During your visit, use our mobile website to explore the galleries and listen to audio perspectives on the objects. Point your mobile browser to m.risdmuseum.org.
Events/Programs
Art + Design Lab for High School Students
3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
This free lab for high school students explores how art and design provoke fresh ideas, elicit conversation, and stimulate creativity. Each monthly session focuses on specific themes and techniques. Discover Memory, Photo + Color in May; June is for Fragments + Found Objects; find out about Prototypical Design in August. Free for teens; email museumyouth@risd.edu to register.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Hands-On: Figure Sketching
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Create your own art in the galleries with the guidance of art instructor, Paul Carpentier. Each session is inspired by works on view. This session also uses a live figure model. All materials provided, no experience necessary.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
‘Designing Traditions’ Opening Reception
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Join Museum curators, RISD faculty, and student designers in celebrating the opening of the third Designing Traditions Biennial. Free, all welcome. Exhibition is on view through November 11, 2012.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Screening: Objectified
6:30 PM - 7:45 PM
The second part of a three-film “design trilogy’ by director Gary Hustwit (Helvetica and Urbanized), this documentary is about industrial design; manufactured objects (cars, phones and chairs) that surround us and the designers who create them. Watch trailer here. (2009/75 min./Not rated) Co-sponsored by Cable Car Cinema. Free.
Friday, May 18, 2012
‘Designing Traditions Biennial: Student Explorations in the Asian Textile Collection’ Opens
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
This popular biennial exhibition reveals the working design process of contemporary student textile designers inspired by objects in the Museum’s collection. The vast Asian textiles collection was among the earliest donations to the Museum and has long served as an integral design resource for Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) students. Now, in a collaboration between the Museum and the School, intricately crafted objects ranging from Hawaiian bark cloth to a Chinese feather fan and Persian rug fragment have been selected by curators and faculty to excite the newest generation of designers. In this third biennial show, innovative textiles, as well as hand-drawn and computer-generated designs, show the breadth of contemporary creativity sparked by even the smallest details of traditional craftsmanship. On view through November 11, 2012.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Art+Design Lab for Ages 10–14
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Designing Everyday Things: A Design Skills Workshop: A one-day workshop for 10–14 year olds that dives into design skills, exploring the relationship between 2D and 3D art making and objects of design in the museum collection. $35 per class, or $45 per class with lunch included; space is limited.
Meet at Farago Entrance, 224 Benefit Street
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Family See + Sketch
11:15 AM - 12:00 PM
Enjoy a close look at a work of art together through lively discussion, followed by sketching and activities in the galleries. All materials provided. Talks are 30 minutes; ages 6+.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Tour For Tots
2:00 PM - 2:45 PM
Interactive tours with read-aloud story time and gallery activities for children ages 3–5, accompanied by an adult. No two tours are the same, come for them all. Registration opens in May, space is limited; email museumyouth@risd.edu to register.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Tour for Tots
2:00 PM - 2:45 PM
Interactive tours with read-aloud story time and gallery activities for children ages 3–5, accompanied by an adult. No two tours are the same, come for them all. Registration opens in May, space is limited; email museumyouth@risd.edu to register.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Art + Design Lab for High School Students
3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
This free lab for high school students explores how art and design provoke fresh ideas, elicit conversation, and stimulate creativity. Each monthly session focuses on specific themes and techniques. Discover Memory, Photo + Color in May; June is for Fragments + Found Objects; find out about Prototypical Design in August. Free for teens; email museumyouth@risd.edu to register.
Friday, May 25, 2012
‘Wendy Richmond: Navigating the Personal Bubble’ Opens
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Visual artist, writer, and educator Wendy Richmond explores issues of personal privacy, technology, and creativity in contemporary culture. Using photography, video, and interactive media, she documents and exposes, as she wrote in a New York Times column, “the steady and mundane urban choreography that we all perform together.” Her project Public Privacy (2005-2007) investigated the social acceptance of cameras in our daily life: Like the thousands of surveillance cameras that watch us 24/7, she recorded more than 1,600 tiny, silent, 15-second videos on her cell phone camera. Similarly, in Overheard (2008-2010), she eavesdropped on cell phone conversations in urban spaces, using the half-dialogues in her artwork. At the RISD Museum, she collaborates with RISD graduate students to produce new work investigating the idea of being alone in public—a theme Richmond has explored in a number of her writings. On view through November 24, 2012.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Family See + Sketch
11:15 AM - 12:00 PM
Enjoy a close look at a work of art together through lively discussion, followed by sketching and activities in the galleries. All materials provided. Talks are 30 minutes; ages 6+.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Open Studio
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
After visiting the galleries, are you inspired to make art of your own? Express yourself with free drop-in artmaking for all ages. All materials provided.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Open Studio
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
After visiting the galleries, are you inspired to make art of your own? Express yourself with free drop-in artmaking for all ages. All materials provided.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Art + Design Lab for High School Students
3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
This free lab for high school students explores how art and design provoke fresh ideas, elicit conversation, and stimulate creativity. Each monthly session focuses on specific themes and techniques. Discover Memory, Photo + Color in May; June is for Fragments + Found Objects; find out about Prototypical Design in August. Free for teens; email museumyouth@risd.edu to register.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Work in Process: Memory, Photo, Color
5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
High school students participating in the RISD Museum's Art + Design Lab have used watercolor and photography to re-encounter colors from moments in their past. Join these creative teens and Museum Educators Andrew Oesch and Hollis Mickey to do some remembering and color-matching of your own.
Thursday, June 07, 2012
Tour for Tots
2:00 PM - 2:45 PM
Interactive tours with read-aloud story time and gallery activities for children ages 3–5, accompanied by an adult. No two tours are the same, come for them all. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Friday, June 08, 2012
Dan Walsh: UnCommon Ground’ Opens
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
"Extremely interesting paintings,” said New York Times art critic Roberta Smith of Dan Walsh’s large-scale abstract works. Walsh extends the basic language of geometric shapes and grid compositions, but rather than creating hard-edge forms, he draws lines by hand and applies luminous color with soft brushes, always allowing for subtle inflections of light and color. These canvases are logical, but not too logical. Patterns repeat, but forms may hover at the bottom of the field and other unanticipated irregularities give a personal dimension to the work. UnCommon Ground is Walsh’s first solo museum exhibition in America. For this site-specific show of eight paintings, some as large as 70 x 70 inches, he applies thin black tape to the gallery wall, installing some of his works on top. “This architectural notation defines the space, but also proposes a model or fiction,” he explains. In addition to the paintings, the show includes three limited-edition handmade books designed and produced by the artist. On view through October 21, 2012.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Community Music Works 15th Anniversary Reunion Concert
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Community Music Works 15th season reunion concert featuring past and present CMW
musicians and guests The concert will feature music by Bartok,
Schubert, and Schoenberg. Performers to include current and past CMW musicians
and guest violinist Jonathan Gandelsman.
Program:
Schubert Rondo in A Major for Violin and Strings (Jonathan Gandelsman, violin)
Schoenberg Verklarte Nacht (Benjamin Rous, conductor)
Martinu Duo No. 1 for Violin and Cello (Jessie Montgomery, violin, Sara
Stalnaker, cello)
Bartok Violin Duos
Free with Museum Admission. Free for CMW families with advance registration through CMW.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Tours for Tots
2:00 PM - 2:45 PM
Interactive tours with read-aloud story time and gallery activities for children ages 3–5, accompanied by an adult. No two tours are the same, come for them all. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Tour for Tots
2:00 PM - 2:45 PM
Interactive tours with read-aloud story time and gallery activities for children ages 3–5, accompanied by an adult. No two tours are the same, come for them all. WAITLIST ONLY FOR THIS DATE, PLEASE CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Design the Night: Tools
5:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Mix, match, and custom-tailor your Museum experience. Live music, films, hands-on artmaking, creative quests, demonstrations by local artists and designers, lively discussions, Providence’s favorite food trucks, and more—come design your night! FREE and open to the public.
June's Design the Night: Tools engages with those implements and utensils, mechanisms, and machines that shape art. July 19 is Design the Night: Text and August 16 is Design the Night: Trends.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Materials Lab
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
From the everyday and mundane to the rare and exotic, explore the materials of art and design in this drop-in lab that invites participants to experiment and create. All ages welcome.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Artists on Art
5:30 PM - 6:00 PM
Stone carver Laura Travis discusses Hand of God, Auguste Rodin’s marble sculpture, and shares hand tool examples.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Hands-On Art
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Create your own art in the galleries with the guidance of art instructor Paul Carpentier. Each session is inspired by works on view. All materials provided, no experience necessary.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Eames: The Architect and the Painter
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Perhaps best remembered for mid-century furniture—the iconic Eames chair, for one—the American husband-and-wife design team of Charles and Ray Eames also designed and created an extensive range of other products, from splints for wounded WWII soldiers to multimedia exhibits, games, films, and even housing. This documentary film captures the couple’s personal story and celebrates the profound influence they had on modern design. Narrated by actor James Franco (RISD MFA ’12, Digital Media). Watch the trailer here. (2011/80 min./not rated) Co-sponsored by Cable Car Cinema.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Tour for Tots
2:00 PM - 2:45 PM
Interactive tours with read-aloud story time and gallery activities for children ages 3–5, accompanied by an adult. No two tours are the same, come for them all. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Monday, July 09, 2012
Summer Youth Intensive
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Monday - Friday, July 9th - 20th 10:00am -5:00pm
This free 10-day intensive program gives high school students a full immersion into the RISD Museum, art, and creativity. Explore how our surroundings and personal experience shape us and our expression. Examine works of art and design from across time and cultures and respond through artmaking, writing, and discussion. Explore the Museum’s galleries and visit local studios to learn how artists, educators, and curators work. No artmaking experience necessary. Program is free and open by application (due May 15); email museumyouth@risd.edu or call 401 454-6674.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Professional Development Workshop
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Art and Science
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Design the Night
5:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Mix, match, and custom-tailor your Museum experience. Live music, films, hands-on artmaking, creative quests, demonstrations by local artists and designers, lively discussions, Providence’s favorite food trucks, and more—come design your night! FREE and open to the public.
Design the Night: Text explores the imaginative life of letters—from manual to digital—through illuminated manuscripts, carved stone tablets, typewriters, and even cell phones. Hear from graphic designers. Try your hand at calligraphy. Take home a typed haiku. Watch the documentary Typeface and learn how traditional typesetting techniques live on in the age of computers.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Materials Lab
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
From the everyday and mundane to the rare and exotic, explore the materials of art and design in this drop-in lab that invites participants to experiment and create. All ages welcome.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Designers on Design
5:30 PM - 6:00 PM
John Caserta, graphic designer and founder of The Design Office, discusses the timeless considerations of typography and communication in a Greek carved stone tablet.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Hands-On Art
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Create your own art in the galleries with the guidance of art instructor Paul Carpentier. Each session is inspired by works on view. All materials provided, no experience necessary.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
‘Typeface’
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
International artists meet retired craftsmen and together navigate the convergence of modern design and traditional technique in this documentary film. Typeface focuses on a rural Midwestern museum and print shop and explores the twilight of an analog craft and the lessons it leaves
for young artists in a digital age. (2010/60 min./not rated) Co-sponsored by Cable Car Cinema.
Friday, July 20, 2012
‘The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Rhode Island’ Opens
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
The RISD Museum celebrates the generosity and vision of contemporary art collectors Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, who gave the Museum a large art donation as part of their Fifty Works for Fifty States project. The Vogels, a postal clerk and a librarian, built one of the world’s finest contemporary art collections in their small Manhattan apartment, using Herb’s income to acquire more than 4,000 works over a span of 50 years. Called “thoroughly modest Medicis” (The Telegraph, UK), the couple sought out and encouraged relatively unknown artists who would later receive international acclaim, including Sol LeWitt, Richard Tuttle, and Christo. When their collection outgrew their one-bedroom apartment, the Vogels looked to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, where about 1,100 works have been gifted. But its sheer size—far too large for any one institution—led the Vogels and the National Gallery, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, to also give 50 works of art to one institution in every state, making this one of the largest and the most significant philanthropic projects in American art history. The Fifty Works for Fifty States project is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. This exhibition is on view through Sunday, December 2, 2012. Learn more about the Vogels in a special screening of the documentary Herb & Dorothy, August 16—part of the Design the Night summer series.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
‘Painting Air: Spencer Finch’–FINAL WEEKEND!
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
In a monumental, site-specific new work—also titled Painting Air (2012)—internationally acclaimed artist Spencer Finch draws inspiration from Monet’s French water garden. Other recent works recall a New Zealand glacier, reveal a color only seen by honeybees, and respond to philosopher David Hume’s musings. Finch also curates objects from the Museum’s collection—creating thematic groupings that reveal unexpected visual connections and his own personal sensibilities. This exhibition closes Sunday, July 29, 2012.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Design the Night: Trends
5:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Mix, match, and custom-tailor your Museum experience. Live music, films, hands-on artmaking, creative quests, demonstrations by local artists and designers, lively discussions, Providence’s favorite food trucks, and more—come design your night! FREE and open to the public.
Design the Night: Trends celebrates creative expressions of identity—from marble busts and portrait paintings to haute couture. Experiment with pattern and fashion. Witness design demonstrations of historic accessories and hair styles. Meet Herb & Dorothy, a modest but visionary art-collecting couple—and see part of their vast collection. Live music on the plaza keeps the festivities going past closing time.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Materials Lab
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
From the everyday and mundane to the rare and exotic, explore the materials of art and design in this drop-in lab that invites participants to experiment and create. All ages welcome.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Designers on Design
5:30 PM - 6:00 PM
Robert Babigan, owner of the downtown men’s boutique and private-label brand WHARF Clothing & Wares, critiques a fashionable French family painted in the 19th century.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Hands-On Art
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Create your own art in the galleries with the guidance of art instructor Paul Carpentier. Each session is inspired by works on view. All materials provided, no experience necessary
Thursday, August 16, 2012
‘Herb & Dorothy’
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Screened in conjunction with the Museum’s new exhibition, The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Rhode Island, this award-winning documentary film chronicles a couple’s passion for collecting art they loved. Their criteria? Affordability and size—the works had to fit in their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. The Vogels, a postal clerk (Herb) and a librarian (Dorothy), meticulously purchased Minimalist and Conceptual art for 30 years, ultimately distributing their significant collection to museums and organizations in each of the 50 states. (2008/85 min./not rated) Co-sponsored by Cable Car Cinema.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Live Music
8:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Friday, September 21, 2012
‘America in View: Landscape Photography 1865 to Now’ Opens
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
This exhibition offers a magnificent portrait of American landscape photography, with a focus on three main themes—beauty, environmentalism, and narrative. Including approximately 150 photographs—ranging from 19th-century albumen prints documenting the pristine drama of the Western landscape to contemporary digital images that construct newly imagined visions of post-industrial America—the show is drawn primarily from the collection of the RISD Museum. It shows new objects in the collection, including major gifts from the late landscape photographer Joe Deal (Provost and Professor, Rhode Island School of Design) and his widow, Betsy Ruppa, as well as gifts from friends and colleagues in Deal’s honor. On view through January 13, 2013.
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