A Valued Alumni Presence
Work by RISD alumni can be found across the museum’s collections, and they are deeply involved in its programs as well.
The RISD Museum was founded in 1877 as part of RISD and it remains integral to RISD’s mission. This sense of connection extends to the alumni community, which has always been deeply engaged in the museum. Alumni frequently give talks, show their work, lead workshops and guest curate exhibitions.
One example is the Repair and Design Futures exhibition, which investigated mending as material intervention, metaphor and call to action. A number of RISD alumni from the WARP Collective led Repair: Work as a Re-visioning Process. The program invited visitors to bring in garments needing to be “made ready” again. The damage and defects found served as the point of entry for artistic interventions to reorganize, confuse, enhance and elevate the garments in playful ways. Alumni members of the RISD WARP team included Priscilla Carrion 07 TX, Jim Drain 98 SC, Lu Heintz 01 SC, Vedrana Hrsak 99 ID/MFA 11 TX, Simon Slowinski 01 PT and Joan Wyand 05 CR.
Perhaps the most common way that alumni connect with the museum is as visitors and members. Alumni receive free individual membership to the museum for 10 years following graduation and a discounted household membership thereafter.
In addition to offering free and discounted memberships for alumni, the RISD museum gives back to the local community. Artists living in Rhode Island, active duty US military personnel and their families, and youth age 18 and under always enjoy free admission to the museum, and it is free to all on Sundays.
