When your co-worker wants you to meet someone nicknamed “Melinda the Martian”, anywhere but RISD that might fill you with trepidation.  Melinda Rainsberger ‘04 FAV, however, is anything but frightening.   This amazing young alum (celebrating her fifth reunion!) not only teaches in Continuing Education at RISD and runs her own company, but also had time to whip up the amazing video above about the joys of attending RISD by Design.   If you speak RISD you should have no problem understanding it!

On Saturday, October 10^th join RISD Ceramics students and faculty not at the ISB lot on campus, but at Tillinghast Farm (231 Nayatt Road, Barrington) for an Earth, Water, Fire and Air experience in a beautiful country setting.

From 11:30 to 3:30 pm, Larry Bush, Professor and Department Head of Ceramics, will orchestrate a multi-firing extravaganza for RISD By Design featuring these ongoing events:

• Medieval Japanese Raku glaze firing. Glaze your own piece and see it fired for a nominal cost. All proceeds go to the RISD Clay Club Scholarship Fund.
• Ancient Egyptian Paste firing, also known as “Egyptian Fiance” (see Treasures of the Nile catalog at the RISD Museum). Make your own amulet with this ancient material of royalty!
• Down by the river, join students from Brown’s Archaeology Department as RISD demonstrates the firing of objects fabricated from native Rhode Island clay using a 35,000-year-old method from prehistoric Europe.

Take the designated shuttle van from Chace Center that runs between the campus and Tillinghast Farm. Shuttles will loop on an hourly schedule.

Somehow, in the mysterious and complex process that is the assembly of our brochure, this event slipped out of the copy.  But let me assure you, it’s happening!

Books + Prints Sale

10am–4pm | former RISD Library, College Building, 236 Benefit Street

Browse through a fascinating selection of used books and prints in the beautiful Fleet Library. Proceeds from sales support the acquisition of new items for the library’s collection.

Hey, did you know you get free Museum admission ALL WEEKEND with your Reunion and Parents’ Weekend registration?  Now go check out some art!

Several galleries in the Chace Center and Radeke Building will present special exhibitions including:

West & West: New Works by Joe Deal

an exhibition of images from Kansas and Nebraska along the 6th Principal Meridian, which was used to grid off real estate in that region)

The Brilliant Line: Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480–1650

exploring the art of engraving and its dynamic transformations during the European Renaissance

Inner City

an installation of 120 figurative and architectural ceramic elements by Arnie Zimmerman

Shih Chieh Huang/Connected: Eject before disconnecting

a piece by the renowed Taiwanese artist, who uses a low-tech approach to create installations with which the viewer interacts through sound and movement)

Nature/Artifice: Contemporary Works from the Collection

examining the relationship between nature and artifice, reality and fiction, through a selection of contemporary paintings, sculpture, and video from the Museum’s collections

Watercolors in the Porcelain Gallery: Flower and Still Life Painters

pieces from the Museum’s top-notch collection of 18th and 19th century British watercolors

Indonesia and the Zone of Attraction: Textiles from the Permanent Collection

selections from the Museum’s permanent collection

Mountains and Rivers: Scenic Views of Japan

Japanese woodblock prints, including work by Hokusai and Hiroshige

Remember Rusty Dawg, who appeared in last years video about RISD By Design?  Well, here he is enjoying the alumni sale during the weekend along with a few friends.  Thanks to Erminio Pinque ‘83 IL and Big Nazo!

Recently Etsy, the popular online retailer of handmake and vintage items, took a tour of RISD’s amazing Nature Lab and put together this video - “There’s No Place Like Here,” the latest in their series.    You can check out the Nature Lab yourself during RISD by Design– on Saturday, October 10th The Nature Lab will host an open house and session, Drawing from Nature, where you can take charcoal and paper and do your own drawing from their wonderful array of specimens.

We’ve gotten some calls recently from interested alumni and parents, wondering when oh when they will receive their RISD by Design brochures.  Not to worry!  The copy is in the final stages of being massaged as we speak, and will very shortly be bounced off to the printer and then the mailhouse to make its merry way to you.

And while we’re talking about the schedule for this year, let me just give you a sneak peak into some of the exciting changes we’re making!

• Student-guided classroom tours on Friday
• Students from each year talking about their experiences at RISD in a Friday panel
• President Maeda speaking with alums and students about critical thinking and making at RISD on Saturday morning
• An open Saturday sketch class in the Museum’s Main Gallery
• Saturday afternoon Health and Fitness Fair in the Met
• Saturday Open Studio Tours complete with student guides for all majors, and maps, along with some departmental open houses
• Saturday Kids’ Workshop in the Museum
• Alumni Show and Tell at the Tap Room on Saturday
• Successful alumni entreprenuers talking about their RISD experience and how they make a living at what they love in Metcalf Auditorium on Saturday

As you can see, we’ve been busy!  We look forward to providing you with all the details soon.

Hard to believe that the time has come to plan again for reunion and parent weekend.  We are looking at making some changes to the weekend to enhance the experience for both alumni and parents, so stay tuned for updates as details become confirmed.  Of course, now would be a great time for you to share any thoughts on the type of programming you would like to see as well, and if it’s something we think we can pull off we will make every effort to!

If you missed out on being a part of this year’s RISD by Design, or if you just want to relive the fun, visit our photo gallery. It was a beautiful weekend and an exciting time to be back on campus!

Alum and Alumni Council member Joe Gebbia ‘05 ID/GD set up a table at the Alumni and Student Art Sale this past weekend to promote his newest venture, AirBedandBreakfast (something we’ve mentioned on the site before) and produced some pretty interesting promo boxes:

In his words, “The limited edition boxes were produced by the team at AirBedandBreakfast.com; the peer-to-peer travel site that encourages hosts to provide breakfast for guests each morning. 5% of proceeds on Saturday went to support the RISD Student Leadership Scholarship. As the first recipient of the award back in 2003, it was a welcomed cushion to my tuition payments. You can imagine it felt good to give a little something back.

The project was art directed by myself and AB&B co-founder Brian Chesky (ID ‘04). We collaborated with illustrators, photographers, copywriters, a design shop that includes Scott Thorpe (MFA GD ‘05), and a very cool printer, General Printing, run by Fred Fassett (Arch ‘69).  He’s on the alumni council.

More images, and the hilarious jingles, can be found at http://www.airbedandbreakfast.com/obamaos and http://www.airbedandbreakfast.com/capnmccains”