Overview

For six weeks between the fall and spring semesters, RISD offers students a complete change of pace. Wintersession, as this condensed semester is known, allows for an intense exploration of a particular discipline or an off-campus interest. It also offers faculty an opportunity to experiment with more innovative course offerings suitable to a shorter timeframe—from performance art workshops to targeted project research to travel-study options.

Many students look to Wintersession as a time to get a feel for disciplines outside their majors, or to head to New York, London, Milan or Los Angeles—wherever their particular fields offer the most meaningful professional internships. Those who remain on campus choose from a range of Wintersession courses. Recent offerings include such basics as Animation I-A, Beginning Hot Glass and The Woven Blanket, and slightly more esoteric offerings such as Art, Sanity and Insanity, Chains, Toaster and Eat, Drink and Be Merry: The Art of Food Writing (taught by award-winning author Ann Hood).

Students also take advantage of Wintersession as a time to schedule co-curricular activities that are more difficult to fit it during fall and spring semesters. For instance, in 2010 they created RISD Quickies, a series of student-taught workshops on everything from cheese-making to silkscreening, and a group of 75 students wrote, directed, acted in and produced RISD: The Musical!, a theatrical parody that played to packed houses at the end of February.

All in all, Wintersession offers a respite from the routine and has proven to be the perfect prescription for recharging creative energy.

Download catalogue for Wintersession 2013 »