JACQUELYN RICE

risd connection: Professor Emerita, Department of Ceramics; taught at RISD 1977-2005

about her work: Rice’s seasoned understanding of clay and newfound love of textiles enable her to merge equal fascinations with food, fashion and flowers into remarkably refreshing 2- and 3-D works.

road to risd: In the late ’70s, Rice received a phone call at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she was an assistant professor. It was from Dale Chihuly MFA ’68 CR, a former interior design classmate at the University of Washington who had gone on to help found RISD’s Glass Department and was now asking her to take over the RISD Ceramics Department. Her first reaction, after seeing the kiln room, was: “No way. There were no walls, no staff and all the potter’s wheels were broken.” On second thought: “It was the chance of a lifetime. I could hire my own people and basically reinvent the department.”

roles at risd: From 1989-96, during seven “meeting-heavy” years as Dean of Fine Arts, Rice taught only one class per week, but concluded that teaching “is the thing I know how to do best; I feel good when I see my students moving ahead.” In 1996 she returned to the Ceramics Department, this time as “just faculty.” Rice credits her own experiences as a student with two turning points in her life: a California continuing education course in the ‘60s that caused a switch in majors from interior design to ceramics, and a RISD continuing education course in textile design in 1998.

making it: Her ceramics are included in numerous public and private collections, and she has been an active lecturer, juror and workshop instructor at museums and art institutions throughout the US.

discoveries: (1) “Teaching full-time is divine.” (2) “In my next life, I'll be teaching surface design.” (3) “Surfaces are made to be painted or printed.”

education
University of Washington, MFA, Ceramics, 1970
University of Washington, BFA, Ceramics, 1968

awards
RI Economic Development Grant (for digitally printed textiles), 1999
RISD Teacher of the Year, 1996
RISD Faculty Development Grant, 1990
Mellon Grant for Travel to Italy/Indigenous Ceramics, 1984
NEA Individual Fellowship Award, 1977