Rhode Island School of Design

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RISD’s hockey team turns the dick joke into high art — OK, low art

The third period has just begun and the Nads, the Rhode Island School of Design's club hockey team, is losing 2-0 to a squad from Emerson College.
Go Nads!
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | February 17, 2012

‘Taoist Gods’ and ‘Immortals’ at Brown and RISD

As China marked the beginning of the Year of the Dragon with lion and dragon dances and fireworks last week, Brown University's Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology was debuting "Taoist Gods from China: Ceremonial Paintings from the Mien".
The language of aesthetics
By GREG COOK | February 03, 2012

‘Chicken Little’ and ‘Manchester Tracks’ at the RISD Museum

The star of New York painter Nancy Chunn's epic installation "Chicken Little and the Culture of Fear" at the RISD Museum (224 Benefit Street, Providence, through April 15) is the fabled fowl — you know, the one who mistakenly thought the sky was falling
Discomfort and joy
By GREG COOK | January 13, 2012

Britannia rules at RISD’s “Made In the UK”

"Made In the UK: Contemporary Art from the Richard Brown Baker Collection," a survey of post-World War II British art at the RISD Museum (224 Benefit Street, Providence, through January 8), arrives as British artists are the top of the pops.
Top of the pops
By GREG COOK | October 07, 2011

A British invasion and the local hall of fame

The art season follows the school year.
Autumn offerings
By GREG COOK | September 16, 2011

Tips for young artists

This region of the country is, and always has been, a magnet for artists. If I spent some time thinking about why this is the case, I could probably conjure up a few convincing theories. But that's not my purpose today.
Express your self; bus fumes; bands behind bars
By RUDY CHEEKS | July 15, 2011

Review: ''Remember the Ladies'' at the Newport Art Museum

Rhode Island is one of the preeminent places for art-making in America, thanks in great part to the Rhode Island School of Design, but what would it be without its pioneering women?
Women's work
By GREG COOK | July 08, 2011

Review: ''Among the Breakage'' scratches the surface at Bell Gallery

Over the past dec-ade, Providence art has been known for its visionary printmaking and graphics, crafty constructions, and funhouse installations, but local painting has tended to operate out of the limelight.
An incomplete picture
By GREG COOK | July 01, 2011

The tale of the tape in Providence

A tree grows on the floor of Kennedy Plaza's skating rink, sketched in blue tape and cheap plywood.
Roots
By NICOLE FRIEDMAN | June 17, 2011

The challenge: redesign the coastline

We relate to shorelines reactively — we structure ports around jagged edges, avoid dangerous cliffs and fret that climate change will result in Hawaiian islands going the way of Atlantis.
Water Dept.
By NICOLE FRIEDMAN | June 10, 2011

StoryCorps lands in Rhode Island

Listen: Muriel Mackie patrolled Pawtucket in a white helmet and whistle during World War II.
Audio Dept.
By AMY LITTLEFIELD | June 03, 2011

The Big Think

TED, PopTech, and other 21st-century innovation conferences — nerds giving speeches to rich guys — have done something rather remarkable: they've turned the public intellectual into popular entertainer.
Providence designer Seth Goldenberg convenes the best and brightest to tackle the "Epic Challenges" of our time. But who appointed them ?
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 03, 2011

Review: ''The 2011 RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition''

Walking into the "2011 RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition" at the Rhode Island Convention Center (1 Sabin Street, Providence, through June 4), you can't miss Laura Swanson's Homemade Bull .
Hello, we must be going
By GREG COOK | May 27, 2011

Review: ''Tradition, Trauma, Transformation'' at Bell Gallery

One of the medieval legends of India is the tale of the star-crossed lovers Sohni, the daughter of a potter, and Mahiwal, a traveling trader.
Images of India
By GREG COOK | April 15, 2011

Review: RISD's '2011 Faculty Biennial' impresses and inspires

The Rhode Island School of Design's "2011 Faculty Biennial" at the RISD Museum (20 North Main Street, Providence, through March 20) features more than 200 teachers for a varied buffet ranging from tangled noodley junk sculpture to sleek architecture des
A visual buffet
By GREG COOK | March 04, 2011

Review: The eye-popping vitality of 'Printed in Providence'

Providence printmaking continues to be the primary representative of the city's art in books from Street World (2007) to Paper Politics: Socially Engaged Printmaking Today (2009) to the Museum of Modern Art's Modern Women (2010). It's a printmakin
Lasting impressions
By GREG COOK | February 25, 2011

At RISD: 2x4s, tape, and 'Co-Habitation'

In photographs, it looks like a giant spider web. But up close, it's shiny and transparent under the golden light. It's big enough for a person to climb into and crawl through — or you can poke your head in from a hole underneath or on the sides.
Boxing Dept.
By MARION DAVIS | February 11, 2011

Review: Louis Family Restaurant

There are no Greek columns outside or marble steps, but make no mistake: Louis Family Restaurant is an institution in Providence.
Just like Mama tried to make
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 28, 2011

At RISD: Art, science, and what's wrong with ATMs

Among the most prominent solutions offered up for our present economic malaise and the broader decline of the republic: a robust investment in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education.
Confabs
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | January 21, 2011

At a downtown bar: Fluffernutters and pickle juice

For a city driven, in many ways, by its youthful artist-entrepreneurial class, there is surprisingly little in the way of hipster night spots.
Nightclubbing
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | December 03, 2010

The uplifting Sweet Honey in the Rock

FirstWorks has a rousing finale to wrap up the 2010 Festival: a performance by the internationally-renowned a cappella group Sweet Honey In the Rock..
Sweet inspirations
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | November 12, 2010

Ann Arbor Film Festival at the Rhode Island School of Design

You don't need to schlep to Michigan to enjoy the Ann Arbor Film Festival; the gathering has made plans to bring its art to you....
By webteam | November 03, 2010

Building a better world, by design

What if architects across America agreed to make every building they design 50 percent more energy-efficient — and keep improving until, by 2030, they're at carbon-neutral?
Improvements
By MARION DAVIS | October 08, 2010

11 Big ideas for Rhode Island

Rhode Island has problems. We all know it. Unemployment, political corruption, the Providence College basketball team.
Great notions to make things better in tough times: internpreneurships, dance parties, and Netflix for underwear
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | October 01, 2010

Swords, cycles, skates — and Scrotie

Sporting venues don't have to be limited to large corporate-sponsored stands full of foam fingers. Some of the more unique — and irreverent — sports teams can be found right in Lil' Rhody's backyard.
Fun 'n' games
By ABIGAIL CROCKER | September 03, 2010

With plans for a downtown mural, Shepard Fairey returns to Providence

It is a rather unremarkable collection of bricks at the moment: an exterior wall at the back of Trinity Repertory Company’s Pell Chafee Performance Center in downtown Providence.
Obey
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 18, 2010

In 'The Tradition'

In 1978, Rhode Island College presented “Four from Providence.” The exhibit was a call to revitalize the reputations of four Providence artists of color who had often been overlooked since their peaks in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Bannister’s ‘Five From Providence’ honors its namesake
By GREG COOK | June 11, 2010

Photos: RISD’s 2010 Annual Graduate Thesis Exhibition

Prominent installations in this year’s showcase at the Rhode Island Convention Center.
Student's works of art at RISD's graduate thesis exhibit
By PHOENIX STAFF | May 28, 2010

Celebration of sensation

The Rhode Island School of Design’s “Annual Graduate Thesis Exhibition” typically has too many people doing too many different things for any common themes to emerge. But prominent installations in this year’s showcase at the Rhode Island Convention Cen
RISD’s ‘2010 Annual Graduate Thesis Exhibition’
By GREG COOK | May 28, 2010

At the Cable Car: The wind-lashed and sea-worn

On a recent Sunday, the usual grad school crowd at the Cable Car Cinema in Providence gave way to something different — the wind-lashed faces and sea-worn hands of Rhode Island’s oft-ignored surfing community.
Surf’s Up
By ABIGAIL CROCKER | May 14, 2010

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