This weekend I had the pleasure of reading a new book by Jessica Davis on the challenge of integrating arts into K-12 school curricula in a world that is increasingly “pro-innovation” yet steadfastly unsupportive of the arts. She lists the seven “common objections” to the arts playing a larger role in a learning menu: value, talent, time, measurement, expertise, money, and autonomy. All in all they are expressions of specific prejudices against the arts which can be debunked methodically with supporting data, however perceptions are difficult to change.

It is my hope that as a society we can move from the general misunderstanding of art education as developing just a collection of creative skills – to instead see a high quality arts education as the foundation for fostering extraordinary individuals’ unique creative visions of the future. I see our technology-led era of the last few decades coming to an important turn where mere “newness” of an idea is losing significance and instead the timeless question of “quality” has regained momentum. What are the qualities of quality in art and design? I would like to think that RISD has those answers, and questions, that we carry with importance into this new century.

I’m off this weekend to Philadelphia to attend another alumni gathering during which we will take a moment to recognize President Mandle’s many accomplishments during his 15-year tenure at RISD. We’ve held celebrations in New York and Boston so far, with great success.

For those of you on the west coast, we are planning similar events in Los Angeles on February 21 at the home of alumna Marion Wesson and in San Francisco on March 4 during the opening of the Northern California Alumni Biennial at Oakland Art Gallery. Check out the online alumni calendar for more details.

These events are free and open to all, and I hope those of you in nearby areas will consider attending. It’s a chance to connect with fellow alumni, wish President Mandle well, and catch up a bit on campus news. And it gives me the opportunity to meet more of you and hear what’s on your mind!

Here are a couple of photos from the Christie’s gathering in NYC in January.

Christina M. Hartley ‘74 IL
Director, Alumni Relations

I gave a dinner talk for the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science last night. Of particular interest was the fact that the Head of the department, Prof. Eric Grimson (pictured here with his wife Prof. Ellen Hildreth of Wellesley), is a RISD parent! Even more of an interesting coincidence was the fact that Ellen was my strongest inspiration for staying on at MIT when it was at its truly hardest — Ellen was a professor at MIT when I was an undergrad. I wouldn’t have made it this far without Ellen for certain. I’m sure there are many professors at RISD that have made a similar impact on students’ lives — I continue to believe that being a professor is a truly meaningful pursuit in life.

After the dinner, I had a chance to chat briefly with one of my intellectual idols Prof. Gerry Sussman. Gerry said something quite elegant: “Being smart in the arts is the same as being smart in engineering is the same as being smart in writing is the same as being smart in anything, really. It’s the ability to manipulate all the pieces of the puzzle in your mind, try to fit them together, and when they don’t fit quite right … you sand the edges/corners and make them all fit.” This thought made me smile.