Your introduction to RISD will be through Foundation Studies, a year-long program designed to promote creativity and an understanding of visual language.

As a student in the Division of Foundation Studies, you will undertake an intensive and demanding investigation into three studio areas: drawing, two-dimensional design, and three-dimensional design.

Each area requires active involvement in the studio every week and provides fundamental art and design experiences that are applicable to whatever major you may choose. Courses in art and architectural history as well as English composition and literature also play an essential role in the program. They provide you with the knowledge of history that is essential for meaningful participation in contemporary life as artists and designers.

In the drawing studio you will work with the development of skills in perceptual drawing, formal visual principles, and abstract thought. Taught by means of the human figure, landscape, still life, or theme, drawing disciplines the eye and brain, tempers judgement, and makes the hand responsive. You will explore form as it pertains to representation and the organization of surface through line, shape, light, texture, and space. At RISD, drawing is considered the basic tool of all art and design disciplines, reflecting the conviction that this skill – the coordination of eye, hand, and brain – is essential to the way the painter, sculptor, architect, or designer creates.

In the 2-D studio, you will discover the contradiction inherent in a two-dimensional visual plane: a flat surface that draws attention to its apparent spaciousness. You will be presented with a variety of problems that allow you to focus on formal issues of pattern, rhythm, figure-ground oscillation, the effect of line, relative size, light and shade, texture, and color. Assigned projects involve traditional as well as unconventional media and sources. Issues of process will be explored that may concentrate on personal notation, art history, pattern in nature, or image translation.

In the 3-D studio, you will explore form as it occurs in nature as well as in sculpture and architecture. The study of plane, volume, and mass incorporates the relationships between these elements and the particular ways form and space can effect expression. Simple materials shaped with hand tools define the scope of projects. Materials may include paper, wood, clay, plaster, or found objects. At times, responses to assignments may address the scale of large installations in the environment. A great variety of concepts and processes will be explored with considerable emphasis placed on "learning by doing."

In September, you will be assigned to a studio section, which will be taught by a team of faculty members. During Wintersession you will select an on-campus course related to your intended major or in another area of interest. At the start of the second semester, you will be reassigned to a new section to give you exposure to other classmates and a different team of faculty.

The Foundation faculty are practicing and renowned artists, designers, architects, and scholars with outstanding records of accomplishment in their respective fields. You will find that they are enthusiastic mentors who encourage you to discover your artistic strengths.

The Foundation program makes extensive use of The RISD Museum, the RISD Library, the Foundation/Fine Arts Computer Lab, and the Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab, a comprehensive collection of natural materials and specimens begun in 1937. Work in the studio is supplemented by guest lecturers, visits by artists and critics, and occasional field trips to points of specific interest. In January, the various departments at RISD give presentations to help you decide on a major for your sophomore year.

Foundation Studies is housed in the Waterman Building, a handsome neo-Romanesque structure erected in 1893 as RISD’s first building. You will make rigorous use of its spacious studios as your home-base during your first year here.