2025 Art & Design Educator Award: Neil S. “Silas” Munro 03 GD
Silas Munro is a designer, artist, writer, researcher, curator, surfer and descendant of the Banyole people of Eastern Uganda. In addition to being a founding faculty member and Chair Emeritus for the MFA Program in Graphic Design at Vermont College of Fine Arts, he has taught at the Yale School of Art, Maryland Institute College of Art, North Carolina State, RISD, CalArts and other programs. His pedagogy focuses on image-making and typographic systems, expanded and inclusive design studies, our present experience of ecology, and novel formats of design teaching.
Munro’s research addresses the relationship between the designer’s personal identity, formal systems and strategies they utilize, and how both interact with the communities they serve. He is particularly interested in the often unaddressed post-colonial relationship between design and marginalized communities. He founded the design studio Polymode, based in Los Angeles and Raleigh, NC, and works with clients across cultural spheres. His writing, curatorial work and course design have advanced the study of BIPOC-centered design history, the graphic design of the African American diaspora and typography as protest. Nominators cited Munro’s dedication to rigorous, inclusive design, his probing research and the impact of his published and exhibited work, collaborations and commissions on the field of graphic design and art and design education.
The RISD Art & Design Educator Award recognizes alumni who demonstrate exceptional skills as an educator or a clear commitment to the field of art education, and are recognized by their peers and students as having shown those qualities that most encourage students to learn and thrive creatively.
Photo by Garrett Uhde, courtesy of Silas Munro.
