Over 200 alumni, parents and friends converged on Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia for a celebration RISD-style, and a chance to meet President John Maeda. John shared some of his thoughts on leadership, his first-year explorations of RISD, and ways we can all engage with RISD and each other, and fielded questions such as how to balance tradition with innovation. We’re planning another of these events for those of you in the Providence area on June 11 at American Locomotive Works.  Register here now!

Photo of Nicole Miller ‘73 AP, Beth Garvin, Jon Kamen + Howard Read ‘76 PH
by  Steven Rosen ‘81 IL

I’m very excited that we have Sir Ken Robinson coming to speak here at our upcoming commencement exercises. If you watch this video you will get a sense of why I’m so psyched. -JM

I sat down with Department Head of Printmaking at RISD, Prof. Henry Ferreira, and we talked about the future and past of putting images onto paper. My favorite moment was Prof. Ferreira’s reference to having an “in the belly” feeling — it was a great way to describe that odd feeling of having a visceral, artistic instinct. -JM

For parents that are preparing to visit Providence for our upcoming commencement festivities, I’m sure that you are looking for possible places to enjoy a good meal with your special student. Being someone that prefers to cook more than eat, in recent days I have attempted to better understand what options exist outside the palate of RISD cuisine — although I do still recommend you get a salad at Watermark.

Yesterday I took my family to Fellinis based upon a recommendation from an undergrad that it was “the best delivery pizza around.” The whole wheat crust is amazing and the prices are very affordable. If you are looking on the slightly higher end I suggest you visit either of two ventures started by RISD grads: 1) Al Forno – their pizza as appetizer is hard to describe but hard to forget once you’ve tasted it, and 2) New Rivers – modern, fresh, and elegantly styled foods.

So, looking forward to seeing you at commencement! The slate of honorary degree recipients includes Caterina Fake (co-founder of Flickr), Jonathan Ive (VP of Design at Apple), Roger Mandle (15th President of RISD), Sir Ken Robinson (the man who I think is the greatest speaker on creativity in the world), and Betty Woodman (legendary artist and ceramicist). Wow! -JM

Together with a full house of attendees from all over New England (some parents visiting from the W. Coast and Europe) I enjoyed Collection 2009. Our graduates did an incredible job as led by Apparel Design Department Head Professor Donna Gustavsen. Congratulations Apparel 09 grads! -JM

This month Metropolis magazine declares alum Jenny Holzer MFA ‘77 PT “more relevant than ever” for her “stark and refreshing deployment of clear language. In her world, words still have power. Giant illuminated words have extra power.” Protect, Protect, a retrospective of Jenny’s work since the 1990s, is on view through May 31 at the Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC.

(Aside: if you think you’ve been following her Truisms on Twitter, be fooled no more. Jenny’s not transforming her truisms into daily tweets: it’s a pirate account that the artist “is fine with.”)

The Annual Graduate Thesis Exhibition opened May 14 (6-8pm) at the Rhode Island Convention Center (1 Sabin Street, Providence | map) and remains on view through May 30. Exhibition hours are 12-5pm daily, with special 12-8pm hours on Saturday, May 30 for RISD Commencement.

Don’t miss the chance to see the best new work by more than 130 RISD master’s degree candidates in 14 disciplines - it’s free and open to the public, too!

Congratulations to our Class of 2009!

Project Open Door, RISD’s free after school portfolio development program for teens, is wrapping up a successful year with an exhibition of drawings and sculpture by students in the program, some of whom are sharing the infamous bicycle drawings they did for their RISD admissions portfolios. The two-day show will be up on May 27 (1-4 pm) and May 28 (3-8 pm) at the CIT 103 (169 Weybosset Street). There’s a reception from 5-8 pm on the 28th, where you can meet some of the excited students now headed to art school.

Of the 30 POD students who applied to college, 17 got into RISD and others we accepted at the Art Institute of Chicago, California College of Art, Cooper-Union, Fashion Institute of Technology, MICA, MassArt, Parsons, Pratt, Savannah College of Art and Design and a host of other impressive art schools. Among this year’s visiting teachers/artists – who clearly deserve credit for helping these POD students do so well – are RISD Professor of English Mairéad Byrne, RISD Illustration Critic Jason Brockert ‘94 IL, CE drawing instructor Robin Wiseman BArch ‘70 and industrial designer Amy Leidtke MID ‘99.

“In many under-resourced communities, students who want to pursue visual arts and design are not given the same chances as their more wealthy peers,” notes Professor Paul Sproll, POD’s founder/director and head of RISD’s department of Teaching + Learning in Art + Design. “At RISD we know that supporting art education at all levels (including K-12) will not only help the college, but the future of our state’s – and indeed the nation’s – creative economy.”

[The drawings in the animation above are by Jinel Brito and Pamela Fung.]

If you haven’t done so already, be sure to call your mother or equivalent to wish them a HMD. My mother is still well in Seattle and I gave her a call just now. Which gives me a thought about her today.

When I was a child and worked in our family business, a tiny tofu store in the International District of Seattle, I recall that although my father’s silently arduous, craftsman approach to tofu was what drew customers from far abouts, it was my mother’s warm Hawaiian personality (she was born and raised in Oahu) that seemed to keep the customers drawn close to our little, and literal, “hole in the wall” shop. By growing up and watching the two of them work together, I learned the basics of business — a superior product delivered with superior customer service. Were it not for my mother, I’d probably have never discovered a way out of my paternally-inspired introverted ways of the silent craftsman; it was my mother that showed me that talking about what you do with a sense of humor and plenty of irreverence was just as important as the tofu that my father made.

So today I extend my special thanks to my mom for teaching me how to talk about what we do here at RISD. On many occasions I borrow her sense of optimism, openness to new people and experiences, and the occasional outrageous frog or butterfly decorative motif for inspiration as I communicate the incredible environment of RISD to all of you. HMD to my mother, and to all mothers around the globe! -JM

Reserve your tickets soon for Collection 2009 - our annual runway show - May 16 at 7pm in Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium. A sellout every year, the evening features work by RISD sophomores, juniors and seniors in Apparel Design. To see one senior’s collection, check out yesterday’s Boston Globe article featuring Peggy Sue Deaven ‘09 AP (that’s Peggy Sue and models wearing her Spring collection - “A Lady and a Gentleman” - above). Other samples of this year’s collections are here and - to give you a flavor of what’s in store for next Saturday night - videos from Collection 2008 are here.