making progress | spring 2009...1 risd views spring 2009 inside features 5 making progess liisa...
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making progress | spring 2009
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inside
features
5
making progess
This issue focuses on a new sense of energy and possibility shared
by members of the RISD community – in spite of global economic
uncertainties.
6
design we can believe in
Many RISD people contributed their creative talents to help elect
President Obama and are now equally committed to turning the
country around.
10
changing design / designing change
As the industrial design profession shifts, students are learning to
focus their problem-solving skills on designing new services, strategies
and processes, not just products.
14
earth to risd: going green in the tropics
When RISD students go beyond their studios to explore new cultural
contexts for design, they begin to grasp that the world really needs
what they have to offer.
publishing director
Becky Bermont
editor
Liisa Silander
design / production
Elizabeth Eddins ’00 GD
writers
Anna Cousins
Delia Kovac ’02 PR
Liisa Silander
e-mail: [email protected]
fax: 401 454-6351
phone: 401 454-6349
web: www.risd.edu/views
risd: 401 454-6100
post: Liisa Silander, risd views
Two College Street
Providence, Rhode Island
02903-2784 USA
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risd views is proud to feature the work of the following designers, writers and photographers:
For the past decade, Scott
Stowell ’90 GD has run a studio
in Manhattan called Open
(www.notclosed.com). It’s a
place with a small footprint but
a big reputation. Open makes
things like identity systems for
Bravo, the National Multiple
Sclerosis Society, Planet Green
and WNYC Radio; the editorial
design of Good magazine; short
films for Google and Jazz at
Lincoln Center; and signage
Contributing writer Sami
Nerenberg ’07 ID is an adjunct faculty member in the Industrial Design Department and a sustain- able systems strategist at Grain Design. The year she graduated, she earned both the Mendelson Award for Community Service presented at Commencement and the Rachel Carson Award, given by the ID Department. Since then Sami has worked with non- profits such as Design that Matters and GreenBlue, and is currently working to start her own Design for America initiatives.
When photographer Peter
Goldberg ’88 PH sent us a link to the photos he took on Inauguration Day, we felt instantly infused with the energy and hope they capture. “For a photo- grapher who loves shooting in crowds, it was heaven!” he reports. “Walking among the crowds on the Mall was like swimming in a sea of hope.” To see more of the “enthusiasm, craziness and hope” Peter experi-enced that day, check out his Obama Inauguration Day set at www.flickr.com/photos/
petergoldberg.
risd, reality and the downturn
Scott Stowell ’90 GD / Open
cover design + pages 5–15
Sami Nerenberg
pages 10-13
Peter Goldberg
cover, pages 5–7 + 9
departments
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hillside
what’s up on campus
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engagement @ risd
news from alumni relations
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portfolio
news of alumni
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readers’ views
letters, comments, addenda
The reality of my first year as president
at RISD is a lot like President Obama’s first
few months in office – not what we expected.
I came here humbled and inspired to begin
working with our creative community to
reinterpret our fine college and museum for
a new era. And despite the murky economy,
that’s still what inspires me every day.
Though I never imagined that financial
concerns would cloud the forecast so
quickly, RISD – like the world at large –
is being forced to make a series of difficult
decisions based on sobering economic
developments. As the stock market continued
its steep decline, RISD’s endowment lost
one-third its value between the time I first
learned of my appointment as president
and January of this year.
At the same time, tuition and fees are
already more than $47,000 a year at RISD
– almost double what they were 15 years
ago, both here and at just about every other
college in the country. With many families
struggling to pay for a college education, we
have an urgent need to increase scholarships
and financial aid to make a RISD education
as accessible as possible.
Given these new challenges, the Board of
Trustees and I have resolved to act decisively.
We will slice $10M (8%) from our previously
projected operating budget for next year
through a combination of operating and
capital expense cuts, salary freezes, benefits
changes and reductions in employees
(through attrition, retirement incentives
and, unfortunately, some layoffs). As the
academic year comes to a close, we will
know how much belt-tightening is necessary
going forward.
Though we face serious financial challenges
in the years ahead, I am fortunate to lead
an organization with such clear guiding
principles: increase RISD’s accessibility,
attract the best faculty and students, and
maintain the quality of our programs. For
the country and for RISD, it’s moments like
these that force us to clarify our priorities,
search for creative solutions and come
together more than ever before to question,
debate and share ideas.
I came to RISD to participate in and lead
a community of creative thinkers, and there
will be nothing more gratifying than to
emerge from these challenges as a stronger,
more confident organization. Alumni have
a role to play here, too, by becoming more
engaged through the special ways you have
of making RISD the best it can be. At the
START HERE gatherings this spring, I have
been speaking to hundreds of alumni and
friends about “The RISD Triangle of Engage-
ment.” The concept is quite simple, really:
say RISD, hire from RISD and give to RISD.
• Remember to mention RISD in all forms
of casual conversation. New students
won’t continue to apply here if they’ve
never heard of us.
• If you’re able to hire an intern or a RISD
graduate, post the position on our
ArtWorks job board (www.risd.edu/
artworks) or contact Steve Whitten
([email protected]) in Career Services.
As a community, we need to support each
other more than ever in tough times.
• Give to the place where you first connected
with y(our) tribe and support the future
of art and design (www.risd.edu/giving).
As I’ve said on our blog (our.risd.edu), even
if you follow through with just two points
of the triangle, we’ll be well on the way
to ensuring that RISD’s voice – the voice
of American creativity – will be heard louder
and prouder than ever before.
Thank you,
John Maeda, president
for Brown and Yale. Last fall
Scott was the winner of the
Cooper-Hewitt’s National Design
Award for Communications
Design. When John Maeda tried
to get his attention at the White
House awards luncheon, Scott
couldn’t imagine whom he
was waving at. Six months later,
when RISD’s president asked
Open to work on this issue,
Scott said “yes.”
(above: samples of Open’s
other work)
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hillsidewhat’s up on campus
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note
wo
rth
y When Toady Met Ratty, the latest
children’s book by Illustration Critic
Mary Jane Begin ’85 IL, was published
in the fall. She and Assistant Pro-
fessor of Illustration Nick Jainschigg
’83 IL created ornaments for the 2008
White House Christmas tree.
Assistant Professor of Architecture
Hansy Better has been elected to the
board of directors of the Boston
Society of Architects. Work by Studio
Luz, run by her and Critic Anthony
Piermarini, was published in recent
issues of Architect and Kontakt.
Painting Critic Dike Blair has won
a 2009 Guggenheim fellowship.
He is also showing in September
at the Weatherspoon Museum in
Greensboro, NC.
State House Calendar, a chapbook
by Associate Professor of English
Mairéad Byrne, was published in
December by watersign press/
Calendar Girl Books. Several of her
poems have appeared in recent
issues of Veer and Poetry Salzburg.
Associate Professor Daniel Cavicchi
curated Songs of Conscience, Sounds
of Freedom, a winter exhibition at
the new Grammy Museum in LA.
With support from United States
Artists, Assistant Professor of
Textiles Liz Collins ’91 TX/MFA ’99 will
spend the month of June doing a
residency in Alaska.
Readers’ Services Librarian Claudia
Covert curated BeDazzled, a winter
exhibition of WWI-era dazzle
camouflage plans, at the Fleet
Library at RISD. In addition, she
organized and presented at a
February symposium related to the
exhibition, where Assistant Professor
Daniel Harkett also spoke.
Sculpture Professor Ellen Driscoll
has received a grant from the
LEF Foundation for her project
FastForwardFossil. She also curated
a spring show at Gasp gallery in
Boston.
Foundation Studies Critic Yizhak
Elyashiv MFA ’92 JM showed prints
and drawings in a recent solo
exhibition at Rhode Island College.
Illustration Critic Jon Foster ’89 IL
won a Gold Medal in the Comics
category of Spectrum’s Juried
Competition of Contemporary
Fantastic Art for “Buffy the Vampire
Slayer,” which will be published in
Spectrum 16: The Best in Contempo-
rary Fantastic Art.
As a visiting scholar at Brown’s
Pembroke Center for Learning and
Research on Women, Professor
Nancy Friese participated in the
2008–09 Pembroke Research Seminar
“Nature’s Vision: Constructing the
Cultural Other.” Her paintings were
featured in a winter exhibition at
Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery in
Claremont, CA.
Digital + Media Visiting Critic Lalya
Gaye spoke at the fall Mobilisable
conference at ENSAD in Paris. In April
she and D+M Department Head Teri
Rueb also organized and spoke at
the D+M symposium Embodiment &
Mobility.
In January Professor of Foundation
Studies Nade Haley completed
installing a series of laminated glass
panels at the Des Moines, IA Federal
Building (commissioned by the GSA).
The Year She Disappeared, the
latest novel by English lecturer
Ann Harleman, was a runner-up in
the fiction category at the 2008 New
England Book Festival.
Assistant Professor of Interior Archi-
tecture Heinrich Hermann presented
a paper at the first Architecture,
Culture and Spirituality symposium,
held in March in Salem, OR.
As part of a 2008–09 residency
at the Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus
in Schwandorf, Germany, Assistant
Professor of Foundation Studies
Diane Hoffman ’87 IL exhibited
drawings there in January. Her work
and that of Assistant Professor Leslie
Hirst is also included in the most
recent volume of Studio Visit.
Animalia, a show of photographs by
Professor Henry Horenstein ’71 PH/
MFA ’73, was on view in the winter
and spring at Robert Klein Gallery
in Boston and Afterimage Gallery
in Dallas.
Last fall Ken Horii, associate
professor of Foundation Studies,
exhibited sculpture in a solo show
at Providence’s Chazan Gallery.
This spring he and Professor Gerald
Immonen showed works on paper
at Lenore Gray Gallery in Providence.
Sculpture Critic Paul Ramirez Jonas
has received support from Art
Matters for Desahogo, an oral
history project based in several
Central and South American cities.
Work by Professor of Landscape
Architecture Mikyoung Kim has
been published in recent issues of
Sculpture, Landscape Architecture
and Dwell magazines. Kim is
currently working on commissions
for the Chicago LAB school, the
Chicago Children’s Memorial Hospital,
the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Provi-
dence and Salem [MA] State College.
Painting Critic Julian Kreimer MFA ’03
PT and Printmaking Critic Christo-
pher Ulivo MFA ’04 PT exhibited work
together in a spring show at
Providence’s Lenore Gray Gallery.
Textiles Critic Chunghie Lee has
curated two exhibitions of pojagi
(a type of Korean textile) – one
shown in April in Paducah, KY and
another that opens in September in
St. Marie-aux-Mine, France.
grad show promises surprises
RISD’s Graduate Thesis Exhibition 2009 opens from 6-8 pm on Thursday, May 14 and continues through Saturday, May 30 at the Rhode Island Convention Center in downtown Providence. More than 120 students receiving graduate degrees in 14 disciplines will show bodies of conceptually challenging and technically sophisticated work. For information on hours, the artists and images of their work, visit www.risd.edu/gradshow.
new sightings at museum
Now in its 15th year, the annual Sitings competition invites students to propose site-specific installations that “celebrate the architectural idiosyncrasies” of The RISD Museum’s interconnected, four-building complex. Camilo Alvarez, owner and director of Samson Projects in Boston, served as this year’s guest juror and chose the winning entries.
Better Reflectivity by Jill Peterson MID ’09 is actually installed outside the museum – on its cargo truck. She covered the truck in reflective vinyl rectangles, creating an “abstract mobile mural.” In TOGETHER together Laura Swanson MFA ’10
PH and Gregory Kuball respond to a question they’re often asked: “Are you two together? As in together together?” Their installation in the Radeke Garden presents pairs of ready-made objects that are identical, except that one is approximately one-third smaller than the other. Ultimately, they hope viewers will question whether paired objects lose “their original purpose” and only have meaning when they stand next to each other.”
breuer travels to risd
Marcel Breuer: Design and Architecture, an international traveling exhibition, continues through July 19 at The RISD Museum. It’s the first show to treat all facets of the Hungarian modernist designer’s work with equal weight, from the highly innovative furniture he produced at the famed Bauhaus, to the elegant but modestly scaled houses he created after moving to the US, to the large-scale institutional buildings he eventually designed in major cities around the world. Developed by the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, the exhibition traces several themes that connect the apparently diverse elements of this prolific and influential 20th- century designer’s portfolio.
coogan to lead mcad
In July Professor Jay Coogan will become the 16th president of Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) – the first RISD faculty member to earn the title of college president since the late Professor of Painting John Frazier ’12 PT became president of RISD in 1955. During his 26-year tenure at RISD, Coogan has consistently approached his work with purpose and passion, whether teaching as a professor of Sculpture or serving ably in the administration as dean of Fine Arts, associate provost and provost. “MCAD is a major contributor to the dynamic art and design environment in the Twin Cities,” he noted in the press release about his appointment. “I look forward to further integrating the college’s educational goals with the needs of the region as well as developing global opportunities for MCAD’s students and faculty.”
in memoriam: John Axel Prip, 1922–2009
Professor Emeritus Jack Prip, a metalsmithing virtuoso and influential member of RISD’s faculty for two decades, died on April 8, 2009 in Providence, RI.
A prolific and talented artist, teacher and designer for industry, Prip established RISD’s BFA and MFA programs in Jewelry + Metalsmithing in the 1960s, emphasizing that form and function should never be at odds. By the time he retired in 1981, he had honed the department into one of the best in the country, inspiring and helping to launch the careers of countless RISD artists along the way.
Known for his technical virtuosity and Scandinavian Modernist designs, Prip experimented with and expanded the scope of contemporary metalsmithing, setting high standards of excellence throughout his half-century career. His work included everything from sterling silver jewelry, to holloware and flatware, to pewter, copper and stone sculpture, to other art forms.
Professor Prip’s talented family is also closely tied to RISD; his daughter Janet Prip ’74 SC is an alumna, his son Peter Prip is a faculty member in Industrial Design and his wife Judy Skoogfors-
Prip teaches in Apparel Design.
A memorial service will be held at 2pm on Saturday, June 6,
at RISD’s Woods-Gerry House. Memorial contributions may
be made to the John Prip Endowed Scholarship Fund, RISD
Division of Institutional Engagement, Two College Street,
Providence, RI 02903.
In February a dozen graduate students from several
departments traveled to Japan to visit Toshiba’s corporate
headquarters in Tokyo and meet with key members of its
leadership team. The students are exploring the intersection
of design, technology and commerce in a studio taught by
Associate Professor of Furniture Design Peter Walker and are
working with Toshiba, an international leader in advanced
electronics, to reconsider its brand and business model.
commencement 2009
At RISD’s colorful outdoor Commencement on May 30, approximately 660 students (473 under-graduates and 187 grad students) are expected to celebrate their hard-earned degrees. As part of the festivities, RISD also confers honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees on exceptional individuals who have made groundbreaking contributions to the world of art and design.
This year the following five people will accept honorary degrees at the ceremony: entrepreneur Caterina Fake, best known as the co-founder of Flickr; Apple executive Jonathan Ive, credited with
the design of the iconic iMac, iPod and iPhone; arts advocate and educator Roger Mandle, president of RISD from 1993–2008; writer and creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson, a cultural visionary who will also deliver the keynote address at Commencement; and accomplished artist Betty Woodman, widely considered one of the most important ceramic artists working today. For more on the celebration and background on the honorary degree recipients, go to www.risd.edu/commencement.
Sir Ken Robinson
Collection 2009, the annual runway show of the best work produced this
year by RISD Apparel Design majors, will be shown on Saturday, May 16 at
7 pm at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence (with a 2 pm preview
performance). Inspired by the California coastline, Peggy Sue Deaven
’09 AP hand-dyed, painted and bleached silks and meshes to create
a collection with the fluid motion, flowing silhouettes and ephemeral
qualities of “Venice Beach at daybreak.” For tickets and more
information, go to www.risd.edu/collection. FAV seniors will also
screen their degree project films every evening at 7 pm from May 13–16
in the RISD Auditorium. Junior films will be screened at 7 pm on May 20
and 21, also in the Auditorium.
overheard
“Each time I bring my students to the RISD Museum, one of them identifies a piece of Jack Prip’s as something that has resonance/ meaning/interest. His dramatic use of form, unusual combination of materials, expert craftsmanship and integrity as a designer offer so many opportunities to learn.” Matthew Bird ’89 ID, adjunct faculty member, two.risd.edu (4.20.09)
“
photo by Jeff Barnett-Winsby MFA ’06 PH
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students show @ icff in may
Furniture Design students will show the outcomes of recent materials research in Immaterialize, RISD’s exhibition at the 2009 International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City (May 16–19). In representing RISD at the ICFF – both through their work and by manning the booth during the event itself – students gain unparalleled professional experience at one of the industry’s leading showcases for new design.
The idea was to create “prototypes of thought,” says Assistant Professor Lothar Windels BID ’96, who taught the studio in which students created tangible objects that challenge preconceived notions about products and materials. For instance, three students transformed household materials such as bubble wrap, loofahs and dog chews into intriguing products. Others experimented with pouring and molding liquid forms of plastic, resin and wax.
Each of our students reinterpreted their chosen material to make a meaningful object,” Windels observes. “Through their inspiring work, they were able to totally transcend its materiality without fundamentally denying it.” For more on the student work shown at this year’s ICFF, go to www.risd.
edu/icff.
following the silk road
During their 2009 winter residency at RISD, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble conducted a workshop on campus for area high school students and presented the US premiere of Layla and Majnun, a new chamber arrangement of a 1908 Azerbaijani opera, at the Providence Performing Arts Center.
The residency also included a presentation by Henrik Søderstrøm ’08 FD, who had partici-pated in last year’s residency and was selected from a national pool of candidates to design the set for Layla and Majnun. In March he spoke about the experience as Ensemble musicians performed excerpts from the opera to give students and others in the audience a feel for the new production.
This winter we continued an ongoing investigation of two types of expressive media – music and the visual arts,” Ma says. “That each residency brings new opportunities for exploring responsive collaborations across art forms speaks to the innovative, creative relationship we have developed with the RISD community.” For more information and images of the residency, go to www.risd.edu/
silkroad.
gap welcomes students’ ideas
In February RISD students from half a dozen majors sliced, diced, embellished and reconstructed Gap’s new line of spring cardigans, responding to an invitation to totally reimagine its classic sweaters. In doing so they added the “freshness, ingenuity and subtle surprises” characteristic of RISD students, notes Apparel Design Department Head Donna
Gustavsen, who helped coordinate the effort.
The project – the first Gap has undertaken with a college – attracted media attention in Women’s
Wear Daily, a local TV station and on quite a few fashion blogs. Those involved in the project were excited that all of the students’ one-of-a-kind cardigans sold out the very first day they were displayed at Gap’s White Space venue (next to its flagship store in Manhattan). As Gap’s creative director Patrick Robinson told WWD, in today’s troubled economy “this is what we should all be doing – promoting out-of-the-box thinking and talking about emerging designers.” For more on the project, go to www.risd.edu/gap.
As the first scholar-in-residence at
VSA Arts, English Lecturer Gloria-Jean
Masciarotte is conducting research
on Lucy Truman Aldrich, a deaf art
collector and donor.
Work by Assistant Professor of
Painting Carrie Moyer was exhibited
recently at Momenta Art in Brooklyn
and American University in
Washington, DC.
Christiane Paul, a critic in Digital +
Media, co-curated the April SOS 4.8
Festival in Murcia, Spain, and
contributed an essay titled
“Sustainable Art Practices” to the
accompanying catalogue.
Painting Critic Sara Greenberger
Rafferty ’00 PH recently exhibited
work in shows at The Kitchen in NYC
and at Amherst [MA] College.
A 25-year retrospective of work
by Printmaking Professor Andrew
Raftery was held earlier this year at
Boston University’s Sherman Gallery.
Teri Rueb, associate professor and
head of Digital + Media, received a
2008 Prix Ars Electronica Award of
Distinction in the Digital Music
Category for her piece Core Sample.
An article by Philosophy Professor
Yuriko Saito was published in the
anthology Humans in the Land: The
Ethics and Aesthetics of the Cultural
Landscape (2008, Oslo Academic Press).
Wendy Seller ’75 AE, assistant
professor of Foundation Studies,
exhibited paintings recently in shows
at Diamond-Newman Fine Arts
in Boston and Judy A. Saslow Gallery
in Chicago.
In January paintings by Professor
Duane Slick were featured in a solo
show at Rhode Island College.
After leading an international com-
mittee to assess design education
in Israel, Professor and Head of
Furniture Design Rosanne Somerson
’76 ID recently presented final
recommendations to the country’s
Council of Higher Education.
Assistant Professor of Sculpture
Stephanie Snider ’92 SC has won
a Guggenheim fellowship for 2009-10.
Tracy Steepy, assistant professor
of Jewelry + Metalsmithing, curated
The Silence is So Loud: Five Views
of Contemporary Swedish Jewelry,
exhibited in February at Gallery
Loupe in Montclair, NJ.
Bookchin: A Critical Appraisal, the
first book by Assistant Professor
of Sociology Damian White, was pub-
lished in November; his second book
(with Chris Wilbert), Technonatures:
Environments, Technologies, Spaces
and Places in the Twenty-First
Century, is due out this year.
Sculpture Critic Joy Wulke has
recently installed glass, steel and
mixed-media works at Needham [MA]
High School, Hartford–Brainard [CT]
Airport and NC State University’s D.H.
Hill Library.
Micaelan Davis MFA ’09 FD transformed the rawhide
most typically used for dog chews into a naturally
undulating table buffed to an amber glow.
“
“
making progress
add the mind-boggling global economic meltdown to the huge political shift we’ve had in Washington, DC and you’ve got an ideal envi-ronment for a fresh approach to solving our most pressing societal concerns. This new, somewhat paradoxical mix of optimism tempered by stark economic realities also presents a perfect opportu-nity for artists and designers – who thrive on experimen-tation – to help shape the Us of the 21st century.
Having contributed their creative talents to bring about a sea-change in the national agenda, many mem-bers of the risD community now share in a renewed sense of possibility for creat-ing a better, more peaceful and sustainable world, despite the many challenges and uncertainties that lie ahead. The following three articles explore some of the ways they’re seizing the moment, ready to focus their creative energies on ima-gining a better future – and making it a reality.
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2008 Us presidential campaign, much of the risD community joyfully jumped on the obama bandwagon, inspired to actively support a candidate (many for the first time
ever) and be part of a refreshing surge of new Hope and opTimism. For many that meant doing what came most naturally: contributing their arT and Design talents to help elect Barack obama the 44th president of the United
states. once he took office and began tackling the multiple crises at hand, it meant a renewed commitment to contributing their CreaTive energies to help america shape a new, more egalitarian and sustainable future.
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For more on the people and initiatives
mentioned in this article, go to:
www.risd.edu/fairey
www.ingoodwetrust2010.com
www.risd.edu/dnc
www.risd.edu/political_posters
designforobama.org
whatwedo.risd.edu
No single RISD grad made a bigger impact on the
campaign and in the media than Shepard Fairey ’92 IL,
the LA–based street artist/commercial designer whose
work is now featured in Shepard Fairey: Supply & Demand,
a 20–year retrospective at the Institute of Contemporary
Art in Boston (continuing through August 16, 2009).
His instantly popular red, white and blue graphic image
of Barack Obama—seen on posters, t–shirts, buttons,
stickers and now in commercial knock-offs for everything
from cable shows to vodka—became the unofficial icon
of the campaign. In January of this year the Smithsonian’s
National Portrait Gallery added his original five–foot–tall,
mixed media stenciled collage of Obama to its permanent
collection, noting that it “is an emblem of a significant
election, as well as a new presidency,” according to
Gallery Director Martin E. Sullivan. “What I think is so fasci-
nating [about it] is its ubiquitous nature,” added Deputy
Director Carolyn Carr. “When people think of a portrait
of Obama, they think of this image.”
Based on how quickly Fairey’s first HOPE poster went
viral and created a phenomenological stir even more
far-reaching than his Obey Giant street art campaign,
he now considers his Obama portrait to be the “defining
image” of his career. “I had been making political graphics
for a while but most of them had been negative—
criticizing the policies of the Bush Administration,” he
explained in an interview that aired on NPR, one of
hundreds he had with national media outlets during and
after the campaign. “For once I was inspired to make a
positive political graphic because I felt that Barack Obama
was an unusual candidate, and that it was worth putting
my efforts into making… something that portrays him
as having vision and the ability to lead.”
promoting dialogue in denver
Around the time that Fairey’s poster was making a global
splash, Seth Goldenberg ’03 PT was working behind
the scenes to plan a huge public art event to coincide with
the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Denver.
As curator, director and prime visionary behind
Dialog:City, he worked closely with Denver’s mayor and its
Cultural Affairs Office, commissioned work from a variety
of internationally renowned artists and designers, and
coordinated their efforts with those of local students, arts
organizations and public agencies. The ambitious
undertaking was a natural offshoot of his public engage-
ment efforts while he was still a student at RISD—
founding Catalyst Arts in Pawtucket, RI and pushing for
a new Office of Public Engagement at RISD, among
others—and resulted in a series of 10 thought-provoking
art initiatives, a couple of which involved RISD students
and faculty (see web references on page 9).
“It was a unique moment in time to galvanize
the arts community to help open the window of hope that
was and is the Obama future,” Goldenberg says.
In addition to generating winning enthusiasm for the
Democratic nominee, one of the many positive outcomes
of his immersion in the DNC was meeting Canadian design
visionary Bruce Mau, perhaps best known for his recent
Massive Change exhibition on the future of design
and sustainability. As the two like–minded activists
built an enriching collaboration together” last fall, they
decided to make their working relationship more official.
This year Goldenberg joined Bruce Mau Design as a vice
president, where he’s now helping to organize and
promote the Denver Biennial of the Americas planned
for summer 2010. He and Mau share a vision for the
biennial they’re calling In Good We Trust, which builds
on the spirit of the 2008 DNC by envisioning “a new kind
of cultural and civic engagement based on the most
fundamental creative acts.” It involves “massive experi-
mentation with innovative thinking and practice,”
Goldenberg says, and is “the kind of work I was looking
for and this country needs—now more than ever.”
students build on momentum
RISD students Aaron Perry-Zucker ’09 GD and Adam
Meyer ’09 ID have also learned and benefitted more from
their efforts on behalf of Obama than they could ever have
imagined. Last summer the two seniors built a website in
response to a Design Observer challenge asking what
artists and designers could do to support the Democratic
nominee’s candidacy. Called Design for Obama, it
encouraged people to post their own political poster
designs and vote on the success of others on the site.
Viewers could also download and print their favorite
posters for free.
Psyched as they were about their idea, they
had no clue how quickly the site would catch on or how
the power of grassroots design would open their eyes,
along with new opportunities (see web references below).
More than 400 submissions flooded in during the fall,
along with plenty of positive publicity and invitations
to subsequent exhibitions in NYC and DC marking the
January Inauguration. Now, Taschen Books is publishing
a book of selected posters from the site, with essays
by Steven Heller, Spike Lee and Perry-Zucker, which is
scheduled for release this fall.
Perry-Zucker was also inspired to build on the
momentum of the election season to spearhead initiatives
with a similar spirit at RISD. This spring, for instance,
he and fellow activist Justin Rosengarten ’10 FAV
motivated students, faculty and alumni to organize
their own grassroots community initiative. Called simply
What We Do, the student-run event in April enabled
100 members of the RISD community to present
and record their work and ideas during a full-day mind-
stimulation marathon.
As for why he and so many others in the creative
community chose to throw their design talents behind
Obama, Perry-Zucker says it was simply an opportunity
too good to pass up. “You had an incredibly inspiring
candidate running the most grassroots campaign in
history—one that truly embraced both technology and
design. When you put an opportunity like this in front
of creative people, the results look like what we saw—
an outpouring of energy and work the likes of which have
never been produced by so large a community.”
previous spread:
Excitement and hope
radiated from the crowd
at Obama’s Inauguration.
below: At the 2008
Democratic National
Convention in Denver,
RISD students provide
information on efforts to
thwart global warming.
left: By the time Inaugura-
tion Day arrived, Shepard
Fairey’s Obama poster had
become the most widely
recognized icon of the
campaign.
above: Seth Goldenberg
’03 PT visited RISD several
times last spring to get
students involved in the
Dialog:City arts program
he curated in conjunction
with the DNC in Denver.
Pe
Te
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oL
Db
eR
G ’8
8 P
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o’C
on
no
R
YoU HaD an inCreDiBlYinspiring CanDiDaTe rUnning THe mosTgrassrooTs Campaign in HisTorY. everYone WanTeD To ConTriBUTe in some WaY.”—aaron perry-Zucker ’09 gd
“
For onCe iWas inspireDTo make a posiTive poliTiCal grapHiC…” —shepard Fairey ’92 il
““
iT Was a UniqUe momenTin Time To galvanize THe arTs CommUniTY To Help open THe WinDoWoF Hope THaT Was anD is THe oBama FUTUre.” —seth goldenberg ’03 pt
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CHanging Design / Designing CHange
There are many good definitions of “design,” which have been expanDing, sHiFTing, siFTing and most of all CHanging rapidly, along with the rest of the world. But how is industrial Design, in particular, changing, and what is happening both at risD and within the design profession itself?
by sami nerenberg ’07 iD
aDjUnCT FaCUlTY memBer
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As most RISD people know, ID is not the design of new
factories or industrial machinery, contrary to what the
words literally suggest. Traditionally, the field has to do
with everything you touch—every blender, every watch,
every shoe, every stick of deodorant, every razor has been
designed by an ID professional. Industrial designers deal
with the interactions of objects in our everyday lives,
study users and their needs, and develop products to fit
our lifestyles. However, these human-centered design
skills allow for a much broader spectrum of thinking about
things beyond products. Earlier this year when I surveyed
RISD design students and alumni about their definitions
of design, they agreed that it’s generally about using
visual and creative tools to problem-solve. And Molly
Rosenberg ’09 ID pointed out that Richard Farson,
author of The Power of Design, extends the meaning
to refer to “any planned change.”
With the economy in a tailspin, natural resources
being depleted and massive amounts of pollutants
released, we all know that we can no longer produce
and consume products the way we have for the last 100
years. Just as Wall Street is suffering the consequences
of subprime lending—when banks and mortgage
companies made loans well beyond borrowers’ ability
to pay—as designers we, too, are becoming mindful of
borrowing” natural resources beyond our ability to
replace them and beyond our needs.
If you look at the progression of work produced in
RISD’s ID Department over the last five to 10 years, you
see a slow but steady progression from an emphasis
on traditional product design to growing interest in
problem-solving at the macro level—through service and
strategy design. Simultaneously, there has been a
consistent effort to reemphasize classes on sustainability
in the last decade, a trend that had waned in the 1980s
and ’90s, but began reemerging with Charlie Cannon’s
Innovation Studio, a true favorite of mine that recently
marked its 10th year (see next article).
At RISD there is a groundswell of designers and
students who know that sustainability is not just about
using recycled materials, it is about questioning the very
existence and relevance of our designs and about
addressing needs as opposed to creating wants.
As part of this, I developed and taught an advanced ID
studio last fall called Design for Social Entrepreneurship
to investigate the power of products, systems and
services to create positive social and environmental
change. The goal is to use design thinking to achieve triple
bottom-line sustainability—environmental, social
and economic.
glocal” connections
For the first half of the semester we investigated the
UN Millennium Development Goals as a framework for
understanding large-scale social concerns and other
pressing global issues. These goals include: end world
hunger and poverty, provide universal education,
guarantee gender equality, support environmental
sustainability and tackle several other humanitarian
priorities. We then translated these global challenges to
our own community—to think “glocally,” as RISD President
John Maeda puts it. Each student chose a local nonprofit
partner and then explored how a product, service, system,
space or strategy could improve what the organization
does and/or better help its clients or beneficiaries directly.
From bike-sharing programs and volunteer orienta-
tion booklets to art and nature studios and business
strategies for homeless entrepreneurs, we found a wide
range of solutions that tap into the power of design to
make a positive impact on our communities. At our final
crit, students shared their new insights into design and
community partnerships. Hayden Reilly ’10 ID realized
just how easy it is to get involved” and “the power that we
have as students with new ideas.” She added that she’s
now committed to continuing to work with local nonprof-
its. Liam van Vleet ’10 ID felt that “running all over the
place, talking to people and making connections is more
what design should be,” and nate bastien ’09 ID said that
this was the first time he really felt encouraged to go out
into the “real” world and work on something he sees as
deeply meaningful. Nate worked with the Rhode Island
Coalition for the Homeless, where he saw an opportunity
for job creation by harnessing the labor and creativity of
the homeless themselves.
In the same studio, nate Phipps ’10 ID worked with
the RISD community to develop Pink Rides, a new bike
sharing program for students who don’t own bikes but
want to use them for local transportation. After choosing
Project Open Door (POD) as her nonprofit partner,
Krisa Ryan ’10 ID developed a three-part volunteer
engagement strategy to introduce, acclimate and reach
out to newcomers interested in working with teens in
this after-school support program.
In each of the six projects undertaken last fall,
students learned that more than just a product is needed
to address a complex problem and that it’s important to
work with the community concerned to develop appropri-
ate solutions. And if a new product is part of the solution
at all, its design and development require systemic
thinking to fully understand the context in which it will be
made, used and delivered.
welcoming change
For generations we have been reliant on the same old
political, economic and business powers-that-be to
develop social services and public policies. It’s now time
to change—to use design and designers to help solve
glocal challenges from a strategic standpoint. What
makes designers so well suited for designing change?
At last winter’s World Economic Forum in Davos,
President Maeda participated on a council that proposed
tapping into designers’ unique talents to tackle the
issues of the day because they can provide insight
into people’s needs and desires, generate creative
possibilities, present and explain complex information
visually, invent and test novel solutions and adapt
innovations to suit diverse cultures and scales.
For more inFormation on the issues raised in
this article, see:
www.de-se.com
www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
www.Weforum.org
www.designpolicy.org/usdp/summit-report.html
www.ideablob.com
www.zagollc.com
www.graindesign.com
previous spread: Students
discuss strategic design
options in a new studio
focused on environmental,
social and economic
sustainability.
below: As part of the
studio, RISD students
partnered with local
nonprofits such as
CityArts, where kids can
explore creative interests
after school, and the
Rhode Island Coalition
for the Homeless.
top: Liam van Vleet ’10 ID
designed a new curriculum
for CityArts that encour-
ages inner-city youth to
learn from nature and
become lifelong environ-
mental advocates.
above: nate bastien ’09 ID
designed a 75-cent
backpack as a pilot project
for a proposed company
that would hire homeless
people to produce
products they need.
Or as the design firm IDEO sums up, designers “Hear,
Create, Deliver.”
Countless new initiatives have sprung up within
the last few years to explore the challenges of design for
optimal social impact. These range from organizations
such as Design that Matters, IDE, Design in Kind, Project H
and Designism, to large consultancies such as IDEO and
Design Continuum, to start-ups such as Catapult Design,
Design Ignites Change… and the list goes on. Just take a
look at www.ideablob.com to see a whole host of new
seedlings waiting to blossom.
In fact, with the design industry galvanizing its
resources and getting organized, we are definitely on
the crest of change and ready to ride the wave.
The Winterhouse Institute was recently awarded a
$1.5-million grant from The Rockefeller Foundation to
assess the current state of this design movement via
several channels: identifying new opportunities for critical
engagement from various stakeholders; holding a design
summit this November in Aspen, CO; developing case
studies to highlight existing precedents; and providing
an online platform to share best practices. In addition,
my good friend Manuel Toscano, a principal at Zago,
was awarded a Rockefeller grant to investigate business
models to financially sustain these new design initiatives
and invited me to a workshop in March to discuss this.
For me, this is the missing link I have been waiting for—
a way to combine the private and public sectors so that
people can pursue careers doing the right thing.
As Timothy Prestero, my former boss at Design that
Matters, says, “Doing good is no reason to run a bad
business.” I have a hunch that with all the new energy
and optimism in America—not to mention sobering new
economic realities—we just might be at the tipping
point in shifting design away from a preoccupation
with products and towards planned change.
“ “
THIS IS THE MISSING LINK I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR — A WAY TO COMBINE THE PRIVATE ANd PuBLICSECTORS SO THAT PEOPLE CAN PuRSuE CAREERS dOING THE RIGHT THING.” —SAMI NERENBERG ’07 ID —SAMI NERENBERG ’07 ID
“
RUNNING ALL OVER RUNNING ALL OVER THE PLACE, TALKING TO PEOPLE AND MAKING CONNECTIONS IS MORE WHAT DESIGN SHOULD BE.” —LIAM VAN VLEET ’10 ID
““
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With grazing cattle and groves of mango, banana and citrus trees, the site of a new satellite campus for Costa rica’s earth University is a perfect testing ground for sUsTainaBle design. as it turns out, it’s also the ideal spot for risD students to THink about eco-progressive solUTions in a new cultural context.
going green in THe TropiCs
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previous spread: Students
meeting with the director
of Earth University’s
satellite campus in Costa
Rica. above: Site studies
and proposed plans by
Katy Foley MLA ’09 and
Teresa Wan bArch ’09.
Since 1986 college students from around the world have
been drawn to the tropical university in Guácimo to study
agricultural sciences and natural resource management.
As the birthplace of eco-tourism, Costa Rica reserves 25%
of its land for wildlife refuges and other protected parks
and in 2007 announced its intention to become the
world’s first carbon-neutral nation by 2021. So when Earth
U recently received a gift of 3,700 acres on the country’s
west coast, it turned to RISD for help in planning a sister
campus that would support Costa Rica’s progressive
ecological agenda.
Having collaborated on projects in Europe, Asia,
Africa and the Americas, RISD students and faculty have a
long tradition of engagement in global issues, notes
Professor Colgate Searle bLA ’71, head of the Landscape
Architecture Department and team leader for this project.
“We want our students to understand diverse cultural
contexts and be alert to, and deeply critical of, the world
around them,” he says. “To help them get the experience
and exposure needed to make sound critical judgments,
we search out projects that bring together designers,
scientists and planners to create models for environmen-
tally sensible development.”
When a small group of RISD faculty met with Carlos
Murillo, director of Earth U’s offshoot, they recognized
that his vision for a model green campus fit well with their
pedagogical goals. Participating in the holistic planning
process from the ground up provided RISD students with
“an incredible opportunity to think about how the land,
buildings, programs and products should be designed,”
says Charlie Cannon, an adjunct faculty member in
Landscape Architecture and Industrial Design. His fall ’08
Innovation Studio—the 10th annual studio in an ongoing
series that grapples with large infrastructure
challenges—dealt with Earth U, opening the door to
developing a “new paradigm for sustainable education.”
In addition to the Innovation Studio, which focused
on potential systems, programs and products for the
satellite campus, Assistant Professor of Architecture
enrique Martinez MID ’98 taught an Architecture studio
focused on the design of a university conference center
that would set new standards for green architecture. After
the Earth U planning team visited RISD to brief students in
both studios, they, in turn, traveled to Costa Rica to get a
true feel for the local environment, community and
culture.
Posting to the studio’s blog from Central America,
Katy Foley MLA ’09 noted that she envisions the new
campus as “a place where you can live and learn in
connection with the land, waking up with the monkeys at
5:30 in the morning, drinking juice from the fruit you work
to harvest and gathering as a community…to embark on a
process of lifelong learning.” But the students also
recognized a clear disconnect between their vision of
what the campus could become and stark realities on the
ground, where the vast acreage has been ravaged by
climatic extremes and too little land management.
“The enormity of the site and the lack of an overall
understanding are both disheartening and inspirational
on a scale I never imagined,” noted nate French MLA ’09.
“The challenge of regenerating the site, creating a viable
income source and maintaining the holistic balance
between Earth’s mission and operations becomes
apparent as soon as the biogas is ignited and the
so-called ‘odorless’ byproduct of concentrated sheep and
pig waste penetrates the depths of your nostrils.” Still,
students were excited about the opportunity to propose
ideas and solutions with real, long-lasting ramifications.
“After visiting Earth U, I realized how the campus is at
the point where it could go in many different directions,”
Cody Casale ’09 ID wrote. “This means that what we
produce as RISD students could actually give important
insight into how they go about planning their future.”
designed to sit lightly
As students in the Architecture studio learned, designing
facilities for a green campus meant addressing a range of
constraints imposed by the climate, the terrain and the
“humanitarian and social challenges associated with rural,
community-based economies in Central America,”
Martinez says. For instance, given the many subsistence
farmers in the region and the huge gap between rich and
poor, students worked to find solutions that balance the
need to stimulate the local economy and generate good
jobs with preserving the delicate eco-systems on which
increased tourism and strategic development depend.
Architecture majors considered a comprehensive site
plan that includes a green convention center, a small hotel,
and a number of leisure and educational facilities to be
shared by visitors and the local community. Several
students proposed using locally sourced construction
materials and techniques such as rammed-earth walls,
fast-growing bamboo and concrete made from volcanic
ash. Walter Zesk MArch ’09 envisioned gathering spaces
that minimize the distinction between indoors and
outdoors, with open-framed buildings that support fabric
canopies and are complemented by a hotel constructed of
rammed earth. Daisuke Suzuki MArch ’09 focused on
“minimizing the impact of buildings on the land” by
designing the hotel as separate units joined by natural
vine canopies. Guest critics for both projects applauded
their designs for “sitting lightly on the earth”—an
approach that reinforces both Earth University’s mission
and Costa Rica’s carbon-neutral goal.
supporting rural economies
Students in the interdisciplinary Innovation Studio
conducted extensive research on the social and economic
context of the region before generating
detailed proposals to make the satellite campus a hub for
entrepreneurial activities. The visit to Costa Rica con-
vinced Landscape Architecture graduate student Jessica
Roundy MLA ’09 that “our proposals should be simple,
work sufficiently, use appropriate technology and
ultimately have the ability to be replicated by the local
community”—something she intuitively understood when
working in Providence, but didn’t fully grasp until she was
immersed in the local culture and conditions.
With that in mind, George Harvey MLA ’09 looked
at short- and long-term revenue-generating opportuni-
ties, recommending the development of infrastructure
to support eco-tourism and educational exchange.
Stephanie Castilla ’09 ID and Carolyn Spinney ’09 ID
proposed merging existing technologies—GPS, topo-
graphic mapping, Google applications and handheld
phone/data units—to create an open-source research,
data collection and tourism tool to provide immediate,
on-site information about the land, climate, species,
growing conditions and so forth.
Once the studios wrapped up last fall, Cannon began
working with several students to produce a book that
documents the group’s investigations and serves as a
reference for future research partnerships. Searle is
planning a return trip to Costa Rica to present the RISD
work to Earth U’s Board of Trustees and to discuss the
potential for continued collaboration. One intriguing
possibility involves expanding Castilla’s and Spinney’s
mobile-device concept through field testing and
multi-phase development. The venture could serve as a
valuable model for how partnered research that takes
place anywhere on Earth can lead to systems and
solutions of global relevance—developed right here in
RISD’s studios.
Find more on the risd/earth u
collaboration at:
www.risd.edu/earth
oUr proposals sHoUlD Be simple, Work sUFFiCienTlY, Use appropriaTe TeCHnologY anD UlTimaTelY Have THe aBiliTY To Be repliCaTeD BY THe loCal CommUniTY.” — Jessica roundy mla ’09
“
“THe enormiTY oF THe siTe anD THe laCk oF an overall UnDersTanDing are BoTH DisHearTening anD inspiraTional on a sCale i never imagineD.”
—nate French mla ‘09
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start here everywhere
Hundreds of alumni, parents, newly accepted students and other friends of the RISD universe have gathered in various parts of the country this spring to welcome John Maeda as he completes his first year as RISD’s 16th president. At these informal gatherings, he has been talking about his personal path to RISD, his thoughts on leadership, and how and why RISD will be a key player in the burgeoning creative economy.
At each of these events, there has been “a palpable sense of energy and excitement about RISD” and great enthusiasm for Maeda’s message, notes Beth Garvin, vice president for Institutional Engagement. A broad span of alumni – from those who graduated in the 1940s to newbies fresh out of RISD – have come together to meet and reconnect with one another. And at each one, the president has also answered a broad array of questions, engaging the crowd in discussions about RISD’s commitment to diversity, the escalating need for more scholarship aid and why a RISD education is more relevant today than ever before.
film industry alums share their stories
In April two luminaries in the film/entertainment industry visited RISD as part of the spring Alumni Lecture Series sponsored by Alumni Relations. Scott Mednick ’78 GD, now chairman of MysticVision Entertainment and a well-respected marketing, media and entertainment executive, spoke about his incredibly exhilarating trajectory since graduating from RISD. In addition to earning an MA in Applied Psychology and creating the popular board game Twenty Questions, he went on to found and lead the largest independent marketing and design firm on the West Coast (promoting TV programs from Lonesome Dove to Survivor and movies such as Groundhog Day, X-men
and The Matrix); found THINK New Ideas, one of the first and most successful interactive marketing companies; serve as president and CEO of Mandalay Branded Entertainment; and found
Legendary Pictures, where he has served as exe- cutive producer of such recent films as Where the Wild Things Are, 10,000 BC and 300. When President Maeda visited Mednick in LA earlier this year, he was struck by the executive producer’s advice: Don’t look for someone else’s ending in life.” It seems to be a maxim they both intend to live by.
A week after Mednick’s visit, accomplished film director Gus Van Sant ’75 FAV also spoke at RISD. Flush from his success with Milk, the well-received biopic about San Francisco’s first openly gay politician Harvey Milk, he spoke about the challenges and rewards of making the movie that won Sean Penn the 2009 Oscar for Best Actor.
Van Sant also talked to students about how he made his way in the industry through such early independent standouts as Drugstore Cowboy (1989), My Own Private Idaho (1991) and To Die For (1995). With Good Will Hunting (1997), Finding Forrester (2000) and Milk (2008) his biggest commercial successes to date, he says he’s lucky to be able to continue to make the kind of movies that interest him most – more or less on his own terms.
keeping connected
To keep up with general news and informa-
tion about RISD and its community, we
encourage you to bookmark the our.risd.edu
blog, read our mid-month newsletter
e-views (www.risd.edu/eviews) when
it arrives in your inbox and join the RISD
Alumni Association group on Facebook.
You might also want to check out our online
listing of current alumni exhibitions listed
by city/region of the country/world (www.risd.
edu/exhibitions_offcampus). And please
remember to keep your contact information
up-to-date on the online alumni directory
(www.risd.edu/alumni_directory), where you
can also search for fellow alumni and
establish a RISD-specific e-mail account,
if you’d like.
To share news of interest to the RISD
community, please e-mail: [email protected]
Feel free to attach image submissions (in tif
or jpg format), unless they’re larger than
6MG, in which case you can let us know that
hi-res images are available and we’ll contact
you to make alternate arrangements.
To submit via post, please mail:
risd views
Two College Street
Providence, RI 02903 USA
For questions about submitting information for
publication, e-mail [email protected] or call
401 454-6349. For questions about alumni activities
and programming, contact Christina Hartley ’74 IL
at [email protected] or 401 454-6794.
engagement @ risdnews from alumni relations
overheard
“The films I have made are about newly created families. [In Milk] that’s what the Castro [neighborhood] was – groups of people creating their own families. I guess it’s just a preoccupation of mine.” director Gus Van Sant ’75 FAV talking about his latest film
President Maeda has been traveling the
country this spring to meet with alumni and
other members of the RISD community.
(from l–r) A few of the 80-plus alumni who
got together with him on March 30 chat
outside Heath Ceramics in Los Angeles,
where Adam Silverman BArch ’88 runs the
studio and gallery. Inside, the president is
shown in conversation with Scott Mednick
’78 GD (see next page). Alumni, parents and
friends gathered at 111 Minna Gallery in
San Francisco – where John is shown posing
with Anne Feste ’80 AP – and at the Knoll
Showroom in Boston, where two alumni
gamely pose for the photographer. On
May 14 the president will meet with New
York-area alumni at Martha Stewart Living
in Manhattan. And stay tuned for more
information about an upcoming alumni
gathering in Providence this spring.
regional contacts
Arizona
Phoenix
Amanda Blum ’98 CR
602 795-7752
Tucson
Erica Swadley ’62 IL
520 744-3426
Atlanta
Huckleberry Starnes ’94 SC
404 272-0003
Austin
Dianne Mullen BArch ’82
512 535-8417
Australia
Brad Buckley MFA ’82 SC
011-61-2-9351-1061
Bahamas
John Cox ’95 IL/MAT ’96
Dionne Benjamin-Smith ’91 GD
Boston
Karen Fox BArch ’74
781 721-2140
Chicago
Keith Campbell BArch ’78
773 477-8657
Colombia
Sylvia Montana ’90 GD
Colorado
Jim Leggitt BArch ’73
303 575-8515
Connecticut
Michael Esordi ’91 GD
860 455-2113
Karen ’90 GD +
Jim Healey BArch ’91
203 966-4881
Dallas
Steven Kinder ’97 ID
214 780-0552
Houston
April Rapier Irvine MFA ’79 PH
713 663-6373
India
Praneet Bubber MArch ’97
011-91-98-1552-2226
Devika Khanna ’93 GD
011-91-98-2193-1669
Anuradha Parikh BArch ’82
011-91-22-2352-6566
Israel
John Hopp ’01 ID
011-972-954-4165
Los Angeles
Ivel Reyes Leatham ’98 TX
Maine
Mira Alden MFA ’03 GD
207 671-1341
general information
Christina Hartley ’74 IL
director, Alumni Relations + Special Events
401 454-6794
alumni association officers
Joan Herron ’64 GD
president [email protected]
415 771-1905
Nat Hesse ’76 SC
2nd vice president
505 471-8255
Mike Martella BArch ’91
committee coordinator
MichaelMartella@alum.
risd.edu
Midwest
Stephanie Henry ’87 GD
stephanie@henrydesigninc.
com
614 299-2774
New Hampshire
Christine Hall ’00 ID
603 598-3175
New Mexico
Nat Hesse ’76 SC
505 471-8255
New Orleans
Carrie Lee Pierson-
Schwartz ’93 GL
985 796-0222
New York
Polly Carpenter ’77 PT
212 431-6666
Michael Neff ’04PH
michaelneff@alum.
risd.edu
401 339-4238
New Zealand
Rick Lucas ’72 IL
011-03-9940-8427
Peru
Claudia Ferrari BGD ’91
011-511-222-6161
Claudia Hernandez ’90 PT
011-511-242-6456
Philadelphia
Mike Martella BArch ’91
MichaelMartella@alum.
risd.edu
Portland, OR
Brian Bainnson BLA ’87
503 256-8955
Rhode Island
Gail Ahlers ’85 JM
401 434-2962
Linda Coulombe MAT ’86
Jeffery Yan BArch ’01
RISD Rural
mid-Hudson Valley, NY
Kate Cohen ’69 AE
518 392-0947
Joan Sussman ’72 PH
518 644-6440
Seattle
Bill Gaylord BArch ’77
206 467-5828
Kyle Gaffney BArch ’91
206 903-0575
St. Louis
Patricia Boman ’85 GD
636 458-4255
Taiwan
Su-Yi Wun BArch ’99
Thailand
Amornpimol (Viravan)
Thanakitamnuay ’86 GD
011-662-255-3053
Rome
Denise Fralley ’02 LA
denisesara.fralley@
fastwebnet.it
011-39-06-4544-5879
San Francisco /
Northern California (NoCA)
Eric Engstrom ’64 IL
415 453-1647
Jane Kim ’03 PR
crowsneststudio.jane@
gmail.com
Jeannie Pettigrew ’90 PT
Savanah
Jamie Kutner ’06 PR
410 419-9509
Twin Cities (Minnesota)
Peter Zelle ’87 GL
Utah
Deanpaul Russell ’95 ID
Washington, DC / Baltimore
Becky Fong ’05 GD
401 301-7193
club contacts
online resources
our.risd.edu
www.risd.edu/alumni
www.risd.edu/alumni_ directory
rbd.risd.edu
Juliana Paciulli Juliana Paciulli Jeannie Choe Jeannie Choe
association applauds excellence in teaching
At this year’s Commencement celebration on May 30, the Alumni Association will present its Art & Education Award to Liz Collins ’91 TX/
MFA ’99, an assistant professor of Textiles at RISD. An internationally recognized artist and designer, she is known for her groundbreaking apparel designs, textiles and installations.
Collins launched several critically acclaimed clothing collections in the early 2000s, before returning to RISD to teach. Her enthusiasm for experimental knitting and construction techniques and her unique perspective on the interplay between fabric construction and apparel design have proven to be inspirational to students in both Textiles and Apparel Design. Constantly on the lookout for new knitting applications and sources of inspiration, she juggles teaching with research, practice, exhibitions, residencies and travel. This spirit of inquiry energizes her approach to teaching and enables her to be especially effective as she works closely with undergraduate and graduate students throughout their years at RISD.
“
Jeff Barnett-Winsby MFA ’06 PH
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A daughter, Paloma Shields DiGeronimo, to Alison Shields
’97 PH and Luciano DiGeronimo on February 9, 2008. Fair Lawn, NJ.
A daughter, Perihan Elizabeth Oguz, to Evian Zukas-Oguz ’98
TX and Ersin Oguz on July 29, 2008. Her brother Ian is 7. Providence, RI.
A daughter, Ellen Miamar Matos Powers, to Lindsay Powers ’99
SC and Heuris Matos Medina on March 9, 2008. Philadelphia, PA.
deaths
Joseph C. Cicchelli ’51 AR of Narragansett, RI on October 29, 2008.
Nancy (Anderson) Etani ’55 IL of Westerly, RI on November 21, 2008.
Mary Ann (Clegg) Smith ’56
IA of Fayetteville, NY on September 22, 2008.
Ann (Barbour) Parks ’61 GD of Auburn, ME on March 7, 2009.
Bruce Manwaring ’62 GD of Syracuse, NY on February 7, 2009.
J. Randall Kuiper ’65 SC of Mahwah, NJ on December 24, 2008.
Robert A. Colebank ’70 LA of New Braunfels, TX on October 10, 2008.
Mark Hazel ’84 ID of Concord, MA on August 30, 2008.
Mark Ferguson ’90 GL of Brooklyn, NY on November 11, 2008.
unions
Jane Fordyce ’72 TX and Louis Lieberman ’69 PT on February 20, 2007. New York, NY.
Adrienne O’Donnell BGD ’93 and Jeffrey S. Gibson on April 19, 2008. Seattle, WA.
Carrie Gustafson ’94 PR and Joseph Santiago on December 9, 2007. Arlington, MA.
Irene Woodbury ’97 IL and Francesco Andrea Berti on September 20, 2008. Padua, Italy.
Ryan Scott Bardsley ’98 ID and Lindsey Shaw on June 28, 2008. Boston, MA.
Logan (Daizy) LaVail BArch
’99 and Stephanie Harris on July 18, 2008. Brooklyn, NY.
Lindsay Powers ’99 SC and Heuris Matos Medina on July 4, 2007. Philadelphia, PA.
Sarah Thomas ’99 TX and Todd Clark on August 16, 2008. Washington, MA.
Lisa Manasar ’00 IL and Nersesse Nersessian on August 10, 2008. Jessup, MD.
Hannah Bureau ’01 IL and Jeff Sias ’96 FAV on October 4, 2008. Waltham, MA.
Stephanie Mason ’02 TX and Luke Wiseman on October 18, 2008. New York, NY.
Amy Eldon ’03 TX and Leo Voloshin on June 30, 2007. Philadelphia, PA.
Lauren DeCesaris ’04 AP and Jason Sugarman on October 10, 2008. Portsmouth, RI.
Katherine Roy ’04 IL and Tim Stout on August 23, 2008. White River Junction, VT.
Stefanie Levine ’05 FD and Richard Haining, Jr. ’05 FD on October 11, 2008. Brooklyn, NY.
additions
A daughter, Ella Hope Eastland, to Juliet and Craig Eastland ’88
IL on July 28, 2008. Her sister Ivy is 3. Brookline, MA.
A daughter, Ileana Maria Gerou- lanos, to Vanessa (Vassiliki)
Petropole-Geroulanos ’90 AP and Petros Geroulanos on October 4, 2007. Athens, Greece.
A daughter, Campbell Anne Howell, to Peter and Jennifer
Howell ’90 SC on October 17, 2007. She joins siblings Mason Stone (3), Paris Merchant (11) and August Marley (13). Amherst, NY.
A daughter, Ravi Louise Hasegawa, to Martha Bush ’91 SC and Sergei Hasegawa ’93 ID on October 20, 2008. Brooklyn, NY.
A daughter, Addison Jane Schink, to Roger and Dorene Schink
BArch ’91 on March 17, 2008. Her sister Elizabeth is 5. Middleton, WI.
A son, Christopher Dennis Taylor, to Sean and Lisa (Mockler)
Taylor BArch ’91 on March 19, 2008. His sister Samantha Marie is 5. Westport, CT.
A son, Guy Jeffrey Nelson, Jr., to Guy Jeffrey “GJ” Nelson ’92
GD and Ha Bui on June 17, 2008. Watertown, MA.
A son, Rowan Kennedy Gries, to Alice Kennedy ’94 PT and Scott Gries on January 11, 2009. Brooklyn, NY.
A son, Colin Raymond Peacock, to Ray and Heather (Hedin)
Peacock ’94 IL on February 29, 2008. His brother Aidan is 2. Phoenixville, PA.
A daughter, Hanaë Louise Rastoul, to Akiko Hamazaki-
Rastoul ’95 AP and Arnaud Rastoul on May 16, 2008. Tokyo, Japan.
A daughter, Rebecca Marie King, to Jason and Kerry (Alcorn)
King BArch ’95 in July 2008. Her big sister is Sarah Grace. Derry, NH.
notes
’43
Work by Kay Whitcomb JM (Rockport, MA) was included in the 42nd International Exhibition of the Japan Enamelling Artist Association, on view earlier this year at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.
’49
Mary Allen Bramhall GD (Concord, MA) showed Watercolors: A Retrospective last fall at Loring Coleman Gallery in Concord, MA.
’53
Ben Weiss AE/MA ’67 AE
(Providence) exhibited work last summer at CreativeChica gallery in Pawtucket, RI.
’58
Work by Merle Adler Temkin
TX (NYC) is included in Cutters, a group exhibition on view through June 7 at Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, NJ.
’59
Bea (Turek) Robinson IL (Rehoboth, MA) and Alice (King)
Miles SC (Providence) are exhibiting together in Encore, a show at the Providence Art Club. Alice’s oil, watercolor and monoprint landscapes and Bea’s pencil and scratchboard nature drawings are on view from May 10-29.
’61
Sas Colby PT (Berkeley, CA) exhibited work last winter in a solo show at Gallery Della-Piana in Wenham, MA, and in Considering the Book As
A Work of Art, at the University of California, Berkeley.
Linda DeHart AP (dehartart.com; Cambridge, MA) has created Colors in Motion, a series of audiovisual compositions for therapeutic use in healthcare. The DVDs combine watercolors with music to help patients cope with stress and pain.
’62
Michael Manoogian GD (North Hollywood, CA) recently launched a website showcasing his 40-plus years (and counting) as a logo designer: michaelma-noogian.com.
’63
Diane Podrat Byer AE (Milford, CT) exhibited watercolors in a winter show at the Gilded Lily Gallery in Milford, CT.
Helen Webber AE (Exton, PA) was one of 50 Philadelphia-area fiber artists to exhibit in On the
Fringe of Fiber, a spring show at Philadelphia City Hall.
’64
Eric Engstrom IL (Fairfax, CA) has exhibited mixed-media work at several venues in and around San Francisco in the past year, including the Janus et Cie Showroom, Two Transamerica Center, ArtBrokers, Inc. Gallery and 333 Bush Street Lobby.
Earlier this spring recent drawings and paintings by David
Estey PT (www.davidestey.com; Belfast, ME) were featured in Driven to Abstraction, an exhibition at the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Reed Fine Art Gallery.
Work by Elizabeth Ginsberg
TX (elizabethginsberg.com; NYC) is on view through August 30 at the Castello di Roncade in Roncade, Italy.
Susan Kendrot PT/MAT ’65 (Windsor, NY) has exhibited in multiple shows in the past year, including group shows at Cooperative Gallery in Binghamton, NY and 516 Art in Albuquerque, NM, and a solo show titled Comment – Ink
Drawings at Orazio Salati Studio and Gallery in Binghamton.
Barbara Shafer SC is a lecturer in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. She has had solo exhibitions recently at The Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson, WI and the Heyde Arts Center in Chippewa Falls, WI.
Last fall Nancy Taplin PT* (Warren, VT) exhibited oil paintings in the Vermont governor’s office in Montpelier.
’65
Eileen Bloustein PT (Cincin-nati) exhibited paintings and sculpture in last fall’s Pyramid Hill Art Fair in Hamilton, OH.
Currently self-employed after working for an architectural firm for many years, Lloyd Dyson
BArch (Amesbury, MA) has been consulting for a major hospital on adding a large inpatient building to its campus.
Richard Kendrot BArch (Windsor, NY) co-curated a recent retrospective of sculpture work by Genevieve Karr Hamlin at the Roberson Museum and Science Center in Binghamton, NY.
’67
Mary Curtis Ratcliff AE (Berkeley, CA) exhibited work this spring in Patterns of
Emergence, a show at Hess Gallery in Chestnut Hill, MA.
Amalie Rothschild GD (NYC) exhibited photographs last winter in Eyewitness to the 60’s Rock
Revolution, a solo show at the SACI Gallery in Florence, Italy.
Deidre Scherer AE (Williams-ville, VT) showed fabric-and-thread works last winter at the Greenville [NC] Museum of Art.
Robert Cipriani ’60 GD (www.
robertcipriani.com; Duxbury, MA)
is showing new multimedia
paintings in I Still Haven’t Found
What I’m Looking For, a solo
exhibition on view through
June 7 at the Cape Cod Museum
of Art in Dennis, MA. Lullaby
of Broadway (30 x 30") is among
his pieces incorporating collage,
acrylics and modeling mediums.
Henry Halem ’60 CR (Kent,
OH) received the Lifetime
Achievement Award from the
Glass Art Society at its June
2008 annual conference in
Portland, OR. Founder and
a longtime teacher in the
glass program at Kent State
University, he is also a co-
founder of the Glass Art
Society and served as its first
president. Henry has exhibited
throughout the US, Europe
and Japan. Enigmatic Vessel
(2002; plate glass, blown
vessel, mixed media; 24 x
12 x 12") is shown here.
On a corner in Tokyo (2008, 12 x 9"), an etching
with aquatint by Blair Batman Boudreau ’64 PT
(Framingham, MA), was selected for the Boston
Printmakers 2009 North American Print Biennial,
which was on view earlier this spring at Boston’s
808 Gallery.
Jennifer Davies ’68 IL
(Branford, CT) is exhibiting
Dancing With the Stars and
other pieces through January
2010 in Paper Runway, a
show of paper-fiber garments
on view at the Hartsfield-
Jackson Atlanta Airport (and
organized by the Robert C.
Williams Paper Museum in
Atlanta). This life-size piece,
which she co-created with
Nancy Eisenfeld, is construct-
ed of kozo fiber adhered
to deer netting, over a core
of bubble wrap.
Pamela (Resch) Tarbell AE
(Concord, NH) had a solo show of new work titled lines last winter at the Derryfield School in Manchester, NH.
Phyllis Limbacher Tildes IL (Savannah, GA) illustrated Plant
Secrets (2009, Charlesbridge), a children’s book about the life cycles of plants with text by Emily Goodman.
’68
Jillian Barber CR (Jamestown, RI) exhibited a clay sculpture titled Katmandu in the Newport [RI] Art Museum’s Annual
Members’ Juried Exhibition; the piece was selected for the Jessica Hagan Fine Art and Design award for three-dimensional art.
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’71
Two stereoscopic photos by Richard W. Black GD (Brockport, NY) were selected for inclusion in the Photographic Society of America’s 2008 international show. His 3D image of the Brooklyn Bridge won the gold medal/best of show, and a stereo pair taken in a re-creation of Monet’s garden received an honorable mention.
’73
Last fall Henry Isaacs PT (Sharon, VT) exhibited work at Warm Springs [VA] Gallery.
Richard Kattman BLA (Holliston, MA) exhibited paintings last fall in solo shows at two BankRI branches.
Lynne Kortenhaus PR/MFA
’75 (Boston) showed recent works on paper in Landscapes of
the Imagination, a solo show held in the fall at D Scale in Boston.
’69
Ed Baranosky PT (Toronto, Ontario) published two poems in LYNX XXIV:1 (2.09), and recently did a reading at Clinton’s in Toronto. He has published more than 30 chapbooks of poetry, most of which are available through the Brown University library system.
As a project manager in Citrus County, FL school district’s facilities and construction department, Kenneth Bosted
BArch (Crystal River, FL) oversees projects including historic restoration and aligning design criteria with standards for materials and energy use.
Howard Newman BID and the staff at the Newport, RI restoration studio Newmans Ltd. (newmansltd.com) are engaged in the cleaning, restoration and rehanging of a Richard Lippold sculpture at Portsmouth [RI] Abbey School. The complex project was described in a recent New York Times article (1.8.09).
Tracy Turner GD (tracyturner design.com; NYC) has recently completed graphic identity and signage projects for clients including the municipal government of Suzhou, China; the US Air Force Memorial Foundation in Arlington, VA; and Street-Works LLC in West Hartford, CT.
C.C. Wolf PT (ccwolfstudio.com; Pawtucket, RI) paired 19 of her paintings and poems for her new book Angels Dance Upwards (Sunrise Publishers), which is available through her website.
’70
Tim Casey PT (NYC) exhibited work in It’s a Wonderful Life, a group show held last winter at Sideshow Gallery in Brooklyn.
Fred Fassett BArch (Oakland, CA), board president of the Kala Art Institute of Berkeley, CA, was recently appointed to lead a capital campaign supporting new facilities for the institute.
Jeff Long AE (San Francisco) exhibited new paintings last winter in a solo show at Toomey Tourell Fine Art in San Francisco.
Holly Mason IL (dressageby design.com; Lincoln, RI) has published It’s Never Too Late, a guide for horseback riders to improve their skills through study of biomechanics.
The Truth About Lola, a retro-spective exhibition of paintings by Andrew Stevovich PT (Northborough, MA), is on view through May 31 at the Boca Raton [FL] Museum of Art.
Robin Nuse PH (Hanover, NH) had a solo show of large-format pastels last fall at the Southern Vermont Art Center in Manchester.
Work by Julie Schachter SC (lightvideo.com/JulieDefault.aspx; Oakland, CA) is included in the new fourth edition of Pinhole Photography: Rediscovering
a Historic Technique by Eric Renner (2008, Focal Press).
’74
Teri Figliuzzi TX (NYC) is the director of design at Bernhardt Textiles, where she has worked since 2000.
Diana Gordon IL (Cranston, RI) has opened Antiques in the Attic, a new shop in Cranston, RI.
Peter C. Jones PH (NYC) organized a fall ’08 exhibition of Josef Breitenbach’s Surrealist photographs at Gitterman Gallery, NY, in conjunction with the publication of Josef Breitenbach:
Manifesto (Nazraeli Press), which he produced.
’75
Charles Corda BArch (Coconut Grove, FL) received Honors of Distinction awards for two photographs in the 2008 Black and White Spider photo- graphy competition.
Noetic Moments, a solo show of work by Eva Kwong CR (Kent, OH), was on view last fall at William Busta Gallery in Cleveland.
Susan Greenberg Ryza AE and Sharon Keasling, partners in Santa Monica Artisans, have transformed a collection of antique Santa Monica, CA bus tokens into a line of accessories, available at the city’s Transit Store.
Cynthia Scott SC (New Orleans) exhibited a mixed-media site-specific installation last fall in a group show at Home Space Gallery in New Orleans.
Last fall Rory Marcaccio
Schaffer AE/MAE ’79 (Vienna, VA) showed painting, jewelry, sculpture and glass work at Fairfax Station [VA] Railroad Museum. She teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Gus Van Sant FAV received several major award nominations for his 2008 film Milk, including Oscar and Directors Guild nominations for best director.
’76
Carol Heft PT (NYC) showed work last fall in Ensemble, an exhibition at Blue Mountain Gallery in New York.
Kathleen Kolb IL (Lincoln, VT) exhibited recent paintings in a fall show at David Findlay Galleries in New York.
Monster, a digital mosaic of images of the Bush administration created by Shelley Lake IL (shelleylake.com; Longwood, FL), recently won first place in mixed media at ArtExpo New York.
Susan Margolis SC/MID ’84
(Ridgefield, CT) showed gem carvings last summer in American
Lapidary, an exhibition at the Lizzadro Museum in Elmhurst, IL.
Selbert Perkins Design (selbert perkins.com), the LA firm where Clifford Selbert LArch and Robin Perkins ’86 GD are principals, recently created new signage and gateways for the Fremont East district of downtown Las Vegas.
Oil and Water, a fall show at the Sculpture Ranch in Santa Fe, included work by New Mexico- based sculptors Robin Speas
SC, Noel Aronov MFA ’75 SC, Carol Ware BArch ’85 and Sculpture Ranch founder Nathaniel Hesse SC.
’77
Jim Coan BArch (Essex, CT), director of architectural practice and science at Centerbrook [CT] Architects, presented on the topic of “Lessons from the Construction Trailer: How to Establish a Quality Assurance Program for Design and Contract Documents” at the recent Build Boston conference.
As technical design director for knitwear at Jones Apparel Group, Pamela Danesi AP (Brooklyn) was recently presented with the company’s Excellence in the Workplace Award.
J. Michelle Hill TX (NYC) was the recipient of a 2007 Research/Lecturer Fulbright Fellowship to work in Sofia, Bulgaria, where she researched Thracian culture and taught computer graphics at the National Academy of Art. Her work was exhibited at the US Embassy library and Arosita Gallery.
Carol Peligian IL (NYC) showed drawings, sculpture and paintings last winter in Transfluence, a solo exhibition at the Museum of Biblical Art in New York.
Robynn Smith PT (Aptos, CA) showed work last winter in Lamentations & Passages, a show at Felix Kulpa Gallery in Santa Cruz, CA.
Drawings by Ricker Winsor
PH/MFA ’78 are featured in Bert Dodson’s new book Drawing with
the Imagination (2008, North Light Press), and one of his paintings was published in a recent issue of Upper Valley Life magazine in Vermont/New Hampshire.
’78
Judy Glantzman PT (NYC) exhibited new paintings and sculptures last fall at Betty Cunningham Gallery in New York.
Karen Hackenberg PT (Port Townsend, WA) showed new paintings and drawings in Divining
Line, a winter exhibition at the Gallery at OK Hotel in Seattle.
Valerie Hird PT (Burlington, VT) received a grant from the Vermont Community Foundation to support Maiden Voyages Project (maidenvoyagesproject.com), a web presentation of artist sketchbooks detailing the lives of women from Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Palestine and the US.
Rebecca Miller FAV (Newton, MA) has founded Optik Nerve (optiknerve.net), a marketing communications company. Her clients include Northeastern University, Custom Machine and MSI.
Last December Barbara Nadel
BArch (Forest Hills, NY) was presented with the 2009 Edward C. Kemper Award for service to the profession of architecture and the American Institute of Architects.
Aija Sterns CR (Goose Creek, SC) showed paintings last fall in a solo exhibition at Wild Goose Gallery in Goose Creek, SC.
Rhonda Wall PT (Easton, PA) had a solo show at Accola Contemporary last winter.
A retrospective exhibition of work by author/illustrator David
Wiesner ’78 IL (Wyndmoor, PA) – replete with amazing installations – was featured in late winter at the Sungkok Art Museum in Seoul, Korea as part of the first annual CJ Picture Book Festival.
William Burgin BArch ’73, principal of Burgin Lambert
Architects (williamburgin.com) in Newport, RI, won multiple
awards for his adaptive reuse/additions work on the James-
town [RI] Town Hall: an Honor Award from the RI chapter
of the American Institute of Architects, a Gold design award
from Rhode Island Monthly magazine and a Merit Award
in the 2008 New England AIA Design Awards. Chris Arner
BArch ’98 was the project architect, Carolyn Rufo ’83 AR
did the interior design and Robin Monihan ’79 IA of Robin
Monihan Interiors selected the furniture.
Joseph G. Brin ’74 PH
(Philadelphia) recently
launched Brush Strokes Fine
Art Rowing Posters (brush
strokesrowing.com), a series
evocative of “the energy,
spirit and river life of the
rower,” he explains. The
posters incorporate his own
paintings and drawings.
The Zon hearing aid developed by Stuart Karten Design (SKD), the
Los Angeles industrial design consultancy headed by Stuart Karten
’78 ID, received the 2008 Cooper-Hewitt People’s Design Award
and a 2009 CES Innovations Award. SKD was also named one
of the top five “design factories” in the US in Fast Company’s 2008
“Masters of Design” issue, and won 2008 International Design
Awards in three categories.
Twenty-one architectural projects by Deborah Berke BArch ’77
(dberke.com) are discussed in Deborah Berke (2008, Yale University
Press), the first book to explore her career as an architect, designer,
teacher and writer. Shown here is a new 10,000-sf building for the
Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York (2004–07). Deborah practices
architecture in New York and has been a professor at Yale since 1987.Brad Kendall ’78 IL (bradford
kendall.com; Providence)
created the cover and interior
illustrations for Escape
from the Pop-Up Prison, one
of seven books written by
Michael Dahl and published
in 2008 by Stone Arch Books.
Aimed at young boys with
reading difficulties, the adven-
ture books (part of the
company’s Library of Doom
division) each feature about 20
of Brad’s color illustrations.
Deborah Cornell PT (Lincoln, MA) recently presented TRACER, an interactive virtual reality work, at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston. The work was also choreo-graphed by Judith Chaffee and presented at the Huntington Theatre in Boston.
Jack Dickerson GD (Hingham, MA) is exhibiting paintings through the end of May in a solo show at South Street Gallery in Hingham, MA.
Maureen McCabe SC (Quaker Hills, CT) showed 13 pieces in The Image in the Box: From
Cornell to Contemporary, a winter exhibition at Hollis Taggart Galleries in New York.
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As head of a nonprofit agency in Seattle, Elaine Simons ’87
JM has worked with homeless youth for the past 14 years.
For a detailed Q&A and more images, go to www.risd.edu/
views and check out www.psks.org for more on her
organization.
Were you drawn to social activism at RISD?
Yes, I felt like being in college was the time
to get involved in something larger than
myself, so a few of us came up with the idea
of organizing “Awareness Day” events with
a social justice slant. We ended up bringing
Bread & Puppet Theatre to campus, which
turned out to be a natural way to combine
performance art with social awareness.
How did you end up founding Peace for the
Streets by Kids from the Streets (PSKS)?
After RISD, I went to Columbia for a master’s
degree in teaching and then got a job in
Seattle teaching art at a middle school. In
1995 I took a summer job at a drop-in center
for homeless teenagers and when the kids
wanted to keep doing something together
in the fall, I let them meet at my home. Within
a few years, United Way stepped in with
funding, but we had to become a 501(c)(3) first
and establish a space outside my house.
So, what’s PSKS like now?
Well, we’re the hub for homeless youth in
Seattle and we focus on education and
advocacy. Our center is self-governed, which
means that when you come in you can’t tell
who’s staff and who isn’t. It’s very warm and
welcoming, and nothing is locked up, except
for the Xbox and the Wii. For the kids who
come here, this is their life, their family.
How do you connect with teens struggling
to survive on the street?
If you treat people with dignity, they’re going
to respond. Our main goal isn’t to get them
off the street (though when that happens it’s
awesome); it’s to give them a sense of
self-esteem, of validation – what any human
being wants.
Isn’t this kind of work incredibly draining?
Yes and no. I can’t see myself doing anything
else right now. It keeps me young. I like the
fact that it’s fluid, that every day is different
and that it’s very, very human.
help
ing t
he h
om
ele
ss
John Ruggieri PT* (Boston) exhibited works from several of his photography series last summer and fall at F-collective in Hudson, NY.
Adam Silverman BArch recently merged his company Atwater Pottery (atwaterpottery.com) with Heath Ceramics (heathceramics.com), a 60-year- old company based in Sausalito, CA. His new studio is in Heath’s satellite facility in Los Angeles.
’89
Karen Gelardi PT (karenge-lardi.com; South Portland, ME) exhibited mixed-media work last fall in Terrarium, a solo show at 301 Gallery in Beverly, MA.
Krysten Gossler PT (East Providence) showed paintings in a fall ’08 exhibition at Watermark Contemporary Art in East Providence, RI.
Sara Kellner PT (kellnercon-sulting.com; Houston) recently led a DiverseWorks Development Workshop, a strategic planning session for Houston-area visual, literary and performing artists.
So Yoon Lym PT (Wayne, NJ) has exhibited paintings in several recent shows, including As
above as below, as within as without at Gallery Xpose in Englewood Cliffs, NJ and group shows at the Paterson [NJ] Museum and the College of St. Elizabeth in Morristown, NJ.
Last fall Josiah McElheny GL
(Seattle) exhibited two groups of sculpture exploring the origins of the universe: The End of the Dark
Ages at Andrea Rosen Gallery in New York and Island Universe at White Cube in London. The chrome, glass and electric-light pieces were featured in the New
York Times Magazine (9.26.08).
This May marks the 21st anniversary of Hope Bindery & Box Co. (hopebindery.com), a Pawtucket, RI hand bindery headed by James Dimarcanto-
nio IL. The company, which includes Paul O’Connor ’07 PR and Samantha Gerlach ’06*, specializes in restoration, artist books and archival portfolios.
Patrick J. Hamilton GD (NYC) designed the winning display in Bloomingdales’ recent Big Window Challenge. His New York living room is also featured as an “Inspiration” space on HGTV’s Rate My Space (Episode 302), which airs through the end of May.
Last fall Carol O’Malia IL (Westwood, MA) had a solo painting show at Julie Nester Gallery in Park City, UT.
Eric Meier ’86 IL, director of Interactive Media at RISD, made presentations on new media and social networking at the 2008 AICAD conference in Portland, OR, and on the use of video as an online recruitment tool via a recent Brightcove Web-inar.
A solo show by Hanna von
Goeler IL (Montclair, NJ), was on view last winter at Sloan Fine Art in New York.
’87
Mask Parade Forest Animals, a children’s book illustrated and designed by Katharine
Armstrong GD (Pacifica, CA), was published last August by Piggy Toes Press.
Lynne Deninger BArch (Needham, MA), an associate principal at Cannon Design, was recently named one of the top 10 architects in the region by Women’s Business Boston.
Trine Giæver IL (NYC) designed a t-shirt and other materials for the 2008 Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology meeting in Toronto; she also created covers for recent issues of Molecular
Biology of the Cell (8.08) and PLoS
Genetics (8.8.08).
Work by Farsad Labbauf ID (Jersey City, NJ) was recently acquired by the Saatchi Gallery in London, and was on view there in the spring exhibition Unveiled: New Art from the
Middle East.
’88
In his fall show Providence
Underground at Gail Cahalan Gallery, Peter Goldberg PH (Pawtucket, RI) exhibited photos of tunneling work beneath the city streets.
Allison Massari IL (allisonmas-sari.com; Tiburon, CA) exhibited work in February and March in The Song, a solo show at Chris Winfield Gallery in Carmel, CA.
In January Renée Ridgway GL
(Amsterdam) was a featured presenter in “Beaver, Wampum, Hoes,” a public discussion about the Dutch colonization of New York City. The event took place at 16 Beaver St. in New York.
Colleen Kiely PT (Roslindale, MA) showed a group of drawings from her On the Road series in The Fine Art of Drawing Invitational, a fall ’08 exhibition at Florida State University at Tallahassee.
Fotini Vurgaropulou SC (Brooklyn) exhibited and sold kilnformed and freeze-cast glass sculpture in Artists of Urban Glass, a winter show at Urban Glass in Brooklyn.
’85
Scott Constable FAV* (thewowhaus.com; Sebastopol, CA) was recently awarded a grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation to implement and expand his deepcraft.org initiative.
Environmental and identity design work by Poulin + Morris, the NYC design consultancy where Douglas Morris GD (Clinton Corners, NY) is a prin- cipal, was featured in Designers
USA No. 2 (2008, Graphis).
’86
Jamie Boud IL (Brooklyn) curated and designed a retro- spective of Stephan Sprouse’s work that was shown last winter at Deitch Projects in New York.
’79
Ana Flores PT (Wood River Junction, RI) recently received an Audubon/Toyota Together-Green Fellowship to support her environmental education work at the Kettle Pond Visitor Center in Charlestown, RI. She and her husband Gabriel Warren ’79
SC exhibited together in Notes
from the Earth at the Mystic [CT] Art Center.
Last year Kathy Hodge PT*
(Riverside, RI) was an artist-in- residence at Mesa Verde National Park, CO – her seventh residency in US national parks. In the fall she showed paintings at Gail Cahalan Gallery in Providence.
Dan Perruzzi BArch (Weymouth, MA) recently became a partner in the Boston architecture firm Margulies Perruzzi Architects.
’81
Miyoshi Barosh PT (Pasadena, CA) will be an artist in residence at the New Children’s Museum in San Diego from July 13 to August 7.
Trine Bumiller PR (Denver) exhibited work last winter in Colorado Abstract, a group show at the Metropolitan State College of Denver.
Last fall Paola Page PT (Guiting Power, England) had a solo show titled IN THE LAPSe OF THE GODS at The Gallery Soho in London.
’82
Madeleine Pydych Hopkins IL
(Moody, ME) received a Best in Show – Acrylic award for her painting Rockland Harbor in the fall show of the Newburyport [MA] Art Association.
Frances Middendorf IL (Posta Massa Martana, Italy) exhibited drawings last fall in Picturing the
Poems of Cesare Pavese, a solo show at the National Arts Club in New York.
’83
Good Karma, Bad Karma Brooches created by Sandra Enterline
JM (San Francisco) are included in Glasswear, an exhibition traveling to seven international venues between 2008 and 2010.
David Langton GD and Norman Cherubino ’85 GD, principals at the New York design communications firm Langton Cherubino Group, were named “People to Watch in 2009” by Graphic Design USA magazine.
Ursula Huth GL* (Weil im Schönbuch, Germany) exhibited glass and mixed-media works in a spring show at Galerieverein Leonberg in Leonberg, Germany.
’84
Rocco Ceo BArch (Coral Gables, FL), a professor at the University of Miami School of Architecture, recently became director of the undergrad pro- gram. He has also been appointed deputy district officer for the state to conduct Historic American Landscapes Surveys for the National Park Service.
Steven Kenny IL (Huntly, VA) showed paintings last winter in Cryptohematology: Secrets in my
Bloodline, a solo exhibition at the Glass Garage Gallery in West Hollywood, CA.’80
Laraine Armenti PR (Ashland, MA) showed work in Icons +
Altars, a group exhibition held last fall at the New Art Center in Newton, MA.
Sculpture by T Barny SC (Healdsburg, CA) was on view last fall at Hunter Kirkland Contemporary in Santa Fe, NM.
Lloyd Martin PT (North Providence, RI) exhibited paintings last fall at Stephen Haller Gallery in New York.
Stacy Jannis Tamerlani FAV (Silver Spring, MD) produced a variety of interactive elements and videos for the new Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.
Lawrence and Sharon
Tarantino TX (tarantinostudio.com) recently received pre- servation awards from the AIA New Jersey and the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy for the 20-year restoration of their Frank Lloyd Wright home in Millstone, NJ.
Culinary Dreams (2006, majolica,
60 x 60 x 50 cm) was included in
a solo show of food-inspired sculpture
by Alberto De Braud ’83 PH (Milan),
on view last fall at Galleria Dieffe in
Turin, Italy.
Leah Reynolds ’80 PR (Philadelphia) showed drawings
and a new installation – Sphericity (2009, fabric
coated with rabbit skin glue and pigment, 12" diameter)
– earlier this spring at Nexus Foundation for Today’s
Art in Philadelphia.
In July Carrie Gustafson ’94 PR (Arlington, MA) is exhibiting
Nest (2008, 5 x 8.5") and other glass work at North Water
Gallery on Martha’s Vineyard. She also participated in the
2009 Smithsonian Craft Show, held in April at the National
Building Museum in Washington, DC.
Larissa Nowicki ’93 GD (NYC)
exhibited mixed-media pieces
including Narrative I (2007;
used book pages printed
before 1975; 28 3/4 x 23")
in Illiterature, a winter show
at Arena 1 Gallery in Santa
Monica, CA.
The above portraits of several teens involved with
PSKS were taken as part of a performance art/
documentary project known as Endurance. Shown
here: Billy, Fish, Jessica and Raven.
phot
os c
ourt
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Nelson Ryland PH (Brooklyn) edited Stealing Lincoln’s Body, a documentary about an 1876 plot to steal Abraham Lincoln’s body and hold it for ransom. The two-hour special aired in February on the History Channel.
David Simon IL (Los Angeles) exhibited sculpture recently in Dark Forest, a spring solo show at the Long Beach [CA] Museum of Art.
Sonya Sklaroff PT (sonya sklaroff.com; NYC) showed paintings last fall in Lightscapes, an exhibition at the Gallery at Steuben Glass in New York.
’93
Nicole Cherubini CR (Brooklyn) received a fall 2008 grant from Art Matters to support her travel to Guadalajara, Mexico to research the production of traditional ceramic wares.
Derek Gores IL (derekgores.com; Melbourne, FL) had two pieces selected for Manifest Hope, an exhibition in Washington, DC that coincided with the Obama inauguration. His work was also included in Robot Love, a winter show at 321 Agency in Melbourne, FL.
Marney Lieberman SC (Brooktondale, NY) showed works on paper in Collaboration:
Contraptions, a spring show with poet Victoria Boynton at the High Watermark Salo[o]n in Hancock, NY.
’94
After illustrating several children’s books, Paul Carrick
IL (Boston) has just had his first book published as both writer and illustrator. In Watch Out for
Wolfgang (2009, Charlesbridge), three robot brothers take the place of the three little pigs in a retelling of the classic tale.
’90
Peter Barrett PT (barrettart.com; Woodstock, NY) showed new work last fall in (In)Finities, a solo exhibition at KMOCA in Kingston, NY.
Franklin Einspruch IL (Roslindale, MA) exhibited work last fall in The Importance of
What We Care About, a solo show at Common Sense Gallery in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
After six years of intermittent recording at his home in Marfa, TX, Pat Keesey PT released his first EP, The Marfa Demos, last year on Lodog Records.
Kathleen Judge PT (Chicago) curated Exquisite City/Exquisite
Windows, a “fantasy city” of miniature cardboard houses created by more than 40 artists. The houses were on view last fall at Chicago’s Viaduct Theater.
Chris Mills IL (Upper Hutt, New Zealand) served as visual effects artist and supervisor on Blackspot, an independent feature film that has won spots in film festivals around the world, including the Strasbourg, Hamburg and Rhode Island festivals.
Work by Mel Prest PT (San Francisco) has been on view in several exhibitions recently, including a solo show at Gregory Lind Gallery in Miami (April) and group shows at Pharmaka in Los Angeles and Cape Cod Community College in West Barnstable, MA.
Last fall Julie Rabun BArch (Knoxville, TN) was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor of graphic design at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, TN, and in 2007 she was presented with the college’s Award for Creativity.
Last summer Michael Rich IL
(Providence) exhibited recent drawings and paintings at Old Spouter Gallery in Nantucket, MA.
Michael Riley GD, creative director at Shine in Los Angeles, created two music videos for Madagascar 2 and recently produced a package of promo- tional spots for Cartoon Network’s new animated show The Misadventures of Flapjack.
The Elsie Side Table created by Andrew Rumpler ID (nine storiesfurniture.com; NYC) was featured in a recent New and Notable” issue of I.D. magazine.
As a 12-year veteran at Nike, Jane (Pallera) Savage ID (Portland, OR) is currently working on Considered Design, the company’s green initiative. She had an article on “Design for the Real World” published in Arcade (Spring ’08).
Julie Clendenen Simpson TX (juliesimpsonart.com; Olympia, WA) exhibited stitch paintings in a small works show held last winter at Hallway Gallery in Bellevue, WA.
Carsten Stehr PT (Pasadena, CA) showed work last summer in Antanaklasis, a solo exhibition at Mykonos [Greece] Municipality Art Gallery.
’92
Arnor Bieltvedt PT (Pasadena, CA) had a solo painting show last winter at the Beeldkracht Gallery in Scheemda, the Netherlands.
Elizabeth Bristow IL (Brooklyn) has joined the photography staff of The New York
Times as a picture editor. She was previously a features picture editor for The Hartford Courant.
As a designer for Fluke Electronics, Matthew
Marzynski BID recently collaborated with Josh
Kornfeld ’95 ID on the design of a new electronic test device; he also worked with Anthony
Pannozzo ’91 ID on a suite of surgical instruments, which was recognized with an IDEA/Business Week Gold Award. Matthew and Hannah (Brown)
Marzynski BArch ’93, an architect, live in Seattle with their two sons.
Guy Jeff Nelson GD (gjnelson.com; Watertown, MA) recently created a new website for William Henry furniture (mywilliamhenry.com).
Tania Eunyoung Cho PT (Seoul, South Korea) exhibited paintings last summer in a solo show at Gallery Artside in Seoul.
Creating both traditional wooden marionettes and experimental puppets, Marie T. Keller IL (Keene, NH) developed a puppet show titled Be Brave, Robotcku! for the Teatrotoc street festival held last summer in Prague.
Stephanie Schechter ID (Providence) organized and showed work in Variations on a
Theme, a mixed-media exhibition held last fall at the Warwick [RI] Museum of Art.
Jennifer Shaw PH (jennifer-shaw.net; New Orleans) exhibited photographs last fall in Sanctuary, a group show at SoHo Photo Gallery in New York.
Jennifer Uhrhane PH (detailphoto.com; Jamaica Plain, MA) exhibited photographs of New Orleans and Mexico last summer at New Leaf Flores in Jamaica Plain, MA.
’95
Intrigues, a solo exhibition by Amelia Biewald PT (Brooklyn), was on view last fall at Magnan Projects in New York.
Costume designer Danny
Glicker ID (West Hollywood, CA) was nominated for an Academy Award and a Costume Designers Guild (CDG) award for his work on the 2008 film Milk. His previous honors include a CDG award for Transamerica (2006).
Jeffrey Hantman PR (Oakland, CA) will be an artist-in-residence for a month this year at Djerassi in Woodside, CA; last year he completed a residency at the KALA Institute in Berkeley, CA.
Amy Putansu TX (Waynesville, NC) recently became a full-time fiber instructor in the Professional Crafts department at Haywood Community College in Clyde, NC.
’96
Marc Cavello FAV (marccavello.com; Lattingtown, NY) showed work earlier this spring in This is
the Free Underground, a solo exhibition at Pleiades Gallery in New York.
A team from the Brooklyn design/fabrication practice Freecell (frcll.com) – Lauren
Crahan BArch, Brian Briggs
BArch ’08 and John Hartmann – worked together to create Stack
to Fold, a cardboard installation that was included in the exhibi- tion The Art of Participation: 1950
to Now at SFMoMA.
Denham Fassett ID (Baltimore) has launched the MbiraOracle Video Blog, a series of videos (on YouTube) offering instruction on the traditional musical instrument from Zimbabwe. He is also about to release his first book, The Little Mbira Book.
Tim Ratanapreuksel AP/MArch
’07 (Brooklyn) is showcasing his design work with a new website: www.subject-object.net.
Dan Talbot PT (Providence) and Lawrence Cromwell MFA ’99
PT/PR (Baltimore) exhibited new work last fall at the Chazan Gallery in Providence.
Karen Wise PH (KarenWise.com; Brooklyn, NY) was named one of American Photo magazine’s top ten wedding photographers for 2008.
’97
As a choreographer and movement artist, Ellen Godena
PT (oceanbody.com; Boston) collaborated recently with composer Max Lord and visual artist Burns Maxey ’98 PT (Northampton, MA) on an experimental piece that was performed at Mobius in Boston.
’98
A chest trauma simulator developed by Ryan Scott
Bardsley ID (Cambridge, MA) and his colleagues at CIMIT was featured in War and Medicine, a winter exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London.
A project by Stephanie Diamond
PR (NYC) was included in Red
Badge of Courage ReVisited, a show about Stephen Crane held last fall at the Newark [NJ] Arts Council. Her solo project Framing
the Family was on view in October at Incident Report Viewing Station in Hudson, NY.
Melania Lancy IL created the scenic design for a 50th anniversary production of The
Birthday Party, presented last spring by Chicago’s Signal Ensemble Theatre.
Sari Welch PH (Tustin, CA) was recently promoted to district manager at Keystone Pacific Pro- perty Management in Irvine, CA.
’99
Monitor, an installation by Noah
Fischer SC (Brooklyn, NY), was exhibited last fall at Claire Oliver Fine Art in New York.
Work by Evan Larson IL
(Providence) was selected for inclusion in The Best American
Comics 2008, edited by Lynda Barry. He has also been published in the last three American Il lustration annuals.
Laura Evonne Steinman SC (Somerville, MA) recently took a new position as art teacher at the Gifford School in Weston, MA, a school for children with emotional and learning challenges.
’91
Drawings and etchings by Jennifer Daltry IL, prints by Amelia Hankin MFA ’06 PR and photographs by Alice
O’Neill ’06 PR were exhibited together in Emerging Artists, a winter show at Providence’s Chazan Gallery.
Chris Eboch PH (chriseboch.com; Socorro, NM) is the author of two new biographies for young readers: Jesse Owens: Young
Record Breaker and Milton Hershey:
Young Chocolatier (both published in 2008 by Simon & Schuster and written under the name M.M. Eboch).
Last summer Christopher
Henderson BArch, president of StudioAD in Providence, completed a $37 million renova- tion to the Hyatt Regency in Newport, RI.
Anna Alter ’97 IL (Jamaica
Plain, MA) wrote and
illustrated two new children’s
books: What Can You Do
with an Old Red Shoe? (Henry
Holt), an activity book about
reuse (one idea is pictured
here), and Abigail Spells
(Knopf), a story of friendship
and spelling bees.
In June and July LA-based
artist Marisa Murrow ’00 IL
(marisamurrow.com) is
showing Tahitian Terrace
(2008, oil on canvas, 16 x 38")
and other paintings at Carina
Cellars in Los Olivos, CA.
Chandler O’Leary ’03 IL (anagram-press.com) had her
debut solo show in April at the University of Puget Sound in
Tacoma, WA, where she lives. Held at the university’s Collins
Memorial Library, To the Letter gathered her artist books,
works on paper, 2D textiles and letterpress prints, including
Prop Cake (2009, letterpress print from hand-lettered
typography, 10 x 18"), shown here. The piece is part of her
ongoing series of Feminist Broadsides, a collaboration with
Jessica Spring.As a designer for International Greetings USA, Christy
Cullen ’00 IL (Atlanta) created several designs that were
picked up by Target for use on gift wrap and greeting
cards for the 2008 holiday season. One of the designs was
also selected for extensive promotional use, including on
limited-edition Coca-Cola bottles and boxes.
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Seven recent FAV grads celebrated a big win at the 2008 Ottawa International Animation Festival. Chosen by an inter- national jury as the winner in the school category, RISD’s reel featured the work of Andy Cahill, Gretta Johnson, Andrew Mailliard, Hayley
Morris, Narimitsu Ozaki, Greta Scheing and Emma
Tripp (all ’08 FAV).
’09
Katrina Vonnegut FD won first prize in the 2008 Billes Product Design Competition for her Cradle Chair.
Both Amy Fries PH/TX and JooHyun Lee JM have won 2009 Windgate Fellowships to help further their work. Each artist will use her $15,000 award to study abroad. While Amy plans to apprenctice with designers in four European countries, JooHyun will participate in a Jewelry Design in Scandinavia summer program in Denmark.
Christina Rodriguez IL (christinarodriguez.com; Stillwater, MN) created the illustrations for The Wishing Tree, a children’s book written by Mary Redman and published last year by Elva Resa Publishing.
Jennifer Rolfsema BGD (Providence) exhibited paintings last summer at CreativeChica gallery in Pawtucket, RI.
Sculptures, drawings and photography by Hanna Sandin
GL (Brooklyn, NY) were exhibited last summer at A.I.R. Gallery in New York.
’04
Creating Buddhas: The Making
and Meaning of Fabric Thangkas, a film by Isadora Gabrielle
Leidenfrost SC (Madison, WI), was screened in January at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, CA.
Natalia Nakazawa PT (San Francisco) co-curated and exhibited work in Raff lesia
Remix: A Corpse Flower Anthology, a winter mixed-media show at PLAySPACE Gallery in San Francisco.
Jewelry by Laura Su IL (Elmhurst, NY) was featured in Be Ecochic’s runway show, which kicked off fall ’08 Fashion Week in New York.
’05
The performance art band Bobo – a.k.a. Phil Cote PT, Drew
Gillespie PT and Nick Payne
PT – curated a multimedia group exhibition titled Bobo’s on 27th last summer at the New York gallery Foxy Production.
Joe Gebbia ID (San Francisco) and Brian Chesky ’04 ID (Marina Del Rey, CA) have launched AirBed & Breakfast (airbedandbreakfast.com), a service that allows travelers to book budget rooms with locals rather than at hotels.
Loren Klein GD (Burke, VA) recently launched Walkie Talkie (walkietalkietees.com), a com- pany offering “funny tees for funny people.”
GeoBiographies, a photography series by Stephanie Lempert
GL (NYC), was on view last winter at Claire Oliver Gallery in New York.
Michael Lyons IL (michael lyonsstudio.com; NYC) showed watercolors at Odegard Miami during Art Basel Miami 2008.
’06
Renata Fenton ID (Lake Elmo, MN) and Enrique Lomnitz ID (NYC) were runners-up in the 2008 Next Generation com- petition sponsored by Metropolis magazine.
Brandon Herman PH (BrandonHermanLand.com; Los Angeles) has shown work in several recent exhibitions, including Fake at the Museo de Arte Contem_poraneo in Leon, Spain; It Ain’t Fair at O.H.W.O.W. during Art Basel Miami; and A Trip
Down (False) Memory Lane at the Lexington Club in San Francisco.
Rich, Brilliant, Willing, the NYC design collective made up of Theo Richardson FD, Charlie Brill FD and Alex
Williamson FD, was featured in a recent I.D. magazine survey of top emerging designers.
’07
As the recipient of a second-year fellowship from the Fine Arts Work Center, Meghan Gordon
PT (NYC) lived and worked in Provincetown, MA from October ’08 to April ’09.
Celeste Rapone IL (Wayne, NJ) exhibited oil paintings last fall in Vacation Bible School, a solo show at Phoenix Gallery in New York. She was the 2008 winner of the Phoenix Gallery Fellowship.
Kate Sanders-Fleming PT (Providence) exhibited new paintings last fall in Simple
Moments, a solo show at Gail Cahalan Gallery in Providence.
New work by Stephen Truax
PT (NYC) was on view last winter in Hermine Ford Two New
Paintings, a show at Norte Maar Gallery in Brooklyn.
’08
Several students and recent alumni had work selected for Il lustration West 47, a spring show organized by the Society of Illustrators LA: Phil Ashworth
’08 IL, Becca Barnet ’09 IL, Lauren Henderson ’09 IL, Kate
Pfeiffer ’08 IL, Sophy Tuttle
’08 IL and Jing Wei ’08 IL were among the artists selected.
As one of six designers chosen to participate in the Chicago Fashion Incubator ’09, Catherine Furio
’08 AP hopes to launch her own line, FURIO, with guidance from the full-year entrepreneurial assistance program. She recently modeled her own designs on ABC
7 Chicago News.
Architecture degree projects by Jesse Honsa BArch, Evita
Yumul BArch and Robert
Highsmith MArch ’08 were selected for a fall exhibition at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London and inclu- sion in an accompanying book.
As part of the 23rd International
Biennial of Graphic Design held in 2008, interrupted – a degree project by Jaekyung Jung GD (Cambridge, MA) – was exhibited at the Moravian Gallery in Brno, Czech Republic.
Kyle Marshall AR is spending the 2008-09 year teaching in American Samoa as a volunteer with WorldTeach, a nonprofit organization that places teachers in developing countries.
Laura Shirreff TX (Providence) exhibited work last fall in Exploring Space, a three-person show held at the Krause Gallery in Providence.
Benjamin Koch PT (Brooklyn) and Jessica Frelinghuysen PR (MI) exhibited work in ARAC@
AAM: Anderson Ranch Arts Center
at the Aspen [CO] Art Museum, a juried show on view last fall.
Delia Kovac PR (Providence) showed new works last winter in The Making, a solo show at AS220 in Providence.
Correspondences, a show of recent drawings by Alexis Mahon IL (Brookline, MA), was on view last fall at Steven Zevitas Gallery in Boston.
Sonjie Solomon ID (Brooklyn) showed sculptural work in Five
Elements, a group show held last summer at Ch’i Contemporary Fine Art in Brooklyn.
’03
Jane Kim PR (crowsneststudio.net; Oakland, CA) showed drawings in Delineations, a winter exhibition at Ad Hoc Art in Brooklyn; from February to May she was an artist in residence at the San Francisco dump.
Natalie Marchant ID (Brooklyn) and Bart Jansen, design partners in the studio BACON (thebaconsite.com), exhibited the Full Package Clock – a DIY clock made of repurposed packaging materials – in a winter show at Printed Matter Inc. in New York.
Peace, a solo show of painting and ceramics by Tiffany Pollack
PT (Brooklyn), was on view last fall at the Union Gallery in New York.
’00
Stonehenge Rising, a solo show of work by Amy Chan PT (Richmond, VA), was on view last fall at Carroll and Sons Art Gallery in Boston.
Marisa Dipaola PT (Manahawk-in, NJ) exhibited work in the Providence Art Windows event, on view this spring in windows in downtown Providence.
Justin Gebhard BArch (Exton, PA) has branched out from his architecture practice and into puppet performance, including the recent piece Polio Jitterbug with the Puppet Lab at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. He was involved as a writer, puppeteer and designer/builder.
Painter Tom Grady IL (tomgrady studio.com; Worcester, MA) is one of the Twenty Artists of
Worcester featured in a new book by Scott Erb.
Haavard Homstvedt IL (NYC) exhibited paintings, sculptures, drawings and a large-scale in- stallation last fall in The Close-In, a solo show at Perry Rubinstein Gallery in New York.
Jennifer Lewis IL (Boston) and Amanda Clarke ’03 IL (Cambridge, MA) exhibited new work together in Sweet Meats
and Sour Grapes, a winter show at Space 242 in Boston.
Erica Saladino GD (Providence) drew on her experience as a conservation technician at Brown University’s John Hay Library to put together the exhibition Adventures in
Boxmaking, which was shown at the library last summer.
’01
Middle School Is Worse Than
Meatloaf (2007, Atheneum), a young adult novel illustrated by Elicia Castaldi IL (NYC), was named one of New York Public Library’s top 100 children’s books of 2007. Other honors for the book include a National Parenting Publications Gold Award and a starred review in Publishers Weekly.
A Man Screaming is Not a Dancing
Bear, a film shot and produced by Banks Griffin FAV (NYC), was screened at the Prospect 1 New Orleans biennial last winter.
Work by Misako Inaoka IL (Kyoto City, Japan) was included in three exhibitions last year: Bay
Area Now 5 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, a summer group show at Stephen Wirtz Gallery (also San Francisco) and Cantocore at Ping Pong Space in Guangzhou, China.
Peter Quintin SC runs Sincera Glass (sinceraglass.com), a “green” glass tile and architec-tural objects business in East Providence, RI.
Kristian Rangel BGD (avanzare.com; The Woodlands, TX) and his brother David recently launched iGiphts (igiphts.com), a new application for the Apple iPhone that allows users to exchange virtual gifts.
’02
Last fall Yayoi Asoma PT (Chappaqua, NY) had a solo show of paintings at Cue Art Foundation in New York.
Paintings by Ian Clyde GD (Manchester, MA) were on view last summer in a solo show at Lynn [MA] Arts.
Susie Ghahremani IL (San Diego) exhibited paintings and a 3D exhibit last summer in The
Wild Life, a show at GR2 Gallery in Los Angeles. Chronicle Books recently launched a stationery collection featuring her artwork.
Supported by an award from the Xeric
Foundation, Corinne Mucha ’05 IL (maiden
housefly.com) of Chicago recently released
her first graphic novel, My Alaskan Summer –
the story of a summer she spent working
and living in Alaska after graduating from
RISD. A reviewer for TheDailyCrossHatch.com
said the book of “sweet, meandering drawings
and stories” is “something markedly indie
and personal and funny.”
Courtney A. Martin ’06 IL
(c-a-martin.com; Somerville,
MA) has illustrated her first
children’s book: Ballots for
Belva, with text by Sudipta
Bardhan-Quallen (2008,
Abrams Books for Young
Readers). The book tells the
true story of a woman’s run
for the US presidency in 1884.
Hayley Morris ’08 FAV won the Grand
Jury Award for Best Animated Short at the
Slamdance Film Festival for Undone, her
RISD senior degree project. The six-minute
stop-motion animation revolves around an
elderly man fishing and struggling to hold
on to the objects he captures – a metaphor
for the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
desig
nin
g a
su
sta
inab
le f
utu
re When Innovation Studio (pp 14–17) alumni marked its 10th
anniversary in April, they also celebrated the approach to
progressive, sustainable design that increasingly more
alumni are pursuing. The following three examples illustrate
a growing trend.
Consider Canadian
designer Dawn Danby ’00
ID, who earned an MBA in
Sustainable Business from
the Bainbridge Graduate
Institute in 2007. She’s
an integral member of
the Green Corridor initiative, which generates
green redevelopment on the US-Canadian
border, and is a co-developer of Beeline, an
award-winning, eco-efficient food distribution
system. Danby also co-wrote WorldChanging:
A User’s Guide to the 21st Century (2006),
a book embraced by global warming activists
Al Gore and Laurie David, along with critics
for Business Week and The New Yorker, among
others. Her consultancy Aylanto (aylanto.com)
is built on the belief that design isn’t just
about objects and having “too much stuff,” she
says. “I’m interested in tool-sharing, co-op
structures, providing people with things they
don’t necessarily need to own.”
Ecolect (www.
ecolect.net), a web
company that com-
bines “ecology” and
“intellect” to help designers spec sustainable
materials, is also focused on tool-sharing.
Founded by Matt Grigsby ’05 ID and Joe
Gebbia ’05 GD/ID, the company grew from
their own frustration with “aggravating
internet scavenger hunts” that slowed the
design process and yielded few practical
results. So they created Ecolect to spur
dialogue among architects, designers and
builders who are interested in sharing infor-
mation about alternative materials. Grigsby
and Gebbia both say that a trip to the Rhode
Island landfill as part of their Manufacturing
Techniques studio at RISD opened their
eyes to “the negative impacts of design”
and “forever changed” their approach.
James Minola ’07 ID,
Chelsea Green MID
’07, Brit Kleinman ’07
ID and Sami Nerenberg ’07 ID (pp 10–13) also
left RISD with their eyes open, convinced that
it is within our grasp to design a more
sustainable future” – a goal they have set for
their design studio Grain (www.graindesign.
com). In addition to offering research and
design services (systems, strategy, communi-
cations and more), they plan to develop and
market eco-sensitive products such as their
very first, called Ty – a recycled and recyclable
shower curtain made of the PVC-free plastic
typically used for milk jugs.
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pla
ygro
un
d b
uilt
on
dem
ocracy When The Learning
Community, a public
charter school in
Central Falls, RI, first
contacted designer
Laurencia Strauss
MLA ’07 in early
2008, it was with an intriguing challenge:
to transform a parking lot into a verdant play-
ground and outdoor classroom. The Learning
Community, a high-performing elementary
school in a high-poverty neighborhood,
attributes its success to rigorous academic
standards and outstanding parental support.
Inspired by the school’s pedagogy, Strauss
worked closely with students, teachers,
administrators and parents to create a design
built on their ideas.
Most of the funding and initial planning for the
playground came from the students them-
selves. In 2006 second grader Jason Diaz
founded a Student Playground Committee and
a year later fourth grader Bernardo Garcia
wrote a persuasive letter to Lowe’s, the
national home store chain, requesting turf to
cover the asphalt where they attempted to
play without skinning their knees. Garcia’s let-
ter reached the desk of an executive vice
president, who invited the school to apply for
funding, and in 2008 Lowe’s awarded The
Learning Community $110,000 to build a new
playground.
When Strauss joined the project, she was
given two years’ worth of notes and ideas
from the Student Playground Committee,
along with other carefully collected informa-
tion from her clients – all 400 of them. She
embraced and expanded the democratic
design process by interviewing kindergartners
about their feelings on play, asking staff and
students to build imaginative models of their
ideal playground and participating in class-
room writing projects. “Design sense doesn’t
only come from a privileged education,”
Strauss says. “It’s important to honor what
people have to contribute.” Synthesizing all
the suggestions, she deftly transformed the
existing blacktop into a dramatically undulat-
ing world where students explore and take
risks safely. The completed space is impres-
sive beyond its obvious beauty and functional-
ity because Strauss’ design philosophy and the
entire process dovetailed with the Learning
Community’s mission: to build a better world
by empowering others to use their voices –
and then listening when they do.
— Delia Kovac ’02 PR
Carrie Lee Schwartz MFA GL
(Folsom, LA) was among the international art educators selected to present work in The
means by which we find our way:
Observations on design, a 2008 project at the Waikato Institute of Technology in Hamilton, New Zealand.
’94
Bill Allen MFA PT/PR recently took a new position as head of interactive development at BooneOakley, an advertising agency in Charlotte, NC.
’95
Shahzia Sikander MFA PT/PR (NYC) chose and interpreted works from the Cooper-Hewitt’s collection for the exhibition Shahzia Sikander Selects: Works
from the Permanent Collection, which continues at the museum through September 7.
’96
John P. McCormack MFA FD (San Francisco) and his work were profiled in “The Ultimate Crosscut Sled,” the cover story for the July/August ’08 issue of Fine Woodworking magazine.
Jenna Spevack MFA PT/PR (Brooklyn), Maribel Tapia
Calderón MFA ’97 PT/PR (Brooklyn) and Bruce Busby
MFA ’97 SC (Oakland, CA) showed work together last winter in an exhibition at Hendershot Gallery in New York. Jonathan
Gough MFA ’98 PT/PR was the show’s curator.
’83
Jamie Walker MFA CR (Seattle), a professor of ceramics at the University of Washington, was one of seven winners of the university’s Distinguished Teaching Award for 2008.
’84
Jim Kociuba MAE (Auburn, NH) exhibited paintings of wetlands in ear+h wa+er + sky, a winter solo show at the Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery in Portsmouth, NH.
’87
Work by Kate Blacklock MFA
CR, Loren Chen MAE ’89 and Paul Eshelman MFA ’81 CR was included in Our Cups Runneth
Over, a show of ceramic cups held last winter at the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston.
’90
John Mullin MFA PH (Los Angeles) exhibited photographs last winter in Mortal Traces, a solo show at Carl Berg Gallery in Los Angeles.
’91
In February Judy Gelles MFA
PH (Philadelphia) exhibited photography in Thinking Small, a group show at Philadelphia’s Pentimenti Gallery.
Emi Ozawa MFA FD (Provi- dence), Ashley Jameson
Eriksmoen MFA ’00 FD (Oakland, CA) and Matthias
Pliessnig ’03 FD (Philadelphia) were among the artists exhibiting in Craft in America: Focus on Wood, a winter show at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston.
’93
Janet Frankovic MFA CR (Tahlequah, OK) contributed work to The Fine Art of Drawing, a fall exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts at Florida State University in Tallahassee.
’75
Grant Johnson MFA FAV (San Francisco) exhibited environ-mental art last fall in Welcome to
the Future, a solo show at Canessa Gallery in San Francisco.
’77
Jenny Holzer: PROTECT PROTECT, an exhibition of work created by Jenny Holzer MFA PT since the ’90s, is on view through the end of May at the Whitney Museum in New York.
’78
Laurence Young MAE/MFA
’79 (laurenceyoung.com; Provincetown, MA) exhibited last summer in Obscuring the Line, a solo show at Alden Gallery in Provincetown, MA.
’79
Paul Mindell MAT (Norwalk, CT) is one of 100 semi-finalists in the Smithsonian Institution’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009. Finalists will be announced in June.
’80
Work by Stephen Petegorsky
MFA PH (Florence, MA) was included in A Tribute to Polaroid, a group exhibition held last fall at SoHo Photo Gallery in New York.
Linda King Ferguson MAE (Au Train, MI) has been awarded a residency at the Ragdale Foundation for the winter/spring ’09 season.
Soleil (Honduras mahogany and Macassar
ebony, 30" h x 42" diameter), a table
designed and built by R. Thomas Tedrowe
MFA ’81 FD (tedrowefurniture.com), is
featured in the book 500 Tables (May 2009,
Lark Books) by Andrew Glasgow. From June
20 to November 1 four of his pieces will
be on view at the Indiana State Museum in
Making it in the Midwest: Artists Who Chose
to Stay. In addition to building furniture
in his Brown County, IN studio, Tom teaches
at Herron School of Art.
Paul Jacklitch MFA ’85 PR
won a Guru Award for Best In
Show at the 2008 Photoshop
World convention in Las
Vegas. Modern Jackpot Casino
(UltraChrome print, 20 x 30"),
the winning digital print from
a series of HDR photographs
he took at the Neon Boneyard
in Las Vegas, was published
in a recent issue of Photoshop
User magazine. Paul is a
professor and chair of the
Department of Art and Art
History at Baldwin-Wallace
College in Berea, OH.
additions
A daughter, Petra Emilia Brown, to Lisa and Jason Brown
MFA ’99 SC on August 28, 2008. Her sister Isabel Sofia is 3. Knoxville, TN.
A son, Theo Samuel Nistler, to Tim and Meryl (Ettinger)
Nistler MArch ’02 on August 5, 2008. His big brother Ellery is 3. Boston, MA.
notes
’63
Martha Armstrong MAE (Hatfield, MA) exhibited paintings in two solo shows last fall and winter: Up to Now at Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia and Vermont
Landscapes and Winter Stil l Lifes at the Oxbow Gallery in Northampton, MA.
’69
Work by Perci Chester MAT
(Minneapolis) was featured in a two-person show last fall at Parish Gallery Georgetown in Washington, DC.
’71
Roy Ditosti MFA PH (Stow, MA) exhibited photographs last fall in a solo show at artSTRAND gallery in Provincetown, MA.
’72
10 Plus 5 Cocoons, an installation by Muriel Angelil MAE (Ames- bury, MA), was included in a fall ’08 exhibition at Maudslay State Park in Newburyport, MA.
’74
Photographs by Arno Rafael
Minkkinen MFA PH (Andover, MA) were featured in In Print, a fall solo show at Robert Klein Gallery in Boston.
Sarah Dillard MAE ’85 (sarah
dillard.com; Waitsfield, VT)
wrote and illustrated Perfectly
Arugula (2009, Sterling),
the story of a control-freak
hedgehog who learns that
loosening up can be a lot more
fun. Sarah has written and
illustrated several other
children’s books, including
Tightrope Poppy the High-
Wire Pig and Follow the Bunny.
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readers’ views
blog heaven
I am so glad there is a RISD blog [our.risd.edu] that gives me the latest about RISD and its alumni.... Keep it up!
Loren Klein ’05 GD Burke, VA
a chore to read
I just received the fall issue [of risd views] and have a few comments. The first is a question: Do we actually give a degree in Graphic Design? Secondly, does anyone over the age of our typical graduates ever try to actually read one of the periodicals?
At only 66, I find the lack of contrast and the over-use of drop-out type, the multiple typefaces and the tiny fonts make the text so difficult to read that I don’t want to read it. From the point of view of texture and color, I guess that the pages as laid out look OK, but they are neither welcoming to read nor particularly legible…. The “portfolio” section of awards and obits is a notable exception.
I am sorry to seem so negative, but the readability and friendliness of risd views is consistently unappealing. Last time [Fall 2008] the cover was so anonymous that I almost tossed it directly into the recycling bin because I could not identify it as something I wanted.
Now I am going to breathe, and add that I do like hearing what is up and only wish that the production values made the reading a pleasure rather than a chore.
Jotham Bailey ’64 TX
South Orange, NJ
online overload
I wanted to take a minute to give a little feedback about your online publication e-views. It is beautiful and as informative as the hard copy. But I spend half my workday online. I’m slammed with e-mail and solicita-tions. It’s all I can do to get through my regular e-mail, my online career and my teaching commitments.
I love to curl up with the paper version of risd views at lunch or dinner and read at my leisure – reveling in reproductions of student and alumni work. But online it needs to be crammed into my work schedule. So I tend to skip over it in favor of ‘must-read’ e-mails.
I find more and more that the curators I deal with avoid online publications and solicitations – easy access has given way to information overload and snail mail has returned as the venue of choice. I’m sure the e-version of views is less expensive [to produce and distribute] and has a broader application. Plus, paper has become a luxury the ‘green’ economy will not tolerate. But if you were to get rid of the printed magazine altogether, I would miss it.
Val Hird ’78 PT Burlington, VT
Last summer Chelsea Green
MID (see also p. 28; Bainbridge Island, WA) led Re+Vision: Design
Your (Neighbor)hood (designyour hood.blogspot.com), a Seattle Art Museum program that introduced teens to urban design and public art.
’08
Michael Radyk MFA TX (Athens, GA) won a Visionary Award of Excellence for his woven piece Komako 1 in Craft
Forms 2008: The 14th International
Juried Exhibition of Contemporary
Craft. Works by 93 artists were selected for the event, which was held at the Wayne [PA] Art Center last winter.
’11
Arielle Assouline-Lichten
MArch and Wayne Congar, partners in labRAD (labrad.com), won third prize in the White House Redux competition sponsored by The Storefront for Art and Architecture.
’97
Nermin Kura MFA CR (Pro- vi_dence) exhibited ceramic work last fall in the 10th anniversary show at Galleri Apel in Istanbul, Turkey.
’98
Roberto Rovira MLA (Coral Gables, FL) showed work last summer in Banned & Recovered, a group exhibition at the San Francisco Center for the Book and the African American Museum and Library.
’99
Two public art projects proposed by Kana Tanaka MFA GL (kanatanaka.com; Richmond, CA) have won recent competitions: a renovation project for the Scottsdale [AZ] Center for Performing Arts, and a children’s activity deck for the Lafayette [CA] Library and Learning Center.
Luke Walden MFA PH (Portland, OR) is a co-author of The Narcotic Farm: The Rise and
Fall of America’s First Prison for
Drug Addicts, published last year by Abrams. The book details the 40-year history (1935-75) of a federal treatment facility in Lexington, KY.
’00
Michele Jaquis MFA SC recently took a new position as assistant professor and coor- dinator for the Artists, Community and Teaching program at Otis College of Art and Design in LA. Her documentary RECOVERED:
Journeys Through the Autism Spectrum
and Back has been screened at a number of conferences and theaters in the US.
Susan Working MFA FD
(Snowmass Village, CO), a wood and mixed-media artist as well as director of the Furniture Design and Woodworking program at Anderson Ranch, was the subject of the cover story for the August 2008 issue of Woodwork magazine.
’02
Paula Bryan MFA TX (Arlington, VA) exhibited 3D textile work last fall in Rare
Specimens, a solo show at the Arlington [VA] Arts Center.
In March and April Robert
Ladislas Derr MFA PH (Columbus, OH) showed Structures and Strictures, a group of three video performances, at Jack the Pelican Presents in New York. He has also exhibited recently in The Mirror Stage at the Independent Museum of Contemporary Art in Limassol, Cyprus and the 2008 Freewaves Festival in LA.
Jane Hesser MFA PH (Providence) exhibited photo- graphs in a winter show at Providence’s Chazan Gallery.
’03
Nick Hollibaugh MFA FD and RISD Furniture Design/Foundation Studies Critic Joshua Enck MFA FD won a recent competition to design a sculpture for a public spot in Pawtucket, RI. Canter and Shed will consist of a pair of painted metal structures rising 16' and 18' above the street.
Where Animals E-Mail, a piece by jecca MFA PH (NYC), was included in the summer ’08 exhibition It’s Not Easy at Exit Art in New York.
John Cross Neumann MID
(Portland, OR) was the lead designer for the Motorola VU204, a phone model intro- duced last fall through North American wireless carriers.
For Such a Time as This: Remem-
bering Vietnam, a multimedia installation by adrienne noelle
werge MFA PH (South Bend, IN), was on view last winter at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, IA. She was recently awarded a Nikon Vision Scholarship from the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, which supported her partici-pation in a week-long digital workshop this spring.
’04
Alissia Melka-Teichroew MID (www.alissiamt.com; Brooklyn) showed design wares (which she produces through her com- pany BY:AMT) last summer at Houston’s Peel Gallery.
’05
As part of the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts (DCCA) Art & Community Visual Arts Residency Program, Tanya
Aguiñiga MFA FD (Los Angeles) worked with high school seniors in Wilmington, DE last fall to create furnishings featuring hair styling techniques traditionally used by African-American women. The project culminated in an exhibition at the DCCA in November.
Douglas Jones MFA ’92 FD and Kim Kulow-Jones
MFA ’92 FD (randomorbitstudio.com) recently
completed Boat Bench (2009; mahogany, milk
paint, brass screws; 60 x 17 x 19"), a commission
for the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa
Fe; it was included in the museum’s exhibition
A Chair for All Reasons, along with two of their
other pieces. Doug teaches woodworking at
Santa Fe Community College.
Image courtesy of the Museum of International Folk Art
Natalia Almada MFA ’01 PH (Brooklyn)
received the Best Director Award for
US Documentary Film at Sundance
2009 for her film El General. The
film is a personalized account of 100
years of Mexican history, focusing on
Natalia’s great-grandfather Plutarco
Elías Calles, who was president of
Mexico during the revolutionary era.
To Reach (2008, painted steel,
102 x 40 x 40") and another
sculpture created by Hongsock
Lee MFA ’03 JM (Providence),
are now permanent installa-
tions on the rooftop terrace
of the Vilcek Foundation in
New York. The work – his
first large-scale commission –
reflects the foundation’s
mission to honor the achieve-
ments of immigrants in the US.
In Other’s Words, an exhibition held last fall at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, featured work by Adam Eckstrom MFA
PT, Greg Hopkins MFA PT, Matthew Monk MFA ’91 GD, Asya Palatova MFA ’04 CR, Serena Perrone MFA ’06 PR, Beata Stepien-Liu MFA PT, Scott Thorpe MFA GD, Lauren
Was MFA ’04 SC and curators Christine Gallagher MFA GD, Claudia Middendorf MFA GD and Susie Nielsen MFA GD. Adam Eckstrom and Lauren Was also curated WORD UP, a show at NYC’s Broadway Gallery that included pieces by Greg Hopkins, Jeff Barnett-Winsby MFA
’06 PH, Colby Bird MFA ’04
PH and Amanda Lechner
MFA ’05 PT.
Greg Hopkins MFA PT (Brooklyn) exhibited paintings in two recent solo shows: Distractions at Galleria Glance in Turin, Italy and Sub Rosa at Sloan Fine Art in New York.
Della Reams MFA TX recently accepted a position as assistant professor of fashion design at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts’ campus in Doha, Qatar.
’07
John Baca MFA DM, Jacob
Goble MFA PT, Christopher
Robbins MFA DM and Rachelle
Beaudoin MFA DM showed work in the Queens [NY] Museum of Art’s International 4 (January – April), as part of Douglas Paulson’s Anti-Fascist Culture Club. For the 13th Pancevo
Biennial, held last fall in Serbia, John, Jacob and Christopher exhibited solo works and collaborated on the project Aftermath of a watercolor by
Jacob Goble....
acronyms explainedcurrent majors
AP Apparel Design
AR Architecture
CR Ceramics
DM Digital + Media
FAV Film/Animation/Video
FD Furniture Design
GD Graphic Design
GL Glass
IA Interior Architecture
ID Industrial Design
IL Illustration
JM Jewelry + Metalsmithing
LA Landscape Architecture
PH Photography
PT Painting
PR Printmaking
SC Sculpture
TX Textiles
former majors
AD Advertising Design
AE Art + Design Education
MD Machine Design
TC Textile Chemistry
TE Textile Engineering
fifth-year bachelor’s degrees
BArch Architecture
BGD Graphic Design
BID Industrial Design
BIA Interior Architecture
BLA Landscape Architecture
master’s degrees
MA Art Education (formerly MAE)
MArch Architecture
MAT Teaching
MFA Fine Arts
MID Industrial Design
MIA Interior Architecture
MLA Landscape Architecture
continuing education
CEC Continuing Education Certificate
* attended RISD, but no degree awarded
FS enrolled for Foundation Studies only
parents’ weekendalumni, reunion +
risd by design 09
connect
relax
recharge
october 9–11, 2009
Return to RISD from Friday, October 9 - Sunday, October 11 for
a weekend full of people you want to see, artwork and other
visual stimuli galore, and interesting things to do.
travel + lodging suggestions: www.risd.edu/rbd
more program info: rbd.risd.edu
questions? contact claire at: [email protected] | 401 454-6379
Illustration by Aaron Meshon ’95 IL (www.aaronmeshon.com)
risd views
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