RISD RISD
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Making the future since 1877
From its beginning, RISD has shown how art and design can change the status quo.
In the late 19th century, Rhode Island had established itself as a hub of the Industrial Revolution, known especially for innovations in textile, jewelry and machine manufacturing. Against this dynamic backdrop, a small group of civically minded women—the Rhode Island Women’s Centennial Commission—decided to start a school and museum for art and design in the city of Providence. Established by women decades before any woman had the right to vote in America, Rhode Island School of Design has long shown how art and design can change the status quo.
In the years that have followed, RISD continues to be guided by this visionary spirit. From the addition of new majors to the creation of the Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab in the 1930s to Andy Warhol’s curation of an exhibition using only the museum’s archives (called Raid the Icebox), RISD has grown to become one of the most influential and forward-looking art and design institutions in the world.
Today, RISD’s undergraduate students come from all over the world and across the US. They’re from small towns and big cities. Some went to high schools with extensive art programs while others are just discovering their talents and interests. All are hoping to pursue paths in life that will make the most of their creativity.
They enroll in a curriculum that features an interdisciplinary liberal arts program and 18 majors in fine art and design: Apparel Design, Architecture, Art and Computation, Ceramics, Film/Animation/Video, Furniture Design, Glass, Graphic Design, Illustration, Industrial Design, Interior Architecture, Jewelry + Metalsmithing, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, Sound and Textiles. Courses are taught by over 600 full and parttime faculty members. Beyond teaching, they maintain studio practices, pursue new research in their fields, run design firms, develop innovative technologies and manage their own businesses.
What are RISD students like? Some have studied art from a young age and others are new to it. They are athletes, musicians, volunteers and activists; they have hobbies and interests of all sorts. They’re multi-faceted: international, BIPOC, Queer, Indigenous... and the community they form in the studio is driven by their shared creativity and curiosity about one another.
RISD’s community of 33,000+ alumni includes medium-bending winners of the MacArthur “Genius” Award like Nicole Eisenman, Kara Walker, Shahzia Sikander, Tavares Strachan and Julie Mehretu. Pioneers of new wave music, Talking Heads, got their start at RISD. Graduates have worked in presidential administrations and started NGOs to aid refugees in conflict zones. They are collaborating on urgent issues related to climate change, social equity and emerging technologies.
They’ve been honored with Caldecotts, Oscars, Emmys, Guggenheim Fellowships, Palmes d’Or and Pulitzers. They’re equally at home on teams at highly visible companies like The New York Times and Pixar and when starting something entirely new and selfdirected. They generate and challenge ideas that shape our future, and the range and impact of their work is evidence of the ways that art and design can contribute to making a better, more equitable world.
At right (from top): In Sea Ice Stories, a photo essay featured in National Geographic, Acacia Johnson 14 PH documents the daily life of residents of Baffin Island.
Kids play in RGBubble, an inflatable made by RI-based collective Pneuhaus, founded by 2014 Furniture Design graduates August Lehrecke and Matt Muller.
An installation by Tavares Strachan 03 GL travels down the Mississippi as part of the Prospect.3 biennial.
Our graduates generate and challenge the ideas that shape the future.
Alum and MacArthur Fellow Nicole Eisenman 87 PT contributed to the group exhibition Raid the Icebox Now at the RISD Museum (a reprise of Andy Warhol’s original archive-based show), creating a nightclub for artwork in the Grand Gallery called Kiki’s Backdoor
In EFS Design studio Se Habla Español, students learn to approach the world and their work in a language other than English.
We place as much emphasis on curiosity and critical thinking as we do on making.
The path to making impactful creative work begins with how you learn. The studio and the classroom are immersive, crossdisciplinary environments where we place as much emphasis on critical thinking, curiosity and context as we do on making. A rigorous liberal arts program and an art and design foundation year are your introduction to a RISD education.
The studio portion of the first-year program is called Experimental and Foundation Studies (EFS). In three core studios—Drawing, Design and Spatial Dynamics—you’ll be pushed beyond your comfort zone by faculty with radically different ways of teaching. You might end up in a Design class taught entirely in Spanish. Or in a Spatial Dynamics studio where you make a working musical instrument from scratch. These classes require you to take creative leaps and use materials and processes that are new to you (in other words, you’ll experiment).
Exploration is encouraged. During Wintersession—an intensive, five-week session between fall and spring semesters— courses across all disciplines are open to help inform your choice of major. You’ll ask big questions, think hard about why you want to be an artist or designer and become an active participant in your own education. By the end of the year, you’ll have developed a critical and creative toolbox that will support you throughout your studies and into your future career (you’ll lay a foundation).
When you enter a major at the start of sophomore year, you’ll continue to collaborate, experiment and cultivate your curiosity about the world around you. You’ll spend time in research spaces dedicated to advancing the creation of art and design. From the expansive collections of the RISD Museum and Fleet Library to interdisciplinary labs and student galleries, you’ll find many ways to inspire, refine and share your best work.
After foundation year, there are many futurefocused, cross-disciplinary opportunities to explore. Through partnered studios and collaborations with companies and organizations like the Hyundai Motor Group (at bottom right), NASA (at top right) and Microsoft, students and faculty apply creative thinking to today’s most complex challenges.
Research projects are also led by faculty. The Virtual Textiles Research Group (formed by Textiles Professor Brooks Hagan) created an open-source design tool that allowed them to 3D-weave entire shoes (center).
Grad student Jung Ki Min created Handkerchief (top) using pearls donated by Tiffany & Co for material research.
Architecture student work on display for crit (bottom).
RISD will also show you how art and design fits into the bigger picture. Our emphasis on learning through making has led to partnerships with local organizations and global companies alike. Students and faculty have worked with NASA on space suits, Microsoft on VR, Tiffany & Co on materials research and Hasbro on game design. A multi-year research collaborative with Hyundai looks at the relationship between nature, art and design, exploring how we can create socially and environmentally just societies through biodesign. We’ve developed resources for local elections and provide free college prep art programs for high school students. Whether considering complex problems like climate change, exploring emerging technologies or fostering empathy and understanding through visual storytelling, proximity to and participation in opportunities like these will show you the collaborative potential of art and design.
Artists and designers have a unique ability to anticipate—and influence—the future. A creative education asks you to take that ability seriously and grow it exponentially. Once you leave RISD, you’ll be prepared to meet urgent issues with curiosity, humanity and ingenuity. You’ll be part of a legacy of visionary thinking. You’ll be ready to make the future.
Campus Life
Hills next to rivers, labs within libraries, studios upon studios—campus has a lot of layers to explore as you learn.
RISD is well known for the Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab and Natural History Collection. Beyond observing living organisms and drawing specimens, you’ll take classes and workshops in this center for the growing field of biodesign.
In addition to dedicated departmental making spaces, you’ll have access to Co-Works, a hub for interdisciplinary making, research and collaboration centered on emerging technologies (like digital fabrication and VR).
You’ll also find soundstages, hot and cold shops, foundries, darkrooms, green screens, kiln rooms and other spaces and tools for making all over campus. Here’s the Jacquard loom at work.
In galleries across campus, you’ll see the latest work from each department and even get the chance to curate your own shows. Openings take place weekly—bands play, performances happen. RISD is all energy.
North Hall is the newest first-year residence. Designed by alum-architect Nader Tehrani and his team at the Boston-based firm NADAAA, it’s energy efficient and designed with art students in mind: workspaces are everywhere (there’s even a spray booth).
The studio community is strong. You’ll appreciate the friendships you make and the support you get from classmates as you work through projects together.
Crit happens... and you learn a lot in the process. Critique sessions are a moment to pause and talk through your work with your classmates and instructors. You’ll see things from a fresh perspective and get ideas for what’s next.
Beyond the over 100,000 books and countless periodicals and databases available in the Fleet Library, students also have access to a hands-on material collection and fascinating archives. In both its physical and digital holdings, this resource is built to inspire creative thinkers.
Visiting artists, guest critics and speakers are invited to campus over the course of the year. RISD Careers also hosts events large and small that let students connect with industry professionals.
Getting out of the studio is recommended, whether it’s through field studies (like a Wintersession course at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, above) or a trip to Tillinghast Place, RISD’s site on Narragansett Bay where classes, coastal conservation research and relaxation are in frequent rotation.
Providence is a perfect little city—with a thriving arts scene, great restaurants, cool architecture and plenty of green space. A relaxed pace and walkable scale make it easy to get to know and get to work. Plus, its location about halfway between New York and Boston means weekend trips are very doable.
Brown University is RISD’s neighbor, and our communities often collaborate (most notably on the five-year Dual Degree Program). From crossregistration to lecture series to a shared lawn party to welcome spring, you’ll appreciate the perks that come with the proximity of the two campuses.
The world is also close at hand. RISD Global offers the opportunity to be immersed in new places and new ways of thinking, seeing and relating through art and design. Students enrolled in a course called Knowledge from the Land: Collaborative Art + Research visited Mexico City, San Miguel de Allende and Oaxaca City.
We have a bunch of dining options, like Café Pearl in the museum (a nice place to grab coffee and read) and The Met (the popular, two-story main dining hall). And we’re crazy about food: ours is award-winning, locally sourced and organic, with plenty of variety whatever your dietary needs.
Students connect in community-oriented extracurricular groups like Black Artists and Designers, Mango Street (for Latinx students), the South Asian Student Association and the Queer Student Association, among many others. You can also join or start a club around a shared interest: from beekeeping to basketball to anime to rock climbing to a cappella singing to Japanese drumming to plein air painting to entrepreneurship to...
Space Design! RISD has a club that collaborates with NASA and generates design-driven solutions to reallife challenges faced by astronauts and engineers.
Programs of Study
Experimental and Foundation Studies
The three Experimental and Foundation Studies (EFS) studios are built around assignments and critiques that encourage students to think deductively and intuitively, and examine the potential of materials as they take projects from concept to completion. Faculty members lead group critiques—both during the process and at the end of each project—with peer dialogue playing a critical role in advancing student work.
In this studio, students explore how to organize visual and other sensory elements in order to understand perceptual attributes and convey meaningful messages through objects, spaces and experiences.
DRAWING
Students pursue drawing as both a powerful way to investigate the world and an essential activity intrinsic to an art and design practice. The studio becomes a laboratory of varied and challenging activities in which to investigate materiality, imagined situations, idea generation and the translation of the observable world.
SPATIAL DYNAMICS
This studio-based inquiry into physical, spatial and temporal phenomena considers force—the consequence of energy—and its effect on structure. Students explore spatial dynamics through a range of analogue and digital processes.
Liberal Arts
A third of RISD coursework is in Liberal Arts, a division that includes three departments. In addition to providing a strong general education, Liberal Arts offers options for focused study and opportunities to enrich your art and design practice. During your first year, you’ll take introductory classes, after which you’ll choose those most interesting to you or pursue a related concentration.
HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES (HPSS)
The HPSS department offers a wide variety of courses on the nature of human life— past and present—in its psychological, social, political, intellectual, philosophical and cultural contexts and manifestations. Courses in world history, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, political science, sociology, religion and American and cultural studies are designed to help students broaden their knowledge while developing stronger critical thinking, reading and writing skills.
LITERARY ARTS AND STUDIES (LAS)
LAS provides students with a broad and synthetic understanding of a particular period, genre, movement or issue in literary study. It reinforces the development of keen critical thinking and reading skills, an effective and individual writing voice and a nuanced understanding of the role of literature in different cultures and historical periods. Students gain a solid foundation from which to engage in contemporary culture in an informed and responsible way— as critics, creative writers, performers, artists and designers.
THEORY AND HISTORY OF ART AND DESIGN (THAD)
THAD offers thought-provoking courses focused on a wide range of media, spanning time periods from ancient to contemporary and embracing diverse critical perspectives. Generally based on reading, close examination of actual works and small group discussions, courses emphasize critical thinking and analysis, clarity of written and verbal communication and an understanding of the value of artistic expression across cultures and throughout time.
Apparel Design
BFA/4-year risd.edu/apparel-design
In Apparel Design, students approach fashion as a platform for cultural dialogue. Through immersive, studio-based practice, they establish unique design languages and clearly articulated creative processes. Makers of thought-provoking garments, they generate both fashion and knowledge, continually reimagining systems for producing.
With an intense focus on craft, students develop diverse creative practices rooted in an awareness of clothing as an emotional medium and visual material. Emphasizing ethical sourcing, the program encourages students to challenge industry conventions and work toward positive, sustainable change.
RECENT COURSE TITLES
Histories of Dress Identity/Identities
NASA Spacesuits Reimagined & Redesigned Who Wears the Pants?
Architecture
BArch/5-year risd.edu/architecture
As an integral part of a fine arts school, Architecture at RISD emphasizes process, artistic sensibilities and social and ethical responsibility. Students hone the ability to think and communicate through drawing, making, writing and discussing ideas with others as they define and articulate a personal approach to the discipline.
Architecture majors inspire each other as they get direct experience building with materials and learning to understand the technical demands of architecture through a process of inquiry, reflection and invention.
RECENT COURSE TITLES
Architectonics
Architectural Anatomy
Architectural Projection
Mid-Century Making
ReAssembly: Working Logics
Art and Computation
BFA/4-year risd.edu/art-computation
Recognizing digital technology’s growing influence on art and design practices—and the influence of artists and designers on the digital landscape—the Art and Computation BFA at RISD offers students a deep understanding of and ability to create within the technological structures of the 21st century.
Students who major in Art and Computation work with code, software and other technological interfaces as creative mediums in their own right, and learn to incorporate them into a wide range of art and design practices.
RECENT COURSE TITLES
Critical Issues on Technology
Histories and Futures
Human-Machine Interactions
Intro to Physical Computation
Materializing Code
BFA/4-year
risd.edu/ceramics
A major in Ceramics offers a rigorous, handson investigation of clay as a multifaceted medium with great expressive possibilities. Students explore the rich multicultural history of ceramic objects and through interaction with professors, peers and visiting artists, are able to grasp the full range of contemporary practices and ideas.
Ceramics majors experiment with throwing, building, molding, glazing, firing and developing new techniques using specialized tools and equipment, including workstations for handling digital images, glaze formulation and remote kiln firing.
RECENT COURSE TITLES
Ceramics: Global Perspectives
BFA/4-year
risd.edu/fav
In Film/Animation/Video (FAV), students explore the art of the moving image, learning to master the tools needed to articulate a creative vision, whether using film, animation, installations, interactive media or a combination of mediums. FAV professors support the investigation of the technical, aesthetic and conceptual questions central to creating strong content with a unique voice.
In the studio, FAV majors bounce ideas off each other while focusing on making documentary, experimental and narrative films or animated work using a wide range of techniques, from CGI to hand-drawn to stop-motion animation and more.
RECENT COURSE TITLES
Character Design
Directing Performance Experiments in Stop Motion
The Pitch: Logline to Selling Visual Music Film/Animation/Video
Furniture Design
BFA/4-year
risd.edu/furniture
Furniture Design at RISD offers an intensive immersion in materials research and exploration in the process of making furniture and objects. Students investigate some of the most important questions facing designers today—from how to take advantage of changing technologies and new materials to how to respond to variable economic conditions and evolving lifestyles.
Furniture Design majors are encouraged to experiment with a wide range of materials and approaches while focusing on human factors and sustainable, responsible design.
RECENT COURSE TITLES
Cabinets, Doors and Drawers
Exploring Upholstery from the Basics to the Extreme Lightweight Structure Metals for Furniture Design
Glass
BFA/4-year
risd.edu/glass
Glass majors approach the medium as both an artist’s material with remarkable expressive range and a studio discipline imbued with limitless potential, incorporating sculpture, architecture, design, craft and decorative art. They discover an open, flexible and expansive studio discipline built on a unique history that dovetails with rapidly expanding dialogues defining innovation and creative practice.
Students have full access to a hot shop, cold shop and kiln and casting rooms. In addition, all students are given studio spaces and access to refined installation spaces both within the department and elsewhere on campus.
RECENT COURSE TITLES
Alchemy Research Studio
Experiments in Optics
Glass, Body, Space and Time
Hot Glass Co-Lab
Projection: Explorations in Light
Graphic Design
BFA/4-year
risd.edu/graphic-design
Graphic Design provides a comprehensive education that pushes the boundaries of the discipline. Students learn how to communicate ideas visually, play with the tools of the field, frame points of view and messages, build community and embrace a fluid, networked, culture. Faculty support these explorations and encourage ambitious ideas along with a mastery of traditional practices.
In the studio, students learn the fundamental value of typography, imagery, grids, systems and more in the course of creating everything from traditional books, posters, logos and websites to apps, interactive texts and other digital media.
RECENT COURSE TITLES
Color + Surface
Experimental Publishing Studio
Game
Design
with Unity 3D Music Video Type + Code
Illustration
BFA/4-year risd.edu/illustration
As a creative discipline, Illustration at RISD is broadly defined—by purpose, not media. While illustrators employ the same tools used in painting, photography, film, graphic design and other disciplines, they make imagery with the intent of conveying specific meaning and messages.
Whether painting at the easel, drawing on a computer screen or making 3D characters, Illustration majors learn the skills and techniques needed for effective visual storytelling.
RECENT COURSE TITLES
Comics, Manga & Bandes
Dessinées
Dreams, Symbols & Memories
Illustrative Typography
Introduction to Tattooing
Industrial Design
BFA/4-year
risd.edu/industrial-design
Drawing on its historic contribution to responsible, human-centered design, Industrial Design teaches students to use critical thinking and design processes to bring new value to companies, communities and citizens. Professors with expertise across many areas guide students in researching user experiences to create well-conceived and well-executed objects, products, systems and experiences that make everyday tasks easier.
In responding to assigned projects, ID majors work with a wide range of materials in the process of designing. Students develop ideas by starting with sketches and drawings and moving on to models and working prototypes.
RECENT COURSE TITLES
Artificial Intelligence and Design, Concerns and Opportunities Climate Crisis and Design
Introduction to Basic Shoemaking Multi-modal Prototyping
Interior Architecture
BFA/4-year
risd.edu/interior-architecture
At the intersection of architecture, conservation and design, Interior Architecture takes an innovative approach to transform existing buildings. Advanced studios focused on adaptive reuse are central to the program.
Unlike the fields of interior design and decoration, Interior Architecture looks less at the application of surface materials than at understanding the design of buildings from inside out.
Students use digital and manual means to recommend reuse and design alterations to give buildings new life. They focus on approaches, from domestic to retail design, theater/ production design to issues of conservation.
RECENT COURSE TITLES
Building Materials
Human Factors
Spatial Perception: Light & Color
The Scrap Lab
Jewelry + Metalsmithing
BFA/4-year
risd.edu/jewelry
Spanning the gamut 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 the relationship of jewelry to the body.
Students bounce ideas off each other and work in close proximity as they hone technical skills and become adept at working with a wide range of metals and other materials.
Creating in Platinum History of Adornment
Pearl Lab: Only with Agitation, Comes Growth Stones and Gold
Painting
BFA/4-year
risd.edu/painting
Painting prepares students to engage in an individual search for meaning and cultural representation through the development of visual skills, critical reasoning and an understanding of broad historical and social contexts. Professors encourage both the freedom and discipline essential to this process by embracing a wide range of aesthetic attitudes, where ideas rooted in the tradition of painting are openly challenged and refined.
The conceptual and expressive aspects of painting remain central as students build on their skills through intense technical training and concentrated hands-on effort.
RECENT COURSE TITLES
Critical Curating Digital Tools for Artists
Meaning in the Medium
of
Painting Painting from Observation
Photography
BFA/4-year
risd.edu/photography
RISD approaches photography as an everchanging set of technical, conceptual and aesthetic conditions that exist within a broad social and cultural context. Students delve into the making, presentation and interpretation of images, exploring photography as both a language and a craft. Students 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 various scales, video, installation work and other approaches of their choice.
RECENT COURSE TITLES
Antique and Alternate Processes
Cyanotype Blues
Lighting: Constructed Realities
Video Portraiture
Performance
and
Printmaking
BFA/4-year
risd.edu/printmaking
Printmaking supports the creative development of artists dedicated to visual exploration using intaglio, lithography, screenprint, relief and related print processes. Majors explore a mastery of traditional and contemporary techniques, including digital and alternative print methods.
Students make in a well-equipped facility with state-of-the-art equipment and separate floors allocated to lithography, intaglio and screenprint studios. Visits to the RISD Museum along with off-campus museums, galleries and symposiums underscore the rich historical context of contemporary printmaking.
RECENT COURSE TITLES
Light to Ink
Printmaking and the Politics of Protest
Wallpaper Design, Technique and History
Sculpture
BFA/4-year
risd.edu/sculpture
At RISD, Sculpture is about the growth of the individual as part of a larger community. The department emphasizes visual and critical literacy in support of conceptually strong creative practices. Encouraged to experiment and push beyond obvious solutions, students learn to think holistically about their work as it relates to the world. They’re able to produce meaningful work through a fluent command of process and the informed use of materials.
Students work with every material imaginable. The curriculum, with an explicit purpose of building skills and literacies, make meaning of using boundless materials and methodologies.
RECENT COURSE TITLES
Digital Craft
Retooling the Studio Tool Kit
Figure It Out In Process: A Perfomance Lab Operational Drawing
Sound BFA/4-year
risd.edu/sound
Sound is a discipline that encompasses a range of fields, from conceptual sonic work and sound design across media formats, to the study of sound in built and natural environments and issues around audio cultures.
As part of RISD’s Computation, Technology and Culture department, the Sound BFA lets students explore key tools, concepts and sound design principles within the context of creative practice, working across a range of applications and with attention to the multicultural histories of sound and the sonic arts.
RECENT COURSE TITLES
Sonic Practices
Spatial Audio: Envelopment & Immersion
The Soundscape: Place, Power and the Politics of Sound
Textiles
BFA/4-year
risd.edu/textiles
In Textiles, students experiment with new materials, technologies and techniques to design and create innovative fabric and fine art. Faculty work closely with both undergraduate and graduate students to encourage the development of a personal vision and an understanding of artistic and cultural contexts.
Students work with the high-end equipment used in the field—multiharness handlooms, computer-interfaced looms and an electronic Jacquard loom—to master advanced weaving techniques, and both hand-operated and electronic knitting machines allow for further exploration of knitted fabrics.
RECENT COURSE TITLES
Concentrations
risd.edu/undergraduate-study
#concentrations
Students can build upon and further focus their major coursework by opting to concentrate in one of six additional areas of study. Concentrations at RISD are similar to minors at other colleges and universities.
COMPUTATION, TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE
The Computation, Technology and Culture curriculum integrates instruction in writing programming languages with critical, historical and theoretical frameworks for understanding the software, platforms and other technologies that shape society and culture. Recent course titles: Ambient Interfaces: Activated Objects; Drawing with Computers; Extended Realities and Shared Futures; Painterly Digital Images.
DRAWING
RISD’s concentration in Drawing offers an opportunity for deep engagement with a key aspect of research at RISD: the notion of drawing as speculation. Recent course titles: Drawing in Time; Drawing Marathon; In the Spirit of Experimentation: Papermaking.
AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
This Liberal Arts concentration is built around nine focused tracks: Belief Systems; Environmental Studies; Gender, Sexuality and Race; Global Processes; Media, Technology and Cultural Studies; Mind, Self and Behavior; Politics and Policy; Regional Studies; and Scientific Inquiry. Recent course titles: Cultures of Sleep; Early New England: Power and Identity; Refugees, Migrants and Dis placed People.
LITERARY ARTS AND STUDIES
Drawing on a wide range of literary traditions, genres, periods and theoretical approaches, this concentration enables students to pursue in-depth studies in literature and writing, emphasizing the fundamental relationships between reading, writing and creative processes. Recent course titles: Eating the Way Back Home: Food, Literature and Identity; Theater That Bites the Hand; Video Games as Literature.
SUSTAINABILITY STUDIES
This interdisciplinary concentration invites undergraduates to shape individualized courses of study focused on the environmental humanities and the interconnected phenomena of contemporary life. Students pursue issues related to biomimicry, emerging technologies and global warming, among other options, while developing an informed planetary perspective and broad-based critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Recent course titles: Global Water Crisis; Introduction to Insect Morphology and Ecology; Optics and Making Holograms.
THEORY AND HISTORY OF ART AND DESIGN
Embracing a wide range of media and critical perspectives, this Liberal Arts concentration emphasizes critical thinking and analysis, clarity of written and verbal communication and an understanding of the value of artistic expression across cultures and throughout time. Recent course titles: Art and History of Early West African Kingdoms; Introduction to Iranian Cinema; Program as Practice: Activating the Art Museum.
Brown | RISD Dual Degree Program
risd.edu/risd-brown
The Brown | RISD Dual Degree Program offers students the opportunity to pursue collaborative and multidisciplinary work at two world-class institutions. RISD offers intensive, specialized education in art and design; Brown offers comprehensive concentrations in the humanities, social sciences, physical and life sciences.
During the five-year program, students develop and integrate diverse spheres of academic and artistic interest. Students choose a concentration at Brown and a major at RISD and receive a Bachelor of Arts degree or, with careful planning, a Bachelor of Science from Brown and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from RISD. Prospective students must apply and be accepted to both institutions and then be approved by a separate Dual Degree admissions committee.
Cross-registration with Brown University
Because artists and designers draw inspiration from a wide range of sources, you’ll welcome 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 designed to elevate and complement your art and design education, and the scope of Brown’s course offerings—from foreign languages to computer science, math to urban studies—allows you to further engage in subjects of particular interest to you.
RECENT BROWN COURSES TAKEN BY RISD STUDENTS
Archaeology of College Hill
Chamber Music Performance
Intermediate Yoruba
Queer Comics
Thermodynamics
RECENT RISD COURSES TAKEN BY BROWN STUDENTS
Critical Curating Intro to Indigenous Philosophy
Introduction to Soft Goods
Modular Synthesis Studio
Theories of Natureculture
Alumni Work
Leading with Sustainability
Making things comes at an inevitable cost to living systems. The creative impulses of these alumni are guided by a sense of stewardship—for their fields, for future generations, for the planet.
1 LEE PIVNIK 18 SC works in sculpture, video and installation. Founder of the Institute for Queer Ecology, his recent project is Symbiotic House, focused on architectural solutions for Miami’s environmental precarity.
2 ALA TANNIR MID 17 co-curated the 2019 Milan Triennale: Broken Nature with MoMA curator Paola Antonelli. The exhibition explored design’s potential to restore our broken bonds with the environment.
3 CHARLOTTE MCCURDY MID 18 is the designer behind After Ancient Sunlight, carbon-negative materials that debuted in the Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial in 2019. Her 2024 collaboration with Phillip Lim, Algae Sequin Dress, is part of The Met’s permanent collection. She currently teaches at Stanford University.
4 SIMONE PAASCHE 12 JM and her partner Sophie Fader launched Spur, a concierge jewelry service with the aim of helping people wear their existing jewelry through thoughtful redesigns.
5 COLIN P. KELLY 07 ID, BRIT KLEINMAN 07 ID and BRANDON MASSEY BARCH 08, members of the interdisciplinary design team Group Project, won the Better Bin Challenge in 2019, with their design replacing 20,000+ garbage cans across NYC.
6 PHOEBE LICKWAR MLA 06 is founding principal of FORGE Landscape Architecture, an award-winning practice based in Austin and San Francisco. FORGE works on regenerative design projects around the world.
Advocacy and Activism
Documenting climate change at the ends of the earth, setting up NGOs to aid refugees in conflict zones... these alum are determined to pursue projects that matter and show how art and design can help create a more equitable world.
1 LINA SERGIE ATTAR MARCH 01 is the founder of Karam Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting Syrian refugees. Named for the Arabic word for generosity, Karam provides its young leaders with educational and financial support.
2 ASHLEIGH AXIOS 08 GD served in the Obama White House as creative director and digital strategist and was behind the #lovewins campaign that celebrated the legalization of same-sex marriage in the US.
3 MILY WINTER 15 TX and MATTI SLOMAN 07 PT/MFA 14 TX co-founded The Weaving Mill, a collaborative industrial weaving studio in Chicago that offers community workshops.
4 SILAS MUNRO 03 GD and BRIAN JOHNSON
05 GD lead a bicoastal, queer, minority-owned studio, Polymode. Their online courses on BIPOC design history feature thinkers and practitioners from across the field and cultural sphere.
5 TANYA AGUIÑIGA MFA 05 FD makes work that brings attention to life along the USMexico border. Community-focused and known for blending craft with performance, in 2021 she won the prestigious Heinz Award.
Rearranging Industries
Coming out of every discipline at RISD, a number of enterprising alumni have an uncanny knack for charting new paths that connect culture and commerce. They see the future and evolve accordingly.
1 ZOE LATTA 10 TX and MIKE ECKHAUS 10 SC, founders of Eckhaus Latta, gained instant attention in the fashion industry in 2012 for their experiential, conceptual approach to runway shows and unexpected casting of models.
2 MEL OTTENBERG 98 AP is now the editor in chief of Interview Magazine and a fashion stylist (and former longtime stylist for Rihanna).
3 JESSICA WALSH 08 GD (middle row, second from left) had a fast ascent in the world of design—starting with a prestigious internship at Pentagram, then being tapped as partner by Stefan Sagmeister in 2012. She now leads her own venture at &Walsh.
4 ANGELA GUZMAN 06 ID/MFA 09 GD is an award-winning UX design lead, startup advisor and public speaker best known for co-designing the original set of Apple emoji.
5 DEBORAH BERKE BARCH 77 is the founding principal of TenBerke and the dean of the School of Architecture at Yale University. Deeply committed to advancing women in the profession, she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and is the first recipient of the Berkeley-Rupp Architecture Professorship and Prize.
Storytellers
While the work of artists and designers has always been tied to narrative and documentary, the following alumni are finding fresh ways to convey unique perspectives on lived experience.
1 JULIA ROTHMAN 02 IL was half of the team behind the beloved and retired NYT column, Scratch, a biweekly dispatch about people and money. Her Brooklyn studio, The Figure Assembly, hosts drawing events and creative gatherings. Her illustrations are found in a variety of media, from books to wallpaper, clothing to billboards.
2 RAMELL ROSS MFA 14 PH is a two-time Oscar-nominee, most recently receiving a Best Director nod in 2025 for Nickel Boys, his adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel of the same name.
3 ELIZABETH GOODSPEED BRDD 16 GD is a designer, art director, educator, archivist and writer working between Providence and NYC. Goodspeed is US editor-at-large for It’s Nice That, an essential design publication.
4 KATY STRUTZ 15 IL is a character sculptor, designing puppets for films like Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. Based in Portland, OR, she has worked for studios including Laika, ShadowMachine and Hornet, Inc.
5 NICHOLAS RUBIN 01 FAV, a digital artist and immersive director, founded Dirt Empire in 2007. He recently worked on the Emmy and Peabody award-winning interactive feature Reeducated for The New Yorker about a detention camp in Xinjiang, China.
Studio Artists
Though setting up a studio may be an expected route for graduates of art school, these artists have practices and bodies of work that stretch the limits of what their disciplines can do.
1 HUMA BHABHA 85 PR is best known for her rough-hewn figurative sculptures that suggest both otherworldly and historical origins. Shown is her monumental sculpture on the Met rooftop in 2018.
2 JES FAN 14 GL creates sculptures that employ glass, silicon and resin to explore questions around binary structures in society. He showed in the 2022 Venice Biennale and the 2024 Whitney Biennial.
3 KORAKRIT ARUNANONDCHAI 09 PR is a multimedia artist best known for his meditative video series With history in a room filled with people with funny names. His spaces and stories combine to create multisensory experiences.
4 ROBIN F. WILLIAMS 06 IL makes large-scale figurative paintings, often featuring women, that play with media tropes about gender, sexuality and desire.
5 BOWIE ZUNINO MFA 09 SC and JEFF
BARNETT WINSBY MFA 06 PH are cofounders of The Wassaic Project, an artist residency and educational space in upstate New York.
At Work in Rhode Island
Providence and the rest of the state are home to an outsized crop of creative talent. Beyond the vision and ambition they bring to the scene, they build communities with collaborative energy and mutual admiration.
1 HOWIE SNEIDER 02 SC is the executive director and cofounder of the public projects department of the Steel Yard, an industrial arts space and Providence institution since 2003.
2 LINDSAY DEGEN 10 TX created her craftcentered lifestyle brand, DEGEN, in 2008. Her love of knitwear led to the online crafting community, KNIT.club in 2022. By day, she is design director of collaborations at Converse.
3 CYRUS HIGHSMITH 97 GD started the type foundry Occupant in 2015. Employing a number of RISD grads, it’s now the Latin counterpart of famed Japanese foundry Morisawa. Mantar, seen here, is by CEM ESKINAZI MFA 17 GD.
4 BEN BLANC MFA 04 FD and AJA BLANC MA 06 are creators of bespoke mirrors, lighting and furniture for their eponymous interiors brand. Their work has been recognized by Vogue, Architectural Digest and The New York Times.
5 LOIS HARADA 10 PR is an artist and printmaker whose work ranges from public art (as seen here in her mural for the My HomeCourt project) to social campaigns like #RenameVictoryDay. She also hosts Pulling the Thread, RISD’s alumni podcast series.
On the Move
Driven by momentum and a suspicion that there are more interesting ways to get from here to there, the following graduates are bringing creativity to the world of sport, transportation and beyond.
1 CASPAR NAGEL 18 ID was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in 2022. He and his brother founded Pave Motors, an e-motorbike company prioritizing environmental awareness while offering sleek design and cutting-edge tech.
2 SARA (SHETH) JHANJEE 04 TX , a global communications director at Nike, led the production of No Finish Line, the company’s design vision for the next 50 years.
3 EVAN BELFORTI 17 ID is a senior footwear designer for special projects at Reebok. In his role, he has collaborated with visionary brands including Maison Margiela and Pyer Moss.
4 WILL GURLEY 04 PT is a Copenhagen-based designer, artist and creative consultant. In his work for the famed Tivoli Gardens in the city, Gurley has created rides that he hopes “implement play, celebration and creativity.”
5 LILY DOUGLAS 20 ID works at the Center for Design and Space Architecture at the Johnson Space Center supporting NASA’s Artemis Program to send humans to the moon, and eventually, to Mars.
Acknowledgments
PRODUCED BY RISD Marketing & Communications
TYPOGRAPHY BY Ryan Bugden 14 GD
PRINTED BY Meridian, East Greenwich, RI
PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY George Gray CE, David O’Connor, Kaylee Pugliese and Jo Sittenfeld MFA 08 PH
ADDITIONAL IMAGES BY Charlotte McCurdy MID 18 p2; Lisa Limer p3; Marius Andre 25 SC p4; Lindsay Degen 10 TX p5; Avalon Palmer 25 JM (photo by Sara Meftah MFA 20 PH) p5; Alexander Kern BArch 21 p6; Pneuhaus p10; Acacia Johnson 14 PH p11; Tavares Strachan BFA 03 GL/Joe Vincent Grey p11; RISD Museum p12–13; Brooks Hagan MFA 02 TX p16; Meredith Binnette 20 FAV, Yimei Hu 20 ID/JM, Danlei Huang MID 21, Georgina Nolan MFA 20 GD p16; Jung Ki Min MFA 25 JM (photo by Sara Meftah MFA PH 20) p20; Matthew Clowney MFA 08 PH p20 and p26–27; ArTwerk/ Avenue Concept p42; MPdL Studio and NADAAA/John Horner p38; Matt Watson 09 FAV p67; NASA p68–69; Katherine Fu 25 CR p72; Baran Shafiey 25 PT p98; Ziyan Wang
24 FD and Sue Sima 24 AP p98; Saki 咲 26 JM p99; Will Gurley p140; Gianluca Di Ioia (© Triennale Milano) p140; Gina Clyne p141.
ALUMNI SECTION IMAGES BY Ala Tannir photo by Gianluca Di Ioia (© Triennale Milano) p142–43; Karam Foundation, The Weaving Mill photo by Sarah Flotard, Tanya Aguiñiga photo by Gina Clyne, Ashleigh Axios/Official White House photo by Chuck Kennedy, Polymode photo by Eschelon and Ian Byers Gamble p144–45; NXTHVN, New Haven, CT photo by Chris Cooper/Arch–Explorer (courtesy of TenBerke) p146–47; Nicholas Rubin still illustration by Matt Huynh (courtesy of The New Yorker) p148–49; We Come in Peace photo by Hyla Skopitz (courtesy of Huma Bhabha and Salon 94, New York; image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art) p150–51; Lois Harada photo by Off the Ground Drone Services (courtesy of My Home–Court) p152–53; No Finish Line photo (courtesy of Actual Source Books, Lily Douglas/NASA photo by Bill Stafford p154–55.
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