Pat Thornton of RISD’s Parents Relations Program sent in this tale of one student’s path to RISD.

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Every now and then one wonders how a student decides to come to RISD. For Jamie Goldstein ‘11 PT the journey from Los Angeles to RISD involves Cranston and a RISD|Continuing Education connection that goes back to the 1950s.

Parents’ Council Co-Chair Erica Di Bona and her husband, Vincent Di Bona, Executive Producer and creator of America’s Funniest Home Videos and 2007 recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, are very happy with Jamie’s decision to attend RISD, even though it meant she attended school across the country. At the end of Jamie’s freshman year, she enthusiastically told her parents how much she had benefited from having the best teachers in her life, and that she had definitely made the right decision to come to RISD.

Jamie, her father Josh Goldstein, Erica and Vin reside in Los Angeles; the Cranston-RISD connection came through Vin. When Vin grew up in Cranston, RI, in the late 1950s, he took Continuing Education art classes at RISD with his best friend Alfred DiCredico ’66 PT. Vin went on to study film and radio at Emerson and UCLA, and eventually became a television producer. Alfred is a well-known painter and RISD professor. When Jamie knew she wanted to pursue an education in the arts, Vin, Alfred and David Schoffmann ’78 PT, Jamie’s mentor at Brentwood Art Center, who pointed her to RISD.

After Jamie completed the Precollege program her mind was made up. Jamie is now entering the sophomore year as a Painting major and her parents are on the RISD Parents’ Council, with Erica serving as one of the Co-chairs.

From Cranston to L.A. to Providence - many roads connect to RISD!

RISD remains a frequent focus of The New York Times, having been featured as part of articles the past two Sundays: in the “Education Life” section (July 27) and in yesterday’s “Travel” section (”36 Hours in Providence”). In addition to naming Providence among the “Towns They Don’t Want to Leave” (see this earlier post), the the “Education Life” editors sent Laura Buckman ‘10 PH out to capture the colors and vibrancy of the RISD campus. The RISD students featured in the slideshow of Laura’s work are Matt Leifheit ‘11, Scott Stevenson ‘10 AP, Allison Wucher ‘09 PT and Elizabeth Englander ‘11.

Yesterday’s travel feature on Providence dubbed the RISD Museum’s collection as “up-to-date and comprehensive” and made special mention of work by RISD alumni on view in the galleries. The piece also singled out Al Forno, the famed restaurant run by alumni George Germon ‘69 CR and Johanne Killeen ‘71 PH, as having “put Providence on the culinary map three decades ago”.

You can see the Times‘ visual take on Providence in this slideshow.

Work by Kim DeMarco ‘88 IL — “Night Cap,” on the August 4 issue — is once again the cover illustration of The New Yorker. Between freelance commissions that include work for The New York Times and others, Kim also manages to keep up a fun visual blog, which includes her design work and photographs, among other items of interest.

RISD’s fair city had its day in the New York Times this past Sunday, named as a “Town They Don’t Want To Leave”.  They being graduates, of course.  Rhody shared the stage with other creative hubs like Athens, GA and Chapel Hill, NC, and was singled out as a destination for visual artists.

In April RISD President John Maeda moderated a conversation on the theme of “Simplicity” at the Philip Johnson Glass House in New Canaan, CT. Since last year the Glass House (1949) — an icon of modernism — has been operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as a center for the preservation of modern architecture, landscape and art, honoring the legacy of Philip Johnson and David Whitney [RISD ‘63, Interior Architecture], both of whom died in 2005.

The Glass House Conversations are meant to preserve the house as a “living museum” with ongoing salons emulating those that Johnson himself hosted. Among those participating in President Maeda’s Conversation were Diego Rodriguez of IDEO, Jason Fried of 37signals, Ambra Medda of Design Miami, Michelle McMurry of the Aspen Institute and Linda Tischler of Fast Company.

In the video below President Maeda shares his impressions and talks about how the Glass House relates to his theories of “simplicity”.

Dean Snyder, assistant professor and head of RISD’s Sculpture Department, was commissioned by the 2008 Olympic Committee to create an enlarged (2 m. diameter) version of his 2001 rawhide sculpture Boogle for exhibition in conjunction with the summer Olympics in Beijing. One of 130 works in the Beijing International City Sculpture Exhibition Beijing Olympic Art Dream, the carved marble piece is sited in the new Beijing Olympic Aquatic Center and is intended for permanent installation.

Eleven members of RISD’s Class of 2008 — Philippe Previl (Painting; at left), James Ewart (Sculpture), Sam Gray (Graphic Design), Naushon Hale, Henrik Söderström, Da Sul Kim (all Furniture Design), Leo Livshetz (Industrial Design), Brian Briggs (Architecture), Winn Bauer (Ceramics), Colin Lynch (Glass) and Andy Cahill (FAV) — are featured as models in the August issue of Esquire, in “Intelligent Design,” the magazine’s preview of fall fashions for men. In May these not-quite-yet-alums took time from their busy end-of-semester schedules to be photographed (by Mischa Richter/ESP) in their studios and classrooms, with their artwork and around the RISD campus. In addition to wearing very expensive clothes very well, they offered their thoughts about the future of their particular disciplines and of art and design in general. Said furniture maker Hale: “Watch for an explosion in biomimicry, in which designers take patterns from nature — the beauty and simplicity of those systems that have been developing for millions of years — and apply them to new design concepts.”

RISD’s 2008 undergraduate and graduate admissions catalogues, produced by RISD’s Communications + Design Division, have both won awards recently. Director of Admissions Ed Newhall BArch ‘74 and Gilbert Design, the Providence-based firm run by Joe Gilbert ‘74 GD and Melissa Gilbert ‘76 GD, jointly accepted the Mohawk Windpower Partnership Award for printing the undergrad book on FSC-certified Mohawk Options, which offsets 100% of the energy used to make it with Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) from non-polluting windpower projects. Competing against 4,700 entries, the grad admissions catalogue designed by Isaac Gertman MFA ‘07 GD was selected by the American Institute of Graphic Arts as one of 255 “examples of outstanding design produced in 2007.” It will be included in 365: AIGA Annual Design Competitions 29, which will be presented as both a print annual and a traveling exhibition that opens at the AIGA National Design Center in NYC on December 10.

Trustee and RISD parent Dick Haining reports that there is an upcoming exhibition of work by alumni Bill Hall ‘70 IL and Kenn Speiser ‘68 SC at the Greenleaf Gallery in Duck, NC. The exhibition is on view August 1-31 and will feature watercolors and oils by Bill and a series of handmade prints by Kenn. So, if your summer travel plans include a trip to the Outer Banks, be sure to stop in!

Thanks, Dick, for keeping us informed!

Erica Gerard Di Bona and Brian Lefler have recently been appointed co-chairs of the Parents’ Council, starting in July, 2008. Both are parents of students who have just completed their Foundation Studies year and both have been on the Council for the past year.

Through the Parents’ Council, the co-chairs hope to encourage other parents to support RISD with their time, professional experience, connections in the world of art and design and through financial contributions.

Erica, a television producer who lives in Los Angeles, recognizes the particular challenges parents living on the West Coast (and other distant places) face in being closely involved from a geographic distance. She plans to take a role that will connect her to the school in meaningful ways despite living in LA, 3,000 miles away. By serving as co-chair of the Parents’ Council she hopes to help form a large network of parents around the US and the world.

Brian is a vice president in the corporate office of Fifth Third Securities in East Lansing, MI, where he supervises the development and financing of public, commercial and nonprofit projects. Translating his understanding of investment to the RISD landscape, he sees an opportunity for expanding the participation of RISD parents in supporting RISD. He hopes to increase awareness of the college among parents and would like to encourage support and ideas for increasing representation in Annual Giving.

Lefler sees that his son Lucas Lefler ‘11 AR has found his niche. Lucas tells Brian again and again that he is so glad to be at a school that’s putting him ahead of his peers in terms of education and training.

Di Bona’s daughter Jamie Goldstein ‘11 PT has had a similar response to studying at RISD. Erica is thrilled that Jamie is in “exactly the right place.” In her first year at RISD, Jamie reported that she had three of the best teachers in her life.

If you have any questions about the Parents’ Council, please contact Pat Thornton: pthornto*AT*risd.edu