Tomorrow October 24 (Saturday) watch Prof. Kyna Leski speak at Pop!Tech on the RISD approach to critical thinking and critical making. Live webcast is at America Reimagined. -JM

Yesterday I spoke at the annual Executive Women’s Leadership conference at Reebok by the invitation of Brown grad Sarah Stuart on my favorite topic of “Creative Leadership.” There I had the chance to meet Trish Karter who is the CEO of one of my favorite sources of cookies (no kidding). Ms. Karter began her life as a studio artist that later discovered how to channel her ability to “think in leaps” as a successful industry consultant, went back to the purity of painting and established that career, and then came back as an entrepreneur running an inspired enterprise as a classic creative leader.

In my many encounters with creative leaders around the world that channel the power of art-thinking and design-thinking, I am convinced we live in a new, exciting time of opportunity for the world of art and design. It’s just begun. -JM

Within weeks of arriving on campus last year, I was asked whether I was going to change the name of the “Jolly Roger.” I thought, “The ‘Jolly Roger’? Isn’t that a pirate thing? What does it have to do with RISD?” Turns out that the Jolly Roger is a RISD Dining venture from the magical mind of our Director of Dining and Retail Ginnie Dunleavy that is named after President Roger Mandle — it’s on the southern tip of the RISD campus and right near our architecture studios. The sandwiches are delicious and sitting in the company of RISD students will make you at least ten times more creative. And rest assured that it will remain the “Jolly Roger” — the “Jolly John” doesn’t make it into the official pirate dictionary (smile). -JM

Today I had the opportunity to share the sunshine and delicious food from RISD Dining with the undergrads and grads at our beautiful Tillinghast farm. Many bicycled to Barrington from RISD. i cheated and drove my car. Thanks to the undergrads that pulled me into their frisbee game. -JM

Today in my inbox I was happy to see a notification that we are moving ahead with integrating the DIGICATION platform into our usage here at RISD. Digication is the brainchild of two of our alums, Kelly Driscoll and Jeffrey Yan, and is a course management system that integrates our unique traditions here at RISD of critical thinking and critical making into a Web-based system. Thanks to the folks in our IT department together with the Digication people for moving this along so ably. And special thanks go to RISD’s Associate Provost of Academic Affairs David Bogen for convincing me (at least every other week since I arrived) that this is what we needed to do. -JM

Thanks to the fine work of our Institutional Engagement division and their enthusiasm for my priority to build greater support for scholarships and scholarly work, I was happy to visit the Lenore Tawney Foundation last month in New York to personally thank them for their generous creation of a fine arts scholarship to support our legendary Textile Department as led by Prof. Anais Missakian.

As I toured the studio of the late Ms. Tawney, I was struck by the incredible richness of vocabulary in which she practiced and lived. Natural elements like bones, feathers, shells, rocks were abound and placed in direct harmony with found objects from all over the world. There were a multitude of little cabinets like the one I show in the video above. Cabinets of mystery. Cabinets of the incredible mind of Lenore Tawney.

We are so proud to honor Ms. Tawney’s memory with this new fine arts scholarship. -JM

A few days ago I had the opportunity to visit with Curator Dr. Emily Peters in our Prints, Drawings, and Photographs department and Prof. Andrew Raftery of our Printmaking department to get a preview of our upcoming The Brilliant Line exhibition conceived by Dr. Peters opening September 16. I won’t give away any of the details to ensure that you get yourself somehow to Providence this month, but it’s important to note that it’s unlike anything you might ever get to experience today. Dürer printworks from our collection and from all over are displayed along the living process of Prof. Raftery’s exquisite mastery of the printmaking process. Shown above is one of the plates he’s prepared for the show — each example enscribed over an average period of 6 days. For any fan of printmaking it is a dream come true to see the masterful past and the masterful present come alive together. And for anyone tired of looking at drab computerized reproductions or printouts or the likes, I invite you to come and see the pure integrity embodied in the rich history of printmaking. -JM

I dropped by the Landscape Architecture department presentation entitled, “Design Foundations/Field Ecology” at the BEB. There I saw a great set of work performed over the summer as led by some of the faculty in Landscape Architecture. Lead TA George Harvey gave a rousing closing speech to the students, “Thank you for being open and responsive to criticism, and for putting your egos besides yourselves. Through the experience, all of you learned how to reflect and give criticism to each other as true peers.” Well said, Mr. Harvey. -JM

Last week I spoke at the yearly Adventures of the Mind conference for 150 of our nation’s brightest 15 to 18 year old students that gathered at Princeton’s renowned Institute for Advanced Studies. There I was happy to bump into RISD FAV undergrad Julian Marshall and the CEO of Mozilla (makers of my favorite web browser, Firefox) John Lilly. It’s always nice to speak about the importance of art and design as the critical IDEA needed in our nation’s advancement, and to ask high school students to consider the importance of creativity in their own futures.

As I sat for lunch there with a couple of high school students from my native city of Seattle, I was asked the following, “My parents don’t want me to go into the arts, and instead want me to become a doctor. How do I convince them otherwise?” First of all, many of my good friends are doctors so there’s nothing wrong with that. However I let them know that over this last year I’ve come in contact with RISD grads that have become great artists, designers, entrepreneurs, cakemakers, realtors, financiers, lawyers, gallerists, restauranteurs, dentists, and yes, I found a doctor as well. Thus an arts and design education is a wonderful foundation for many possible futures. I suggested that she have her parents watch our recent commencement speaker Sir Ken Robinson as a start, as well as his talk on TED. Watching Sir Ken is a true adventure of the mind. -JM

STEM is an acronym you can see and hear all around the world as the intellectual ad campaign for “Science, Technology, Engineering, Math.” Indeed STEM is an important factor in achieving innovations today, but it’s only half of the puzzle — there needs to be a humanizing force to any invention for it to become relevant and important. What’s missing is the raison d’etre of a STEM outcome. That could only come from an IDEA-based approach — “Intuition, Design, Emotion, Art.” In this new century, whole-innovation will emerge naturally from the marriage of STEM together with IDEA. -JM