DAWN BARRETT

risd connection: Dean of Architecture + Design and Professor of Graphic Design; at RISD since 2001

professional practice: Barrett Design, a communication design and design management firm

the road to risd: As an undergraduate, Barrett studied fine art at Smith College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before earning a BA in Art History from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. During the 1980s she worked as a freelance designer, culminating at Studio Dumbar in The Hague and the design-savvy Dutch postal service (PTT Nederland Kunst & Formgeving). In 1990 Barrett completed a Master of Product Design degree at the School of Design at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Her concentration in graphic design and professional experience during the ’80s led to an appointment as an assistant professor in RISD’s Graphic Design Department, where she initially taught from 1990Ð92 and again during the 1994Ð95 academic year.

return to risd: In 1995 Barrett moved to the Netherlands to accept a position as head of the Department of Design at the Jan van Eyck Akademie in Maastricht. During her five-year tenure there, she not only managed the department, but taught, lectured, organized symposia, co-curated a design exhibition, produced E+E Fanzine (an irregular periodical) and co-edited OHNO Another Magazine, which won the Dutch design prize for best Verzorgde Boeken in 1999. When RISD launched an international search for a new dean of Architecture + Design, Barrett proved to be the favored candidate and joined the administration in January 2001, becoming the first woman to serve in this position. A year later, as co-chair of RISD’s 125th Anniversary Committee, she organized a series of special events celebrating the institution’s rich history. The first, a Founders Day forum in 2002 entitled Daughters of Invention, forms the basis of an anthology Barrett is currently editing on RISD’s history.

curated exhibitions
2000 Now + Then: an exhibition of JvE design, co-curator, Jan van Eyck Academie
1998 Merci Beaucoup M. Niepce, concept, research, curating, Singapore Philatelic Museum, Singapore, Malaysia [and at the PTT Museum, The Hague, 1995]
1990 Graphic Design 1990, curator, Woods-Gerry Gallery, RISD
1989 Vorm van Geld (The Design of Money), research and selection, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

selected publications/exhibitions
“Anyhow” (photography) in Anyone 7 (MIT Press, 1998), C. Davidson (ed.)
Verborgen Collectie (the “Hidden Collection” of artwork from the royal Dutch post office), PTT Museum, The Hague, 1994-95
Royal PTT Nederland NV, Art & Design — Past & Present, Dutch Pavilion/ World Expo, Seville, Spain, 1992
The Dutch PTT: design in public service, 1920-90, Design Museum, London, England, 1990-91
“Postmarks” (design work) in Design: The International Magazine for Designers & their Clients (April 1990)

selected writing/editing
Making It: Conditions of Contemporary Design Practice (2000), edited symposium program + book
Interface: an approach to design (1999), edited book by D. Bonsipe
OHNO Another Magazine (1999), coedited
“Flying Money” in Money! (1995), a special issue of Visible Language edited by Sharon Poggenpohl
Final version 1.0 (1998), edited

education
North Carolina State University, School of Design, Master of Product Design, 1990
University of Massachusetts/Amherst, BA in Art History, cum laude, 1978