Recent Academic and Creative Partnerships
At RISD, our hands-on approach to learning and making leads to cutting-edge partnerships with organizations focused on art, technology, fashion, music, architecture, design, transportation and more. In Academic and Creative Partnerships we build on these collaborations to generate opportunities for ongoing innovation. Learn more about our current partnerships below.
Current partnerships and projects
In cooperation with BUCFD, several RISD faculty members, students and alums are actively engaging work that addresses the global humanitarian catastrophe of forced displacement. Our partnership with BUCFD has supported research fellowships, teaching opportunities and a wide range of projects that communicate and spread awareness of a crisis that drives many millions of people from their home countries each year.
Born in response to the vandalism that plagued the commemoration of Emmett Till’s life, murder and memory, the ETMP app marks sites in the Mississippi Delta and Chicago related to Till, as well as the legacy of his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. Throughout development, the Till family has consulted closely with project leaders and contributors.
Established in 2020, this partnership unites Hyundai designers with RISD student and faculty researchers in investigating socially and environmentally equitable futures. Centered each year around a specific topic—from the future of mobility to adaptive ecologies, among others—the ongoing collaboration reflects the commitment of Hyundai Motor Group to fostering a sustainable society while also highlighting the expertise of RISD faculty and the experimental creativity of students actively engaged in conceiving future realities.
Emerging from RISD’s partnership with leading digital services company Infosys, the Center for Complexity (CfC) is a platform for transdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. Informed by global events and shaped by a commitment to creative practices, CfC was founded to benefit scholars, practitioners, the RISD community and a wide range of partners.
This art project and performance-expedition reimagines Jose de San Martín’s epic 1817 journey to liberate South America. RISD Professor Paula Gaetano-Adi, in collaboration with Hyundai’s “New Horizons” studio and more than a dozen Argentine partners, traversed 15,000-ft peaks to release the quadruped terrestrial robot, which traveled from Argentina to Chile. The Guanaquerx leads a revolutionary army of makers who implement emancipatory Andean cosmotechnics to foster conditions for all Earth beings to flourish.
As part of Objects May Shift, RISD’s first-ever multidisciplinary display at Salone del Mobile—the largest annual furniture design fair in the world—faculty and students collaborated with Sandow Design Group on a unique documentation strategy. Led by Textiles Professor Anais Missakian 84 TX and Furniture Design Associate Professor Pete Oyler MFA 09 FD, the show and the resulting video included students from seven departments and highlighted the expertise in iterative, conceptual design that emanates from our studios.
In 2023 RISD joined the Sustainable Markets Initiative-led TCDL, a competition that supports high-impact solutions to the climate crisis developed by students and alumni among several international art and design schools. RISD’s participation in TCDL connects the creativity of our community with the power of private sector supporters, to help realize innovative, scalable solutions and highlight the need for collaboration between art, design, science and engineering in addressing urgent climate challenges.
RISD’s partnership with Tiffany & Co. advances sustainability and innovation in jewelry design through two core initiatives: a jeweler apprenticeship program and a donation of natural pearls. Launched in 2023, the apprenticeship provides hands-on training through RISD-taught courses held at both RISD and Tiffany’s Cumberland, RI facility. It reflects a shared commitment to workforce development and community engagement. Complementing this, Tiffany’s donation of pearls supports the creation of the "Pearl LAB," where students explore the historical, ecological, and cultural dimensions of pearls through interdisciplinary projects that engage with themes such as overharvesting, colonialism and Indigenous heritage.