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

I was at the White House a few weeks ago for the National Design Awards reception in my role as Chair of the jury for this year’s awards lineup and as a Trustee of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. I’ve noted that some things at the White House have changed from the years I visited before — with hand-lettered place cards, an heirloom tomato salad, and a notable phalanx of photographers focused on Mrs. Obama.

Many RISD grads were there, including last year’s People’s Choice awardee Stuart Karten as well as honoree Tobias Frere-Jones. And oddly, I sat with the mother of a past honoree who said that her daughter was a RISD grad. To which I learned she was actually a Brown grad that took several RISD classes … but was proud to identify herself as from RISD in many circles. I’ve met other Brown grads that say a similar thing actually. And I’m not one to complain about that at all. RISD is where we all want to be. -JM

It was nice to hear from RISD alum Emily Albinski to learn how she won first place in the LG design competition hosted on crowdspring.com. Online communities-for-hire like crowdspring have been in the making for many years called collectively as crowdsourcing — the Web has enabled such a phenomena to happen. And it’s great to see that RISD grads are way on top (Emily let me know that there are many other RISD alums on the winner list).

The online art world is also evolving in interesting ways, but is definitely still “under construction.” Saatchi online has always puzzled me, but it definitely gets much attention. So many things happening today. It’s all quite an amazing time to be alive and to experience it all. -JM

Tucked away in our Edna Lawrence Nature Lab are a series of models from the Loeb Collection in Foundation Studies. These shapes are not from nature … but they really are. The Loeb Collection speaks to the mathematical essence of the efficient forms of nature. As you can see by the way they naturally transform and change, they represent the elegance of our universe – always in flux and always adaptive to our surrounding environment. -JM

PS If you like the above, I recommend that you visit the infamous Soda Constructor system.

PS2 RISD Trustee Stephen Metcalf kindly informed me that Loeb 3 above is called “jitterbug” by Dennis Dreher and was made in the 70s. Metcalf writes to me, “The hinges are very elegant allowing the octahedron to transform smoothly through a cuboctahdron and back to an octahedron.”