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

My afternoon pang of hunger was sated by a quick visit to Haven Bros. For RISD students it’s an important late night trek to make as it’s not just a diner — it’s an institution unto itself. It was profiled last year by Today Show hosts Meredith Vieira and Matt Lauer. I personally recommend the “classic hot dog” — chopped onions and mustard. True simplicity. -JM

Anywhere you walk in Providence, you’re bound to have a RISD-connected moment. Just outside of my office building at the golden hour, I bumped into professional photographer Bill Murphy who is a proud graduate of our CE Advertising and Print Design Certificate program. You can easily get hungry by perusing Bill’s gallery of delicious photos, and be sure to check out his impressive sports photos. -JM

Ms. Jill McGrath in New York asked me to share some sad news about one of our recent graduates, “Peter St. Onge (Printmaking ‘09) passed away tragically on August 8.” Peter was someone that I had just shook hands with at commencement a few months ago. I am deeply saddened by this loss. For anyone that wishes to offer condolences for Peter, please visit PeterStOnge.com. His family has created a scholarship fund for the arts in his memory: PETER ST ONGE SCHOLARSHIP FOR THE ARTS, Rumson, Fair Haven Bank & Trust, Attn: Alexandra Smith, 20 Bingham Avenue, Rumson, NJ 07760.

The Department of Teaching + Learning in Art + Design has had a long and very successful partnership with CityArts. The Executive Director, Barbara Wong, is a graduate of RISD’s MA in Art + Design Education. Her commitment, along with Prof. John Chamberlin’s longstanding commitment through his course “Community Art Project,” are critical to the success of the partnership. Community Art Project provides undergraduate students with the challenge to leave their RISD studios to develop engaging and creative learning opportunities for CityArts youngsters.

City Arts’ new Education Director, Adrienne Gagnon, also graduated with a RISD MA. While at RISD, she was a Teaching Assistant for Prof. Chamberlin’s Community Art Project course.

Their recent “summer soiree” was held at the beautiful Woods-Gerry mansion here at RISD last Friday on a glorious summer day. -JM

Towards the end of yesterday I had an out-of-the-blue telephone call from one of our graduates, Prof. Jan Wampler ‘63 of MIT. Prof. Wampler is highly esteemed at MIT, and I had the opportunity to meet him a few times during my tenure there and was aware of his RISD roots. He asked me, “How are you doing?” And I spoke about my excitement for being part of a tradition dating back to 1877 that is grounded in critical making and critical thinking. Prof. Wampler gave a wistful sigh of happiness, “Foundation studies. It’s where I … became.”

In a few weeks from now the incoming class of 2013 will be at our doors. And you will know what Prof. Wampler speaks of — a first-year transformational experience that is legendary for its dedication to materials-based thinking and arduous training in process as the outcome. I look forward to seeing the new students in our Edna Lawrence Nature Lab and enjoying a lot of exercise walking up Waterman Street. Regards, -JM

I was happy to receive news from students and recent grads that they’ve launched a new entrepreneurial venture that mixes RISD talent in fine art photography with apparel design, graphic design, product design and moustache-growing as an online gallery store. Having just purchased a two-pak there, I can say that the customer experience went very well and I look forward to delivery of my artwork. -JM

Artist Paul Simon told me last year that I needed to meet Eugene Lee — the eponymous set designer for Saturday Night Live — because he was connected to RISD. So last month I visited this mythical person at his studio in Providence which is only a few blocks from our campus. I was delighted to learn that Mr. Lee designed the set of one of my favorite musicals, Wicked … and many other projects of major repute. There are so many interesting parts to the RISD universe. I continue to be amazed. -JM