry [laughter]. That’s my analogy, we’re all—RISD’s just one big feast.

Yasemin I

think that’s because it’s lunchtime and you’re hungry [laughter].

Dennis [laughter] Yasemin We’re

RISD’s just one big meal, and we’re all just...

all, like, cooking together and eating together.

Dennis We’re

all cooking, and some meals will catch on fire and will have to be thrown out.

Yasemin It’s

so true.

Dennis Some

meals will be delicious. Some meals will be spicy. Some meals—you know, maybe they’re getting there, but they still need—they’re missing something. They’re missing that ingredient.

Dennis That

are missing that herb.

herb, [laughter] yeah.

Yasemin That

herb, those oregano leaves.

Dennis They’re

know.

Yasemin I

missing something. Will they find it by graduation? I don’t

don’t know, either.

Dennis It’s

up to us. It’s up to the chefs.

Yasemin Orhan sophomore Film / Animation / Video

Yasemin They

Research at RISD Through partnered research projects both on and off campus, you’ll engage in rigorous inquiry and experimentation across disciplines.

RISD studios naturally team with experimentation—whether in the form of materials research, process investigations or collaborative problem solving. As growing numbers of businesses, nonprofits and governmental agencies are recognizing the strategic importance of design thinking and the humanistic value of art, RISD is committed to forging new connections that enable organizations to collaborate across all levels of our creative community, engaging undergraduates, graduate students and faculty alike.

By addressing design challenges and considering practical applications through such partnerships, you’ll get a new appreciation for where—and just how much—your work can make a difference in the world at large.

research.risd.edu

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RISD has partnered with ȸȸ Cessna

ȸȸ Nike

ȸȸ Chronicle Books

ȸȸ Saint-Gobain

ȸȸ Kimberly-Clark

ȸȸ Samsung

ȸȸ The LEGO Foundation

ȸȸ Target

ȸȸ NASA

ȸȸ Unilever

ȸȸ National Science Foundation

ȸȸ World Economic Forum

Expand your inquiry

Co-Works Gain experience with advanced tools and technologies that support interdisciplinary experimentation.

In Co-Works, an interdisciplinary fabrication lab for the entire RISD community, you’ll get the chance to explore new and emerging technologies. This state-ofthe-art facility invites students in all departments to experiment, research and collaborate through and beyond the standard curriculum.

The unique selection of advanced digital and traditional making technologies housed in Co-Works includes 3D printers, 3D scanners, a range of CNC equipment, laser cutters, vacuum formers, embroidery and knitting machines, industrial sewing machines, foam cutters, UV and largeformat printers and more. Co-Works also hosts seminars, studio courses and special research projects undertaken by faculty and graduate students. Created to support and enhance cross-disciplinary learning, it’s an ideal space for deep exploration of concepts and topics unencumbered by departmental boundaries.

179

Fleet Library

Make new discoveries through resources and collections designed to engage visual artists.

A fascinating collection of books, periodicals, objects, images and digital materials, RISD’s physical and virtual libraries are anchored by a home space in the Fleet Library. This former banking hall on the National Register of Historic Places has been transformed by a RISD alumnus into a contemporary center for research in art and design. Staffed by experts and well-loved by students, the facility is an award-winning example of adaptive reuse.

What’s in the library? ȸȸ Ready access to a team of expert librarians and classes on research and discovery ȸȸ Circulating collection of more than 150,000 books in open stacks made for browsing ȸȸ Subscriptions to more than 325 international art, design and cultural magazines and 800 e-journals ȸȸ Archives + Special Collections (rare books, files, artifacts, along with 2,000 artists’ books, objects and zines) ȸȸ Picture Collection (a half million printed images, including “clippings” filed by subject) ȸȸ Material Resource Center (a circulating resource of over 34,000 samples including metals, glass, wood, tiles, textiles, plastics and composites) ȸȸ Specialized databases ȸȸ “Living room” space for reading, chatting, gathering—especially for the 500 students living in the residence hall upstairs

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Center for Arts and Language

Understanding that artists and designers have a lot to say about many subjects, RISD’s Center for Arts and Language helps students gain skills in writing, speaking and visual communication. Tutors support the development of strategies for academic, professional and public communication projects (from artist talks to blog posts). Overall, the Center advances multilingual learning, research and programming at the busy intersection of arts and language.

What’s at the Nature Lab? ȸȸ Collection of 80,000 live and preserved animals, including insects, birds, fish, reptiles and mammals ȸȸ Phenom G2 Pro Scanning Electron Microscope

ȸȸ Dozens of dissecting and compound microscopes for exploring microorganisms and cell structure ȸȸ Tanks full of aquatic life

ȸȸ Shells, minerals, plants and seed pods

ȸȸ Models of hundreds of polyhedra and twodimensional patterns

ȸȸ Hands-on access and borrowing rights to specimens

ȸȸ Field equipment including salinity meters, soil augers, butterfly nets and a beach seine

Explore the connections between biology, art and design in a unique studio-lab setting.

Artists and scientists have a lot in common—including intense curiosity, belief in the power of observation and a need to understand how things work.

From Foundation year on, you’ll have ready access to the Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab, where you can analyze the structure of a mineral, sketch a rare specimen, observe floating jellyfish and use a compound microscope to see what’s contained in a single raindrop. By looking closely at the dynamics of the natural world, you’ll experience the true power of observation and make fascinating connections to your own work.

naturelab.risd.edu

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Nature Lab

David Katz Assistant Professor of Ceramics

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“If I wanted to take advantage of all the resources here— the Museum, the Material Resource Center, the Nature Lab, the research opportunities—I would never be able to sleep.”

RISD Museum Study the evolution of art and design and work closely with world masterpieces.

With a collection of 100,000 objects—from ancient to contemporary art—the RISD Museum is an amazing interdisciplinary resource for the entire community.

You’ll have the chance to work directly with curators of various collections and get inside access to incredible works of art and design—researching and studying pieces that aren’t on view in the public galleries. Few other art and design schools can match the size, scope, quality and educational programming of the RISD Museum, which is also a popular destination for the regional public.

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What’s at the museum? ȸȸ Frequently changing special and traveling exhibitions (recent exhibitors include Martin Boyce and Todd Oldham) ȸȸ Opening parties, workshops, music and other special events ȸȸ Special collections of 20th-century design, Impressionist paintings and Latin American art

ȸȸ Classes to orient first-year students to the collections ȸȸ Internship, fellowship and work/study opportunities ȸȸ Alumni-designed Café Pearl ȸȸ RISD Works museum store featuring objects designed by faculty and alumni

ȸȸ Six curatorial departments: Ancient Art, Contemporary Art, Costume + Textiles, Decorative Arts + Design, Painting + Sculpture, Prints, Drawings + Photographs risdmuseum.org

events.risd.edu

Show your work and discover the creative currents running through RISD’s community of artists and designers.

Exhibitions and openings are a key part of RISD’s educational and social fabric.

Galleries on campus dedicated to student work offer exciting curatorial opportunities as well as occasions to present work to the general public. The Gelman Student Exhibitions Gallery + Dryfoos Gallery for New Media in the RISD Museum invite students in any major to propose group shows. Undergraduate students also participate in department-specific exhibitions in the Woods-Gerry House.

Open Studios

To help everyone see the breadth of work being produced at RISD, both undergraduate and graduate students host coordinated Open Studio events once a semester.

During these fun, casual evening events students invite peers and faculty into their workspaces to share and discuss works in progress, turning the entire campus into a high-energy, cross-disciplinary critique.

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Student exhibitions

Feel at home

The community you and your peers create in the studio will grow and thrive in the spaces on campus designed to help you feel a little more at home.

Developed with the needs of student artists in mind, RISD housing offers large rooms and good work areas for developing projects. As a first-year student you’ll enjoy the spirit of shared community that’s fostered in the Quad, a cluster of four connected residence halls. And you’ll get to know your classmates better through a range of fun activities and events organized by Residence Life.

Students also enjoy relaxing and spending time together at various dining spots on campus. Offering a range of good, locally sourced food (with vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options), they include the student-run Carr Haus Café and The Met, RISD’s central dining facility.

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194 Campus support services include ȸȸ Academic Advising

ȸȸ Health Services

ȸȸ Center for Arts and Language

ȸȸ Intercultural Student Engagement

ȸȸ Center for Student Involvement

ȸȸ International Student Services

ȸȸ Counseling and Psychological Services

ȸȸ Public Safety and Transportation

ȸȸ Disability Support Services

ȸȸ RISD SHARE

ȸȸ Financial Aid Services

ȸȸ Student Employment

You won’t be alone as you learn to balance work with life outside the studio. From tutors to counselors, members of RISD’s passionate support staff are dedicated to helping you make the most of your experience. Whether your needs are academic or related to health and wellness, you can count on reliable, confidential guidance and support.

The individuals who make up RISD’s community represent diverse identities and backgrounds.

Students of color make up 31% of the student body and those from abroad represent 33%. Both RISD and Brown have active LGBTQQ communities.

The Office of Intercultural Student Engagement and other groups on campus are committed to fostering a welcoming, inclusive environment that enables all members of RISD’s unique arts community to thrive.

Somnath (Graphic Design) A small town called Ahmedabad in Gujarat province, India recent read Digital Folklore weird studio ritual Making an inventory of all the paper I have.

Ivan (Painting) Los Angeles, California RISD clubs, etc. RISD ExposĂŠ words of wisdom Make friends you can work with. weird studio ritual instant coffee every hour

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Malaika (Textiles) Tanzania and Washington, DC artists of interest Kerry James Marshall and Vic Mensa what does the future hold? Phenomenal cosmic powers...itty bitty living space.

Lizzie (Photography) Providence, Rhode Island trait I admire in a classmate The ability to be wrong. favorite material Silly Putty recent read To a God Unknown

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Tyler (Architecture) Fairhaven, Maryland RISD clubs, etc. RISD Jalwa, RISD Exhibitionists, RISD Catholic Community recent read We the Animals

name + major Yulia

from

from

Russia

(Illustration)

artists of interest Vuillard,

Bonnard your professors to let you do what you want and make it GREAT. words of wisdom Convince

Lily (FAV) Birmingham, Alabama recent read Modern Romance words of wisdom Don’t pack too much stuff, take some deep breaths and just jump in! what does the future hold? Hopefully a job.

Lucas (Photography) Evanston, Illinois artist of interest Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek RISD clubs, etc. RISD Student Alliance words of wisdom Don’t try to plan how all four years will go.

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name + major Dominique

(Furniture Design) Born in Indonesia; raised in Ecuador artists of interest Katie Stout! K8 Hardy! Look ’em up! trait I admire in a classmate awareness what does the future hold? great pop music

name + major Fabiola

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from

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Ali (FAV) Born in Pakistan; raised in Texas + NJ RISD clubs, etc. I raised some beautiful little birds with the Pigeon Club. words of wisdom Take some time to freak out every once in a while...it’s good to let it out.

name + major Ana

from

from

(Graphic Design) Miami, Florida favorite tool green screen what does the future hold? We can never know, but that’s amazing.

(Furniture Design) Westchester, New York artist of interest Tijmen Smeulders my workspace is Trying desperately to be organized. favorite tool table saw

Clubs at RISD are as unique as the students who launch and get involved in them. And the activities they generate are equally interesting, from gallery openings to design competitions, craft sales to bike races to global food celebrations. Organized with support from the Center for Student Involvement, extracurricular options are a great way to connect with friends, explore your interests and contribute to the creative atmosphere at RISD. And whether you’re showing off your costume design skills at the Artists’ Ball or celebrating the arrival of spring on a sod-covered Benefit Street at the RISD/Brown Lawn Party, you’ll enjoy getting into the spirit of RISD’s annual traditions.

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Arts, athletic and common interest clubs include ȸȸ Biomimicry Club

ȸȸ RISD Balls (basketball team)

ȸȸ Brown-RISD Game Developers

ȸȸ RISD Cycling

ȸȸ Clerestory (literary journal)

ȸȸ RISD Exhibitionists (theater group)

ȸȸ Equestrian Club

ȸȸ RISD Nads (hockey team)

ȸȸ Oral Fixation (a capella group)

ȸȸ RISDio–The RISD Radio

ȸȸ Pigeon Club

ȸȸ Wilderness Club

Professional clubs include ȸȸ A Better World by Design

ȸȸ RISD E’ship (entrepreneurship club)

ȸȸ American Institute of Architecture Students

ȸȸ RISD IDSA (Industrial Design Society of America)

ȸȸ MADE by RISD

ȸȸ RISD Quickies (student-led workshops)

ȸȸ RISD Design Guild

ȸȸ RISD STEAM

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Outreach + service programs include

Community and cultural organizations include

ȸȸ Alternative Spring Break

ȸȸ Black Artists and Designers (BAAD)

ȸȸ Design for America

ȸȸ Hispanic and Latinx Artists

ȸȸ Green Room Program

ȸȸ Korean Student Association

ȸȸ Pre-Orientation Service Experience (POSE)

ȸȸ Queer Student Association

ȸȸ Project Open Door

ȸȸ RISD Feminists

ȸȸ RISD 2nd Life

ȸȸ RISD Jalwa

ȸȸ RISD Global Initiative

ȸȸ RISD SASA (South Asian Student Association)

builders of communities beyond campus—both in Providence and out in the world. From bringing RISD’s approach to art education to local schools to getting involved in sustainability projects, students are invested in elevating and improving their surroundings.

Initiatives include the Pre-Orientation Service Experience (POSE), an intensive five-day program for incoming students, and the Leadership & Community Engagement (LACE) fellowship, a full-year volunteer commitment connecting students to the greater Providence community. These service-oriented programs empower you to use art and design to make a difference in the world and encourage your sustained engagement after graduation. At RISD you’ll find opportunities for off-campus involvement are varied, inspiring and impactful.

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Many students are dedicated

RISD’s campus is located in historic downtown Providence, the “Creative Capital” of Rhode Island. From the exceptional craftsmanship of the Industrial Revolution to the underground noise rock scene of the 1990s, the city is built on a rich and diverse legacy of artistic experimentation.

Affordable and conveniently located, Providence is a great place for young artists to call home. You’ll be as inspired by the vibrant mix of galleries, theaters and architecture as you are by the natural beauty of Narragansett Bay. And there’s a lot to like about the pace and scale of the city—it’s small and urban, easy to work in and to get around. Its proximity to both New York and Boston means you’ll have even greater access to worldclass art and design experiences and opportunities.

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Providence has its perks: ȸȸ Three colleges within a one-mile radius (RISD, Brown and Johnson & Wales) and five in total ȸȸ A small, urban scale that’s extremely walkable (with a riverfront park running through the heart of RISD’s campus) ȸȸ Nearby beaches (including Tillinghast Farm, RISD’s private property on Narragansett Bay) and not-too-distant mountains

ȸȸ A network of protected bike paths, plus beautiful parks and public spaces (many hosting weekly farmers’ markets) ȸȸ A wealth of independently owned shops, eclectic arts organizations and restaurants ȸȸ Trains and busses that can get you to Boston in an hour or New York in just over three hours

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Make the future

RISD graduates go on to work at Adobe Alexander Wang Apple Calvin Klein Cartoon Network Cheim & Read Chronicle Books Coach Continuum Converse Cooper Hewitt CreativeMornings Curious Department of State Design for America Discovery Education Dreamworks Facebook Foster+Partners Gensler Google Creative Lab Harmonix Hasbro IBM Design IDEO Kate Spade Kohler LAIKA Landor Associates Library of Congress littleBits Maharam Maya Lin Studio Microsoft NASA National Park Service New York Times Nike Owings & Merrill Panasonic Avionic Payette Pentagram Philips Healthcare Pixar Reebok Scientific American Skidmore College Smithsonian Sony Music Stanford University SYPartners Target Todd Oldham Studio Vice Media Whitney Museum Wieden+Kennedy Williams-Sonoma Ximedica Yale University YouTube ZGF Architects Zynga...

They create studios and startups like ACTON Airbnb Anderson3 Artolution Assembly Design AVO Ben & Aja Blanc Big Nazo Lab BK BioReactor Calico Wallpaper Coral & Tusk

David Weeks Studio Dear Human DEGEN DownCity Design Eckhaus Latta Egg Collective Estes/Twombly Architects Felt+Fat Field Good Thing High Gloss Hum In House Increment K-Hole Kore Swim Light & Ladder Lightning Bolt Lindsey Adelman Studio Lit Motors Meow Wolf Mighty Oak NOT Open Outpost Journal Oyster Pneuhaus Spirare Surfboards Rich Brilliant Willing Running Man Second Thoughts Small Stuff Soapbox Studio Dunn Studio Endo Tellart Technology Will Save Us The Steel Yard The Weaving Mill The Wurks Uhuru Visibility Wassaic Project WWAKE WW3 Workstead Work-Shop Zest Books 2x4...

They are being recognized with Academy, Eisner and Emmy awards AIGA Medals American Academy of Arts & Letters awards American Institute of Architects awards Art Directors Club (ADC) Young Guns MacArthur ‘genius’ grants Forbes 30 Under 30 Fulbright fellowships Guggenheim fellowships National Book Critics Circle awards National Design awards National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grants...

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Court Street Grocers Creative Action Network

Career Center Whether you’re looking for a great internship, an inspiring post-grad fellowship or the first job of your dreams, the RISD Career Center is ready to help.

By working one-on-one with career counselors over the course of your education, you’ll be able to envision the life you want to lead and use the connections you’ve made at RISD to get there. As counselors get to know you, they’ll connect you with everything from online tools and workshops to seminars and portfolio reviews.

RISD actively supports entrepreneurship through workshops and events such as Mindshare, where you can hear from alumni and other professionals about what it takes to run a successful creative business. Partnerships with companies that fuel creative startups—including Etsy, Kickstarter and the online portfolio platform Behance—help you better understand the tools and resources available to promote your work and ideas.

Postgraduate fellowships

Students interested in applying for postgraduate fellowships receive guidance from the Career Center. Among art schools, RISD is ranked the highest Fulbright producer with 80 alumni awardees. Additional opportunities for graduates are supported by prestigious companies such as the NYC-based design studio Maharam, which supports STEAM fellowships in Applied Art and Design.

Portfolio review

Many students find internships and receive job offers by attending the Career Center’s annual portfolio reviews. Attracting compelling agencies, galleries, studios, and companies from around the US and beyond, reviews are a great opportunity for you to network with potential employers and gain experience speaking about your work in a professional context.

risdcareers.com

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4,641 2,160 career opportunities posted

advising appointments

784

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students attending portfolio reviews

companies attending portfolio reviews

9,195 alumni group members on LinkedIn

2016 figures from RISD Career Center

“At RISD ‘creativity’ and ‘innovation’ are more than just buzzwords. They’re like a mantra, demanding that we

combine our ideas and passions to make meaningful work. The world desperately needs what our alumni can do.�

Rosanne Somerson RISD’s president + an alumna

Joe Gebbia Brian Chesky cofounders of Airbnb

Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky teamed up in 2008 to get a fledgling idea off the ground.

Today that idea, Airbnb, has grown into one of the world’s most influential and innovative companies.

At RISD Gebbia and Chesky were known as go-getters who ran the Balls (basketball) and the Nads (hockey) teams, respectively. After school Gebbia convinced his friend to quit his job in Los Angeles and move to San Francisco so the two of them could start a business—in 2007, just as the economy was on the brink of freefall.

As soon as Chesky moved in, the landlord raised the rent on their apartment by 20%, leaving the two jobless entrepreneurs in a tight spot. But “RISD taught us to see,” Gebbia says. So they “did something else that RISD taught us to do. We connected the dots.”

Noticing that San Francisco hotels were sold out due to a major design

conference in town, they inflated an airbed and emailed a few top design blogs to offer their space to out-of-towners. A year later, with $20,000 in credit card debt, they hit on another idea: politically branded cereals to sell at the height of the 2008 election.

Thanks to press coverage of the project, they netted $30,000—which helped keep Airbnb afloat long enough to attract new investors.

Now the company has become a trusted community marketplace active in more than 65,000 cities around the world and accommodating a growing list of more than 200 million guests. With the addition of recent humanitarian initiatives, the expansion into travel “experiences” and partnerships with organizations like the NAACP, Airbnb and its innovative founders are continuing to offer progressive new models for corporate leadership and “unlocking human potential,” as they put it.

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Tavares Strachan, artist

Tavares Strachan [03 GL] continually seeks to unsettle the idea of place as a set of boundaries in his work. Representing his home country of the Bahamas in its inaugural pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, he put forth a multisensory installation documenting his voyage to retrace a 1909 expedition to the North Pole.

In his pursuit of scientific ideas in art, he has collaborated with everyone from MIT scientists to specialists at a Russian space mission training facility. Highly collaborative and highly ambitious, his artistic dares include recreating the phenomenon of cloud formation inside a miniature glass chamber and launching glass rockets made from Bahamian sand and fueled by sugar cane.

A community that Michael Maltzan, architect

The recipient of a 2012 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, the Los Angeles-based architect Michael Maltzan [85 BArch] designs homes, art centers, public housing complexes and landscapes to stimulate and engage users.

Founded in 1995, Michael Maltzan Architecture is committed to the idea that the poor should benefit from good design as much as the rich. He has embraced commissions like the one for LA’s InnerCity Arts campus as readily as for Michael Ovitz’s Beverly Hills villa. Maltzan is the design architect for the Sixth Street Viaduct in LA, a new bridge and urban park that foresees a multimodal future for the city.

A freelance illustrator, Victo Ngai [10 IL] was included on Forbes’ 2014 list of 30 Under 30 young artists to watch. Her energetic editorial illustrations have been sought by art directors at The New Yorker, The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Utne Reader, McDonald’s and Adidas Hong Kong, among other high-profile clients.

Ngai, who grew up in Hong Kong, speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, English and Japanese. Los Angeles is now her home base and the diverse, dynamic atmosphere of the city is an ideal setting for her burgeoning career. There she’s able to grow her network of clients and enjoy the support and camaraderie of a community of fellow artists.

creates new paths Hannah Koenig, designer

As a Brown|RISD dual degree graduate, Hannah Koenig [BRDD 14 PR] believes that studying on both campuses helped make her a natural interpreter—someone at ease moving between creative communities with different modes of expression.

This quality has been an asset in her work at the US Department of State (DOS).

As a Maharam STEAM Fellow at RISD, she started out interning at the Collaboratory, a DOS office dedicated to piloting programs that further educational and cultural diplomacy. Koenig was recently promoted to a strategic designer in the Research and Evaluation Unit for Public Diplomacy, where she shapes learning projects that help career diplomats refine their approaches.

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Victo Ngai, illustrator

artist / MacArthur Fellow

Painter and sculptor Nicole Eisenman [87 PT] is the 10th RISD alum to win a coveted MacArthur “genius grant” in the past 18 years (since Kara Walker [MFA 94 PT/PR] first started the trend in 1997).

Eisenman was among 24 gifted individuals­—including a poet, a playwright, an economist, an inorganic chemist, a neuroscientist and a computational biologist—to receive the honor in 2015. The “no strings attached” award is meant to further creative work in a wide range of fields and is given “in support of people, not projects.”

It comes with a stipend of $625,000 paid out over five years.

Represented by Anton Kern Gallery in NYC, Eisenman says that when she got the call about the MacArthur, she was in a supermarket. “It was just another day,” she explains. “Then everything shifts, everything changes. You get struck by lightning.

I think the fellowship gives me an extra boost of confidence to go forth and do what

I’ve been trying to do my whole life—but with the vote of confidence from my peers, which just feels—it feels amazing.”

Long known for pushing on issues of gender and identity, the Brooklyn-based artist is comfortable with experimentation and readily admits that she doesn’t want to limit herself to any one way of making art. Though she also makes sculpture, Eisenman says that she’s drawn to the materials, colors and “visceral quality of painting—the connection between my eye, my hand, the paint, the canvas.” When that connection happens, it’s “magic,” she says.

Given the significant societal breakthroughs over the past decades— including the 2015 Supreme Court decision upholding the right to same-sex marriage— Eisenman notes that the conversation around queer politics has now shifted more to race and class. “That’s where I want the focus of my work to be,” she says. “There, and on trans politics as well.”

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Nicole Eisenman

RISD graduates make the future.

They include Tanya AguiĂąiga Natalia Almada Janine Antoni Joana Avillez Ashley Axios Miyoshi Barosh Huma Bhabha Deborah Berke Mary Boone James Carpenter Ilene Chaiken Roz Chast Dale Chihuly Martha Coolidge Rafael de CĂĄrdenas Liz Deschenes Amy Devers Alex Dodge Jim Drain Shepard Fairey Nicholas Felton Spencer Finch Lizzie Fitch Walton Ford Chris Frantz Tobias FrereJones Dinah Fried Michael Gabellini Kenneth Goldsmith Jill Greenberg Jenny Holzer Henry Horenstein Roni Horn Shara Hughes Misha Kahn

Macaulay Seth MacFarlane Joe Marianek Josiah McElheny Julie Mehretu Nicole Miller Martin Mull Mary Murphy Josh Owen Laura Owens Marcia Patmos Robert Richardson Michael Rock Julia Rothman Anna Schuleit Haber Brian Selznick Arlene Shechet Julia Sherman Shahzia Sikander Adam Silverman Therman Statom David Stark Katie Stout Scott Stowell Do Ho Suh Ryan Trecartin Chris Van Allsburg Gus Van Sant Kara Walker Jessica Walsh Tina Weymouth David Wiesner JooHee Yoon Andrea Zittel‌

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Daniel Kim Jemima Kirke David

and

you?

Visit Come see our creative community for yourself. risd.edu/visit Connect Get in touch with Admissions if you have any questions. admissions@risd.edu 401 454-6300 or 800 364-7473 Admissions Office Woods-Gerry House 62 Prospect Street Providence, RI 02909 Follow Get to know RISD better through social media. groups/risdadmissions @risd @risd1877 @risd1877

Design Micah Barrett 12 GD with assistance from Seojoo Han Maria Rull-Bescos MFA 18 GD Joshua Shao 20 GD Editing Robert Albanese Micah Barrett 12 GD Brian Clark Lauren Maas Ed Newhall Liisa Silander Simone Solondz Writing Lauren Maas

Photography David O’Connor Jo Sittenfeld MFA 08 PH with additional photography provided by Airbnb Matthew Clowney MFA 08 PH John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Lucas Vasilko 16 PH Printing Meridian Printing East Greenwich, RI Typefaces Gotham and Mercury designed by Tobias Frere-Jones 92 GD

Policies + Disclosures RISD adheres to all applicable federal and state laws, including the Student Right to Know and Campus Security Act of 1990 and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974.

RISD’s Annual Safety Report can be found at risd.edu/safety-report and general student policies can be found at risd.edu/policies.

Nondiscrimination Policy RISD does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, national origin, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law in admission to, participation in or administration of its educational programs and activities; in employment; or in its other programs and activities.

For people with disabilities RISD attempts to make its classes, programs, events and services physically accessible to everyone. Reasonable accommodations are made for people with disabilities or special needs who request assistance.

About this book This publication presents a general overview and summary of academic, cultural and social life at RISD. It is not intended to be definitive or all-inclusive, and all portions are subject to change without notice. More specific information regarding the curriculum, credit requirements and other matters appears in the college’s annual course announcement, available on risd.edu.

The names of student artists are included wherever possible. © 2017 Rhode Island School of Design risd.edu

Rhode Island School of Design Two College Street Providence, RI 02903 USA www.risd.edu Bound Printed Matter US Postage PAID Providence, RI Permit No. 408