Community Partnerships
The Center for Community Partnerships is a campus hub that connects students, faculty, staff, and people and organizations outside of RISD with opportunities to participate in collaborative, community-engaged projects and practices.
Areas of impact
In connecting RISD students, faculty, curators and leaders with people and organizations locally and worldwide, the Center for Community Partnerships (CCP) helps advance RISD’s mission to serve the greater good through art and design education and practice, and extends and amplifies the impact of our strategic vision.
K-12 support
An internationally recognized champion of art and design’s importance to 21st-century education, RISD has also been a fixture in local education for decades, engaging with K-12 students through a variety of programs and services. As the only comprehensive arts museum in southeastern New England, the RISD Museum attracts more than 10,000 K-12 students each year, with many others turning to the Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab to discover connections between art, design and the natural world.
RISD also helps connect local teens with opportunities to explore creative practice via Project Open Door, an arts enrichment program for under-resourced high school students in and around Providence, and through various young artist programs offered by RISD Continuing Education.
Social justice and equity
Established in 2019, the Center for Social Equity and Inclusion leads and supports several initiatives focused on issues of justice, equity and inclusion on campus, including faculty support for related research and pedagogy, workshops and lectures, and the SEI Faculty Fellows Program. The Center for Complexity—RISD’s project-based innovation hub—is also deeply engaged in justice-oriented research and practice, including healthcare and public policy reform.
RISD students also discover numerous opportunities to turn creative practice toward the greater good, including studios involving area nonprofits and civic leaders, RISD Museum programs that aim to increase representation and inclusion in museum spaces, and scholarship, grant and internship programs like the Maharam Steam Fellows, through which select students pursue socially engaged projects with a wide range of government and community-based organizations.
Sustainability
Achieving a more sustainable future is central to RISD’s approach to art and design education, all supported by a campus community invested in the pursuit of environmental justice. Among several academic pathways specifically focused on environmental issues, RISD offers a Nature–Culture–Sustainability Studies (NCSS) master’s program and undergraduate concentration, and a coastal sustainability master’s program established by the Landscape Architecture department and the University of Rhode Island’s Department of Marine Affairs.
NCSS also sponsors Climate Futures, a symposium that offers climate scholars, activists and others a public forum for sharing research on sustainability and design. and RISD’s Nature Lab provides several avenues for exploring the intersection of art, design and living systems, including a state-of-the-art, National Science Foundation grant-funded biodesign makerspace.
Economic Impact Report
RISD enjoys a mutually beneficial relationship with the city of Providence—also known as the Creative Capital—based on shared goals to enrich the local culture and bolster quality of life in Rhode Island’s urban center. Each year RISD publishes an economic impact report to highlight the variety of ways we contribute to the city.
2019 Economic Impact Report
Learn more about how RISD directly supports the local economy, creates quality of place in Providence, and engages with the community through a wide range of initiatives and programming.
Center leadership
Supported by the Community Engagement Advisory Committee and with input from across the institution, the CCP is led by Executive Director Bethany Costello. In this role, Costello develops near- and longterm strategies to increase awareness of RISD’s mission, goals and agendas, and works with internal and external stakeholders to attract new community partners and steward existing partnerships in support of RISD’s civic engagement efforts.
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Babette Allina, Executive Director of Government Relations
Patricia Barbeito, Dean of Faculty
Siobhan Boehm, Trustee and Community Relations Coordinator (Advisory Group staff support)
Sarah Caggiano, Executive Director of Continuing and Expanded Education
Shana Cinquemani, Department Head of Teaching + Learning in Art + Design
Deborah Clemons, Assistant Director of Academic and Public Programs
Bethany Costello (chair), Director of Community Relations
Sarah Cunningham, Associate Provost for Research and Strategic Partnerships
Kelsey Elder, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design
Gwen Farrelly, Executive Director of RISD Global
Karen Harris, Internship Manager, Career Center
Lili Hermann, Professor of Landscape Architecture
Alicia Luzon, Talent Acquisition Partner
Erika Paradis, Director of the Center for Student Involvement
Suzanne Scanlan, Senior Lecturer in Theory and History of Art of Design
Matthew Shenoda, Associate Provost for Social Equity and Inclusion
STUDENT ADVISORS
Kaanchi Chopra
Kristina Hyunseo Kim
Jackie Oh
Erin Roman
Junpeng Shi
Andrew Storck
John Wayne
Engaging locally and worldwide
New Scholarships Boost Accessibility
RISD’s Continuing Education division partners with multiple nonprofits to support BIPOC youth interested in pursuing careers in art and design.
Maharam Fellowships Support Greater Good
In keeping with RISD’s strategic plan, this summer’s 10 Maharam fellows use their design skills to promote social justice and sustainability.
Echoes of Jim Crow
An interactive on-campus exhibition brings to life the civil rights movement and ongoing struggle against racism and segregation in the US.
Dorner Prize Revived
Winning 2020 proposals for RISD Museum installations on hold since last March are finally coming to fruition.
Teens Connect through RISD
Continuing Education partners with Rhode Island Department of Education to offer free online art and design classes to underserved youth.
Saving Superman
Grad students in Interior Architecture propose new uses for a long-vacated former bank building in downtown Providence.
Techs Help with PPE Needs
RISD staff technicians are helping to produce protective gear for frontline workers in Rhode Island and beyond.
Planning for the New Public Realm
Remote learning has inspired a dynamic revamp of a core Landscape Architecture studio—and a heightened sense of mission.
RISD Architects Think Small
Five affordable, net-zero homes designed in a RISD studio are being built in Providence’s Olneyville neighborhood.