This last weekend we had the first RISD Board of Trustee Meeting of the academic year. General business items were discussed with representatives of the student, faculty, and staff community, and there was a special presentation by Prof. Nancy Skolos of the Graphic Design Department to great fanfare and applause. In a slight change of the usual program of events of a Board Meeting, Dean Chris Rose designed a special set of activities for all Trustees to engage in an authentic “RISD Thinking Experience” in five different contexts around campus. Prof. Lothar Windels engaged them in a Furniture Design activity, Prof. Mark Milloff in a Basic Design and Critique activity, Prof. Anais Missakian and Curators Kate Irvin and Laurie Brewer in a Designer-meets-Curator activity in the context of an exhibition, Graduate Student Esteban del Valle in an ongoing exhibition of paintings, and Prof. Doug Scott in Graphic Design. As many interactions as possible with Students and Faculty together with the Trustees was my overall goal going into the meeting, and the Trustees were tickled pink with the opportunity to engage our unparalleled intellectual community.

So, through the experience of connecting with many audiences I’m slowly getting a hang of articulating “what makes RISD tick” … and if I were asked to point it out what the “tick” is, I would respond that it sounds like a heartbeat. I often refer to the fact that the excellence of our art and design programs are grounded in foundational studies during the first year and a liberal arts education that pervades all four years. At the heart of it all is a heartbeat — something that is insanely human at the core of everything. It dawned upon me yesterday that RISD teaches what might be best called “the life arts” — how to survive, live, and prosper as a human being in this world.

Survival depends upon knowing what matters most; living depends upon truly feeling what it means to be alive; and prospering means knowing how to give the gifts of humanity to others around us. It is why I have always felt that, The arts are the science of enjoying life.