[nivoslider slug=”risd-museum-talk”]

Locally Made at the RISD Museum

SEPTEMBER 25 · At the center of the RISD Museum’s Locally Made exhibition was “One Room,” an experimental space which drew over 250 local artists, designers, performers, and community innovators to share their ideas in daily presentations. On the invitation of Patti Philips, RISD’s Dean of Graduate Studies, we developed an interactive workshop about our relationship to branding and our local visual landscape. Workshop attendees were given a pop quiz, asking them to identify brands they recognized in the alphabet we presented—and in turn to identify leaves from 26 of the most commonly planted trees in and around the museum. It sparked a conversation about what we notice in our environment and how a sense of curiosity (agency!) can help us become more deeply engaged with our community.

“What a fabulous and provocative experience you crafted for us today. You used a simple, polished, and thoughtful framework to make us reconsider what we’ve incorporated into our visual lexicon. Thank you for creating such a comfortable environment and accessible way of considering complex ideas.” —Hollis Mickey, RISD museum educator