If you didn’t get a chance to make it to the inauguration of RISD’s 16th President, John Maeda, do the next best thing.  Visit our Inauguration Station at the old risd|works, at 20 Westminster Street (across from the library) this Saturday from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm.

We’ll have lots of gorgeous materials with the START HERE theme, put together by Michael Rock’84 GD and other alums at 2×4, a NYC-based award winning design studio, including START HERE t-shirts and screen printers, so you can have your own personalized version of our shirt.

We’ll also have photos from the day, so you can see what you missed, hot coffee to perk you up, tables to sit at and rest your aching feet, and an Ask Me station, to pick up any materials you might have forgotten to grab at registration.

Come join us!

I just came back from a VERY exciting weekend at RISD and…I’m not exaggerating…you’ll hate yourself if you don’t get up there and see the new Chace Center (where the parking lot was on Main St), and the special Chihuly show and David Macaulay show. 

The spaces created by the Chace Center are so beautiful, functional and remarkable I want to sign up as a student again. There is now a gallery for student work, classrooms for freshmen, a spectacular gallery for contemporary art, special exhibits, an auditorium, works on paper….and the stairs up to Benefit St. are bigger and already are a collecting place for students. The back wall of Mem Hall has been exposed and is a work of art in itself. The views out the windows frame the Providence landmarks. I was really impressed ! 

The Chihuly exhibit is something that you can get immersed in. The lighting, colors, shadows and shapes surrounded me with such drama and beauty. There’s a wall of his drawings which are masterpieces in themselves.

Here are two iPhone photos…..one of my classmate, Stuart Murphy ( Sorry, Stu, I didn’t consult you! ) at the Chace Center opening last week and one from the Chihuly exhibit.

See you next week !

Clay Gordon ‘83 PH, author of Discover Chocolate, The Ultimate Guide to Buying, Tasting and Enjoying Fine Chocolate, celebrates his 25th reunion at RISD By Design this year, and will speak to parents and alumni on Friday afternoon as a panel of alumni talk about Life After RISD.  As alumni, we all have our own stories, and can share those of friends, who have traveled some unexpected paths since graduating from RISD, and that is what this panel is all about.  In this video of a talk at Google last year, Clay talks about his own journey from photography major at RISD to his current passion, The Chocolate Life. Check out his website at http://www.thechocolatelife.com/. Come to RISD BY Design to hear more stories of exploration, creation and adventure!

We know you’re all aware of the opening of the Chace Center and the Chihuly at RISD show, but what, you may ask yourself, is going on with Glass at RISD today?  Well, here’s your chance to find out!  Come check out a FREE and LIVE Glassblowing Demonstration, going on Saturday, October 11th from 10 am to 6 pm in the Metcalf building, on the 4th floor, in the Hot Glass Studio!

Sean Salstrom MFA ‘06GL and his students will demonstrate the intricacies of  the glassblower’s skills.  Glassblowing techniques were fully developed two thousand years ago and still serve as the most demanding of glassmaking processes.  Hot glass working is just one aspect of why RISD Glass is a world wide leader in training contemporary artists.

RISD is an urban campus, which provides us with lots of great restaurants, theaters, shops…..and parking problems.  We do, however, open up all campus lots during the weekend.  You can find a map here, listing all available lots.  The hill that gives us such a lovely view of all of downtown Providence can make getting around a chore!  We do offer a shuttle for those with mobility issues, as well.

This article was in the Denver Post and written by Lucy Ewing.  Lucy’s daughter Anna will enter RISD this week!

How do you tell your daughter you love her beyond the moon and stars, and leave her alone in her dorm room 2,000 miles from home?

Next week, I will be faced with this moment when Anna starts her freshman year at Rhode Island School of Design.

In the meantime, every day brings another encounter. “Are you ready?” friends ask Anna. “Are you ready?” they ask me. If it’s ready as in, “We have acquired extra-long twin sheets for the dorm beds,” we’ve got it covered. The other kind of ready? This year has been so full of highs and lows that it is difficult to know.

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It’s taken me way too long to get to this blog, and of course, I had to read everything! 

Summer is officially over and now we can think about the smell of fall in the air (well, except here in CA). And that includes thinking about going back to RISD and connecting to those days that we can relive without the stressful bit of needing to get something finished by tomorrow morning.

For parents: There will be so many of us alumni there….you can ask us questions that your student may not be able to answer (or want to!). The real scoop about the campus and classes with come from the youngest alumni. Those of us who have been out in the world for a while can tell you about our jobs, and yes, there is a wonderful, satisfying, exciting life after RISD where we work (for money) and contribute to society.

For students: You can grab any alum and ask for advice on anything from the best pizza or what “interesting” really means in a crit, to how good the Nads are, etc etc.

For alumni: I graduated in 1964 which qualifies for the dinosaur award, but I have to tell you, from my experience RISD alumni “age” better than any people I have ever seen. We become more fascinating as we click off the years and always stay about 25 years old inside. So……coming back to RBD will rejuvenate you and get you in the mood to relive those years and to share your experiences in the world with others like you. And…..you can see, I volunteered you to talk with parents and students in need of your ideas

See you on campus !

Joan

Not to be missed! On Saturday, October 11, at 2:00pm, Baruch Kirschenbaum, Professor Emeriti, will present an exhibition and talk about the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture, Gardening and Horticulture for Women.

The exhibition of lantern slides, books and printed material in the library reveals a piece of RISD’s history which has not generally been known. The material on exhibition came to RISD from the Lowthorpe School, which became part of RISD in 1945. The School was founded in 1901 in Groton, Massachusetts specifically for the professional education of women in the landscape professions at a time when such education was not otherwise readily available. In conjunction with the exhibition, Professor Kirschenbaum will review the history of the RISD/Lowthorpe connection and explain how he became engaged with it.

This event is free and open to all, and will take place in the Fleet Library at RISD, second floor, in room 228. For questions or more info, contact Laurie Whihtehill Chong, Special Collections Librarian, at lwhitehi**at**risd.edu.

It’s legendary - and a RISD tradition.  Of course I’m talking about the bicycle drawing that helped you to gain entree into RISD!  Come to the Waterman Gallery at 13 Waterman Street anytime during the weekend to see the submissions from this year’s Freshman class - they get better every year!

What challenges face incoming RISD students? What kind of classes are part of Freshman Foundation? How will they choose a major? And will they ever find a job when they graduate?  Find some answers to these questions and more at events like A Life in the Arts + Design:  An Overview of the Freshman Experience, Friday, Oct. 10, 12-5pm, Introducing Foundation Studies, Saturday, Oct. 11, 10-11am, Career Options in Art + Design, Saturday Oct.11, 1-2pm, and Sunday Oct. 12, 10-11:30am, and RISD’s Departments Illuminated, Saturday, Oct. 11, all day.  There’s more - have a look at the complete schedule, posted in the sidebar.