Great news for glass artist Mary Shaffer ’65 IL: she’s one of 50 people nationwide to win a United States Artists (USA) Fellowship for 2009. The USA Fellows program awards unrestricted grants of $50,000 each to artists from all disciplines and at all ages and stages of their careers.

Mary pioneered the art of slumped glass – a process she appropriated from the auto industry and made her own since falling in love with the medium in the late ’60s. Though RISD’s glass program didn’t get off the ground until a few years after she graduated from Illustration, she picked up everything she could about glass by hanging around the hot new hot shop and learning from gurus like Dale Chihuly MFA ’68 CR and Fritz Dreisbach.

Recognized for the caliber and impact of their work, the most recent USA winners were were announced in December at an awards ceremony in Santa Monica. Alumni Tanya Aguiñiga MFA ’05 FD and Liz Collins ’91 TX/MFA ’99 (who’s also an assistant professor of Textiles at RISD) won USA Fellowships in 2006.

Photo by the United Nations Development Programme / CC BY 2.0

Please visit risdhaiti.wordpress.com for complete information on how RISD students, faculty, staff and alumni and the broader Providence community are mobilizing in support of Haitian earthquake relief efforts.

President Maeda took off today to bring the RISD IDEA of Intuition, Design, Emotion, Art all over Asia and Europe. Beginning in Hong Kong, he will speak tomorrow at a forum for youth, give a public lecture, and celebrate the launch of the RISD Hong Kong Alumni Club with parents and alumni. (Leaders of the club beginning the planning in June, above.)

Trustee Michael Spalter has arranged for a group of interested friends to meet John in Geneva, as he makes his way to the World Economic Forum in Davos.  At the WEF, a gathering of over 2,000 leaders from business, government, the arts, and nonprofits focus on everything from rebuilding Haiti to art, design, and creativity. John will present with Tim Brown, Paola Antonelli, and Cameron Sinclair on design as a method of social change, and will lead an “IdeaLab” with Harvard President Drew Faust.

The following week includes a public talk at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (tell your friends!) and many more conversations with RISD friends. Look around you, RISD is everywhere.

More good news just out for UP, Pixar’s latest coup and one for supervising animator Scott Clark ’96 IL, too, who oversaw the efforts of the dozens of animators involved. In addition to winning a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film of 2009, [UPdate 02.02.10…] it has been nominated for five Academy Awards – for Best Picture, Best Animated Feature, Best Music (Original Soundtrack), Best Sound Editing and Best Writing (Original Screenplay)!

More good news just in for Grace Lin ’96 IL: her latest children’s book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon has been named a 2010 Newbery Honor Book, meaning Grace is suitably psyched!

Apparel Design Professor Emerita Linda Bowab, who taught at RISD from 1950–84 and is pictured here in 1950 and at a RISD event just two years ago when she was 94(!), died on January 14, 2010 at the age of 96. She studied Fashion Design at RISD in the 1930s and in the 1960s pursued her ongoing interests in art and theatre at Brown University and the University of Rhode Island.

During her 34 years of teaching at RISD, Professor Bowab influenced hundreds of students and protéges, including designers Nicole Miller ’73 AP and Monique Robidoux ’77 AP, among others. For 25 years after retiring, she took yoga class, was actively involved at her church and volunteered at a local hospital. She loved RISD, and relished gatherings of fellow professors emeriti, always arriving as elegant as ever – and serving as a wonderful inspiration for a life well lived. “Linda will be deeply missed by all knew and admired her at RISD,” notes Provost Jessie Shefrin.

RISD students tend to be multitalented and almost naturally theatrical. So what could be better than the latest Wintersession obsession to emerge from the minds of Greg Kozatek ’10 IL and Jean Kim ’10 IL?

The two seniors are among the prime movers behind RISD: The Musical!, a rollicking production being developed via a non-credit Wintersession workshop. With customized lyrics for preexisting tunes, the two-act show will present a satirical take on the lives of RISD students from Foundation year through graduation. Roughly 70 students (including the 8 cast members shown above) are getting involved in acting, singing, dancing, set design, costumes and make-up, with showtime slated for February 26 or 27. (Stay tuned for details.)

Check out thefuntheory.com, where Matthew Borgatti ID ‘07 is competing to win grant money to fund his concept for an “Anywhere Organ” - public installations of individual pipes connected to a central air supply through a long hose, allowing anyone to play the organ…anywhere. The Fun Theory Award - a initiative of Volkswagen - recognizes the thoughts, ideas and inventions that help prove that “fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better.” Good luck, Matthew - you have our vote!

P.S. The voting deadline is tomorrow - January 15, 2010 - so cast your virtual ballot soon! 

RISD mourns the loss of Foundation Studies Professor Alfred DeCredico ‘66 PT, who died on December 26. He was 65.

Alfred DeCredico’s life-long relationship with RISD began at the age of nine when he took his first art classes here. He studied in Italy as part of RISD’s European Honors Program and graduated from the Painting Department in 1966. Before coming back to RISD to teach in Foundation Studies in 1981, Alfred taught at Providence College, the University of Rhode Island and Harvard University. HIs multidisciplinary work has been shown nationally and internationally and is included in numerous museum, corporate and private collections (including RISD’s). He enjoyed fruitful collaborations with other artists such as Toots Zynsky ‘73 GL and Lino Tagliapietra. Alfred passed his love of critical making and thinking - and of RISD - to countless RISD students, among them his talented sons: Cesare ‘05 PT and Alessandro ‘08 FAV.

Alfred’s passions and interests were many and varied - he collected African art, cooked like a Cordon Bleu chef, maintained and acted upon a keen interest in urbanism, experimented with new materials and learned new disciplines - and above all cherished his role as teacher. For generations of RISD students he was an inspirational and liberating professor and a tremendous influence in the Foundation Studies Drawing studios.

A member of the pioneering group of artists that started the reclamation of abandoned industrial buildings in Providence’s Jewelry District in the 1980s, at the time of his death Alfred had completed the first phase of his second large scale re-purposing project and had begun planning the its next phase.

At his family’s request, Alfred’s funeral service and burial will be private (see Providence Journal obituary here). A memorial service will be held this spring at RISD. More information will be posted on this page when it becomes available.

The portrait above was taken in Providence in 1969 by Steve Liebman ‘70 PH.

Illustration students and recent grads took the top two prizes in the Illustration West 48 competition sponsored by the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles, according to Professor Susan Doyle ’81 IL/MFA’98 PT/PR. Sam Burley ’09 IL won a Gold Award (which comes with a sweet $1,000) for his piece Ancient Threshold (shown above), while Dadu Shin ’10 IL took Silver and earned the Elin Waite/Dick Oden Scholarship ($750) for his submission, Runner. Both of these pieces (and a second one by Sam, called Vietnam War) will be shown in the early spring Illustration West 48 exhibition and online gallery, along with works by five other Illustration majors: Lisa Butler ’10 IL, Fabiola Garza ’09 IL, Jean Kim ’10 IL, Nick Nadeau ’10 IL and Victo Ngai ’10 IL. “Art directors, editors, designers and media folks who need artists go to the online gallery looking for young talent, so it’s a great launch,” Professor Doyle points out.