Founding of the school Waterman Building (1893) was the first permanent home for the school. The Rhode Island School of Design's founding is often traced back to
Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf's 1876 visit to the
Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. At the exposition, Metcalf visited the Women's Pavilion. Organized by the "Centennial Women," the pavilion showcased the work of female entrepreneurs, artists, and designers. Metcalf's visit to the pavilion profoundly impacted her and motivated her to address a deficiency in design education accessible to women. Following the exhibition, the RI committee of the Centennial Women had $1,675 remaining in funds; the group spent some time negotiating how best to use the surplus. Metcalf lobbied the group to use the money to establish a
coeducational, design school in Providence. On January 11, 1877, a majority of women on the committee voted for Metcalf's proposal. houses dormitories and the school's Fleet Library. • The instruction of artisans in drawing, painting, modeling, and designing, that they may successfully apply the principles of Art to the requirements of trade and manufacture. • The systematic training of students in the practice of Art, in order that they may understand its principles, give instruction to others, or become artists. • The general advancement of public Art Education, by the exhibition of works of Art and of Art school studies, and by lectures on Art. Metcalf directed the school until her death in 1895. Her daughter,
Eliza Greene Metcalf Radeke, then took over until her own death in 1931.
Beginnings The school opened in October 1877 in Providence. The first class consisted of 43 students, the majority of whom were women. For the first 15 years of its existence, RISD occupied a suite of six rooms on the fourth floor of the Hoppin Homestead Building in
Downtown Providence. On October 24, 1893, the school dedicated a new brick building at 11 Waterman Street on College Hill. Designed by Hoppin, Read & Hoppin, this building served as the first permanent home for the school.
Activism during the Vietnam War Students at RISD played a key part in the national
protest of the Vietnam War, producing various notable anti-war protest art from 1968–1973 and taking several on tour as part of a mobile artwork petition. The most well known is
Leave the Fear of Red to Horned Beasts, a reference to
Victor Hugo novel
Les Misérables in the form of a watercolor-on-canvas painting of a charging red bull. An original print of this painting is on permanent display at the
War Remnants Museum in
Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam in a section dedicated to international protest of the
Vietnam War, and also features subtly as a bar mural in the Vietnam War film
Point Man. In 1969 the Black Student Community of RISD published a manifesto demanding of university faculty the establishment of "a meaningful liaison with the spirit and expression of Black culture." RISD subsequently hired administrators to begin recruiting and admitting increased numbers of students of color.
COVID-19 After the outbreak of
COVID-19 and the subsequent closure of the RISD campus in March 2020, RISD suggested a future of a hybrid of classes online and in-person. In July 2020, President Somerson began negotiations with the RISD faculty union over the avoidance of possible layoffs by suggesting cost-cutting measures. The part-time faculty union, the
National Education Association, rejected the initial proposal. They formed a student-led RISD Anti-Racism Coalition (ARC) alongside
BIPOC faculty.
Labor strike In April 2023, after months of negotiations, the RISD employees union held a picket line protest in demand of better wages. The union, which represents custodians, groundskeepers and movers, was joined in the strike by student supporters and community members. The strike lasted two weeks, until workers approved a new contract and returned to work April 19.
Pro-Palestine solidarity Some students at RISD, along with many across the country in the
BDS movement, occupied a campus building for multiple days in support of a cease-fire of the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict in early May 2024.
Presidents RISD's current president is
Crystal Williams. She was preceded by
Rosanne Somerson, who served from 2015 to 2021. == Rankings and admission ==