Several RISD people and studios are referenced in three new design books published this fall. President John Maeda and faculty members Charlie Cannon and Liliane Wong are all quoted in Warren Berger’s new book GLIMMER: How design can transform your life, and maybe even the world. One of Wong’s students, Laura Sussman BIA ’08, is also mentioned in reference to her independent study project for a school in Tanzania. A poster design studio taught by Graphic Design Professor Nancy Skolos is given four pages in Steven Heller’s and Lita Talarico’s Design School Confidential: Extraordinary Class Projects from International Design Schools. And President Maeda is cited as a design expert in Roger Martin’s new release The Design of Business.

Providence’s New Urban Arts executive director Jason Yoon ‘01 PT recently traveled to the White House to accept a Coming Up Taller Award from First Lady Michelle Obama. The award, an initiative of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, is the nation’s highest honor for out-of-school time arts and humanities programs (only 15 groups were cited). This is amazing and deserved recognition for the 12-year-old organization dedicated to empowering young people through creative development and providing the studio/exhibition space to do so. Each year New Urban Arts helps 150 Providence public high school students and 20 emerging artists. Keep up the important work and congratulations!

(Jason and the First Lady are pictured here with Rosalia Velis, a New Urban Arts alumna.)

RISD students have worked hard to pull together RISD Exposé, a “pop-up” gift shop/gallery featuring their own original works of art – perfect for holiday giving. Working with the Office of Student Life, the organizers found a suitable location in Downcity Providence, invited all undergrad and grad students to submit work and designed the displays and presentation. They’re offering paintings, photography, jewelry, ceramics, clothing, furniture, glass, prints and sculpture at the temporary shop, which will be open daily (except for Mondays) from 11am to 6pm through December 12. Located at 232 Westminster Street, the inviting venue is full of extraordinary handmade gifts you can’t find anywhere else. If you can, stop by for the grand opening on Friday, November 20, starting at 7pm and/or support their efforts by giving everyone on your list the perfect gift of student-made art this holiday season.

Roni Horn aka Roni Horn, a new show given two full floors at the Whitney, presents the most comprehensive overview to date of the extensive, at times elegant and often confounding work of Roni Horn ’75 SC. Her selected drawings, photographs, cast glass sculpture, artist’s books and commanding writings from the past 35 years make for a show that’s as unconventional as she is. Read more about Roni and the show in this new article in W and in Roberta Smith’s somewhat mixed review in The New York Times. Jointly organized by the Whitney and Tate Modern, the show continues in NYC through January 24 and then moves on to the ICA in Boston from February 19 through June 13.

For the second year in a row, RISD animators from Film/Animation/Video won Best School Showreel at the 2009 Ottawa International Animation Festival. Held each year in mid-October, the festival is the largest of its kind in North America, attracting submissions, jurors and film lovers from around the world. RISD’s winning reel featured the work of 2009 seniors and won out over films from other undergraduate and graduate programs throughout the world. Good work, guys!

Next Monday (November 16) Professor of Graphic Design Tom Ockerse will accept an award of “Grandmaster” from the Art Directors Club in NYC. Tom has been teaching at RISD since 1971, served as GD department head for twenty years and began our MFA program in 1976. He and three other honorees are being recognized for shaping the visual communications industry and mentoring generations of designers on to successful and respected careers.

The Club is also mounting an exhibition of the honorees’ work, which is on view in the ADC Gallery from November 17-December 4, 2009.

Congratulations, Grandmaster Tom!

History of Art and Visual Culture faculty member Margot Nishimura’s recent exhibition of marginalia in medieval manuscripts lives on in the virtual world - as an interactive guide that allows visitors to explore the intricate drawings on several pages of two late medieval manuscripts. Described by Margot as “The New Yorker cartoons of their day,” the images expand on the narrative of the manuscripts themselves, often poking fun at their lofty themes and human foibles. Margot’s catalogue of manuscripts from the British Museum and the Getty, Images in the Margins, accompanied the “Out of Bounds” exhibition.

How exciting to see John Maeda, Grad Studies faculty member Amber Frid-Jiminez and grad research assistant Kate Hollenbach MFA ’11 GD on Bloomberg Television last weekend. They were interviewed as part of an Innovators episode called Turning Point, which focuses on the g-speak spatial operating environment (SOE) currently under development by Oblong Industries. RISD is one of three schools beta-testing g-speak and is running a second studio using the SOE this fall. In addition to suggesting the huge ramifications of Oblong’s venture, the Bloomberg piece points to the value of working with artists in the development of groundbreaking technologies like this one.

Imagine our delight walking the streets of New York to happen upon the AIGA’s 365 exhibit honoring the year’s best in Communication Design. And our further delight at seeing RISD’s graduate viewbook among the honorees again this year!  The viewbook was designed by RISD’s own Isaac Gertman MFA ‘07 GD as The Independent Group in Brooklyn, with our very own Liisa Silander as editorial lead. The only thing more wonderful than the catalog is all of the graduate students it helps to bring us!

After beating out two other talented finalists, Philadelphia-based artist Ryan Trecartin ’04 FAV has just been named the first winner of the Jack Wolgin International Competition in the Fine Arts, which comes with a $150,000 cash prize – the world’s largest given to a visual artist in a juried competition.

Created earlier this year by Jack Wolgin, a real estate developer, banker and philanthropist in Philadelphia, the competition was established at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art “to recognize an emerging artist with a significant studio practice who critically and creatively engages with existing histories and images, and whose work transcends traditional boundaries.”

Ryan certainly fits the description. Through both his amazing video output and a collaborative sculpture practice with artist Lizzie Fitch, he produces outlandish but bizarrely true-to-life work that you just may want to check out on Ubuweb and Vimeo. Way to go, Ryan!