I suggest you come at once to the RISD Museum to check out our popular Marcel Breuer exhibit – reviewed in the Providence Journal and the Boston Globe. For any student or aficionado of architecture and design it’s quite a treat. The architectural models are all at the same scale so the experience is utterly sublime. The West Coast-born person inside me wants to say “it’s totally tubular” but I will hold that back to reserve my properly trained East Coast demeanor. -JM

PS There are tons more things to see at the RISD Museum so stay all day if you can.

At RISD it’s fairly common to find a fine artist that thinks like a designer, or a designer that thinks like a fine artist. It’s also *very* common to find a RISD alumni that graduated in architecture and is now a ceramicist, or one that graduated in glass and is now a graphic designer, or one that is a painter and now is an interior designer, or … well, you get the idea. And for the purists out there, I do find RISD folks that graduate in a major and stay within that specific discipline with incredible success. So here at RISD we are an extremely open minded community that accepts all flavors and permutations of the creative mind. “Vanilla” or “banana split” – I like to call this latter category “hybrids”.

As a Twitter experiment, I am currently soliciting “design hybrids” (on Twitter #designhybrids) from the Twitter and Facebook communities. My Facebook page is smaller as I don’t have the mousing muscles to click “Accept” hundreds of times, but it’s certainly a strong group. It all started when I was curious to define a “design hybrid” with the following tweet:

The rocking chair is a cross between a stool and a treadmill. What other #designhybrids exist?

So far the submissions on Twitter and FB include:

If you have such a hybrid in mind, please go onto Twitter and respond to this post by placing the “#designhybrids” line into the context of your post and it can be aggregated later. Thanks and have a great weekend, -JM

A couple of nights ago I stopped by the RISD Phonathon crew on the 4th floor of Woods-Gerry. Jim Wolken and Ellen Cheston (sorry for catching you in a blink, Ellen) were there to show me the ropes on how to make calls to our alumni to talk about the “RISD Triangle”. Before Jim and Ellen had a chance however, and as with all things here at RISD, a student quickly stood up and said, “I’ll show you!”

So I learned how to make a call to RISD graduates across all disciplines and years, ask if they wanted to hear what’s happening at RISD, fill them in on what’s happening here, talk about my favorite passion of increasing financial aid, and then ask them for a small donation to our cause. Thanks to the pleasant alumni in New Jersey that told me about her fond memories of being at RISD, and for your gift of $25; and thanks to undergrad Courtney (photographed above) for her leadership of 11 proud phoners I met that evening. -JM

A few weeks ago I met with Ellen Rudolph and RISD Alum Rebecca Volinsky ‘05 who are from The Surdna Foundation, which has provided funding for our Project Open Door program for five years. Each year this college preparation program serves more than 100 teens from Rhode Island and around the country, affording them the opportunity to experience the rich resources of our campus, to study with RISD faculty, RISD grad students, and visiting professional teaching artists and designers, and to benefit from mentoring from RISD grad students. Thanks to the commitment of Ellen and the support of Surdna, RISD has been able to make great strides toward providing access to arts education for talented teens from a myriad of backgrounds and helping them to access higher education in art and design. Our shared vision is to assist burgeoning artists and designers who are representative of the rich tapestry of American culture. RISD is also grateful to the NEA and the Amgen Foundation for its continuing support of Project Open Door. -JM

Don’t miss the chance to hear alum Gus Van Sant ‘75 FAV talk about his fascinating (and wildly successful) career as a film director and screenwriter. The lecture is Tuesday, April 28 at 7pm in the RISD Auditorium and it’s free! Known for his magical combination of ingenious writing, perceptive casting and detail-obsessed directing, Gus is one of the most influential directors working today.

In 2009 both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and the Directors Guild of America nominated him for best director for Milk, the biopic that won Sean Penn an Oscar for his portrayal of politician and gay rights activist Harvey Milk. Earlier critically acclaimed and award-winning films include Drugstore Cowboy (1989), My Own Private Idaho (1991), To Die For (1995), Good Will Hunting (1997), Finding Forrester (2000) and the made-for-HBO film Elephant (2003).

It was at RISD that Gus was first exposed to the work of avant-garde directors Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas and Andy Warhol, an introduction that inspired him to major in Film/Animation/Video…come to the Auditorium on Tuesday night and learn more about Gus and his RISD experiences!

“Do you want to be a cog in the wheel, or do you want to drive the car?” This is what one RISD professor asked Chriss Slevin ‘97 PT/MFA ‘07 TX (that’s Chriss on the right). For her the choice was clear - she wanted to be in the driver’s seat.

Chriss was one of the alumni volunteers who met with newly accepted students at Cheim + Read in NYC last night to welcome them and their families to the RISD community. The reception also provided students with the opportunity to ask questions and hear more about the RISD experience as they grapple with making the all-important decision about whether or not RISD is the right choice for them.

It’s delightful to meet and hear these enthusiastic young artists and designers talk about their path to RISD, and their hopes and dreams for the future. As good as that is, though, it’s equally heartbreaking to hear some of these students tell us that they will most likely not be able to attend since they did not receive enough financial aid. If you recently received President Maeda’s letter, you know how committed he is to generating more support for our students; please respond to his request so that we can put more up-and-coming artists in the driver’s seat!

The 2009 Scholarship Luncheon was held this past Friday, April 17th at the President’s house. Not only was it an idyllic spring day, but we broke the record with over 90 scholarship supporters, student recipients, faculty and staff in attendance.

The event inspired a true sense of the RISD community, bringing together alumni, students, advocates of the RISD mission, and our own faculty and staff members. President Maeda put it best when he recognized those in attendance and stated the reason they came to be a part of the day, because they are a “sister, brother, daughter, son, wife, mother, father, student of a late or living faculty member or graduate. An active artist or designer alumnus, or a parent of a current student here at RISD. A local or global corporation and/or a foundation that believes in the RISD cause. What binds you all together is that you are here to remember and recognize someone or ones, and that special relation they had or have with our RISD. And you want to keep RISD going strong, and I thank you for your passion for our shared cause.”

Provost Jessie Shefrin emphasized the true opportunities that RISD allows students and her point was exemplified by the honest and passionate words of Todd Austin ‘10 AR and Frank Cresencia ‘10 FD. The two students both expressed their sincere gratitude to those in the room, noting that they would not be at RISD today if it wasn’t for support from people like them. President Maeda asked all of the students to put their hand on the shoulder of a scholarship supporter and let their philanthropy “rub-off” on them, and to consider that maybe one day they too would give back to the place that encouraged and nurtured them.

Thank you to everyone who attended and who made the day so extraordinary, and a special thank you to each student who attended, you all truly enhanced the event and allowed everyone a glimpse into why we do what we do.

Looking forward to next year!

A quick interview I shot in my office with writer Ellen Liberman – I found her thesis quite interesting. Ellen’s point was that if it is made by hand, it isn’t necessarily more expensive than if it were mass-manufactured. Not convinced? Take a few tips from Ellen. -JM

A few blocks from the RISD campus is the Lenore Gray (401-274-3900) gallery at 15 Meeting Street here in Providence. Many RISD faculty members show their work there – if you are lucky enough to be in the neighborhood be sure to check out the work of Professors Horii and Immonen of our Foundation Studies program. I like how Lenore, the proprietor, said that the work on display was almost “sculptural” in nature even though it was two-dimensional work. -JM

I once wrote about Prof. Mike Fink who comes up in conversation quite a bit with our alumni. Last week I sat down with him at breakfast to do a quick interview and found it quite an experience. You can find it on iTunes or it’s available right here. -JM