Commencement

Commencement Ceremony

Saturday, May 31 at 9 am eastern (doors open 8 am)
Amica Mutual Pavilion
One LaSalle Square, Providence, RI

Graduate Hooding ceremonies

Friday, May 30 at 12 pm and 2 pm eastern
RISD Auditorium
17 Canal Walk, Providence, RI

Commencement is May 30–31, 2025

It’s not too soon to plan ahead for the Class of 2025 to take the Commencement stage. For any of your Commencement questions, please email us at commencement@risd.edu or call +1 401 454-6379.

For students who may have family traveling to the US to celebrate commencement with them. According to the US Department of State, an invitation letter or affidavit of support is not required to apply for a visitor visa. However, if students would like to write their own invitation letter/support letter for visiting family, you may wish to use this template from our International Student and Scholar Affairs office.

Only graduating students may request Commencement tickets. Graduating students can request up to eight tickets, with extra tickets based on availability. For information on ordering caps, gowns and regalia, see student commencement information.

Graduate Hooding ceremonies

Celebrate the Graduate Class of 2025 as they receive their graduate hoods at the RISD Auditorium on Friday, May 31 at 12 pm and 2 pm.

The noon ceremony for the Architecture + Design division recognizes graduates receiving a master’s degree in Architecture, Furniture Design, Graphic Design, Industrial Design, Interior Architecture, Landscape Architecture or an MA in the Brown/RISD Design Engineering (MADE) program.

The 2 pm ceremony for the Fine Arts, Experimental and Foundation Studies and Liberal Arts divisions recognizes graduates receiving a master’s degree in Ceramics, Digital + Media, Glass, Global Arts and Cultures, Illustration, Jewelry + Metalsmithing, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, Teaching + Learning in Art + Design (TLAD) and Textiles.

Departmental receptions

On the days before Commencement, various divisions and departments host celebratory gatherings and awards presentations open to graduating students, family members and friends.

For graduating students

Find the steps you need to take as a graduating student, along with key dates and deadlines.

Quicklinks

For visiting families

Find helpful information as you plan your commencement visit including housing, dining and transportation options, as well as important information for international families traveling to the US.

Quicklinks

2025 honorees

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Rose B. Simpson MFA 11 CR belongs to a long lineage of women from Khaʼpʼoe Ówîngeh (Santa Clara Pueblo) famous for producing blackware and redware pottery that dates back hundreds of years. In 2024, she debuted a public sculpture project at Madison Square Park and Inwood Hill Park, New York, and was featured in the Whitney Biennial. Her work reflects on the multilayered history of her home in New Mexico, exploring modes of empowerment and resilience that connect past and present, express experience and identity, and contemplate freedom and strength.

Simpson earned an MFA in ceramics from RISD and an MA in creative writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Her work is part of numerous museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn, the Guggenheim and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. She has mounted solo shows at the Norton Museum of Art, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, the Fabric Workshop and Museum and elsewhere.

Simpson continues to live and work in Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico and is represented by Jessica Silverman, San Francisco and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

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MacArthur Fellow María Magdalena Campos-Pons is a multidisciplinary artist exploring how memory, spirituality and identity are entangled with personal and collective histories across time and geographies. Her artistic practice spans photography, performance, sculpture, drawing, painting and video, and her works often take the form of richly layered, multimedia installations.

Campos-Pons earned degrees from the National School of Art, Havana and the Higher Institute of Art, Havana and attended the MFA program at the Massachusetts College of Art. She held the Bunting Fellowship in Visual Arts at Harvard University from 1993–94 and currently serves as the Cornelius Vanderbilt Endowed Chair and Professor of Fine Arts at Vanderbilt University, where she founded the Engine for Art, Democracy & Justice Program in 2018. She also launched Intermittent Rivers, a multi-artist initiative in Matanzas, Cuba in 2019 and GASP Gallery Artist Studio Projects in Boston in 2003, and served as consulting curator and ambassador for the inaugural Tennessee Triennial Re-Pair in 2023.

Campos-Pons’ work has been presented at a wide variety of venues, including Tate Modern, MoMA, Brooklyn Museum, Peabody Essex Museum, Documenta14, Venice Biennale, National Portrait Gallery, Frist Museum and the Havana Biennial. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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Before RISD alum Grace Lin 96 IL became an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author/illustrator, she was the only Asian girl (other than her sisters) at her elementary school in upstate New York. That experience, good and bad, has influenced all of her books—including Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, which won a Newbery Honor; Ling & Ting, which was awarded a Geisel Honor; the National Book Awards finalist A Big Mooncake for Little Star, which was awarded a Caldecott Honor; and When the Sea Turned to Silver, a National Book Award finalist.

The experience also led Lin to serve as an occasional New England Public Radio commentator, present a TEDx talk called The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf, and contribute a video essay titled What to Do When You Realize Classic Books from Your Childhood Are Racist to PBS NewsHour. In 2016, Lin’s art was displayed at the White House, and she was recognized by President Obama’s office as a champion of change for Asian American and Pacific Islander art and storytelling. In 2022, she was awarded the Children’s Literature Legacy Award from the American Library Association.

Special events

click the event link for location details

A group of people are toasting together at a table during RISD's reunion weekend.

RISD Reunion Weekend

May 29–June 1, 2025

This year’s reunions celebrate alumni from the class years ending in 5 and 10 and a special two-year reunion for the Class of 2023. Reunion is an activity-filled, family-friendly weekend with plenty of community events. Visit alumni.risd.edu/reunions for more information.

A person in a green hat looks at a rack of wire crafts.

RISD Craft

Saturday, May 31, 2025
11 am–5 pm

Featuring over 100 RISD artists, makers and designers, RISD Craft is a highlight of Commencement + Reunion Weekend. RISD Craft is held each year on historic Benefit Street located in the center of campus.

Crowd of people celebrating in a tent with paper lanterns.

Post-commencement reception

Saturday, May 31, 2025
12–1:30 pm

Immediately following the Commencement Ceremony at the Amica Mutual Pavillion, our entire community is invited to celebrate the Class of 2025 at a festive reception back on campus.

WaterFire

Saturday, May 31, 2025
8:30–10:30 pm

To close out Commencement evening, you can take in a special WaterFire event along the Providence River.

Academic receptions

On the days before Commencement, various divisions and departments host celebratory gatherings and awards presentations open to graduating students, family members and friends.

All events are on campus unless specified. For location details, please see our campus map online or download and print this campus map PDF.

Check back here for your reception information as the events are added below.

Wednesday, May 28

Film / Animation / Video

5–6:30 pm
Ewing Multicultural Center
department reception

Thursday, May 29

Industrial Design awards ceremony

2–4 pm
Metcalf Auditorium

Industrial Design reception

4–5:30 pm
Moore Terrace

Friday, May 30 — morning start

Architecture

10–11:30 am
Bayard Ewing Building (BEB) 106 and BEB Gallery
department celebration with awards

Graphic Design

10–11:30 am
Graphic Design Commons
Design Center room 103
department celebration

Interior Architecture

10–11:30 am
Center for Integrative Technologies 6th floor studio space
department celebration with awards

Furniture Design

10 am–12 pm
Moore Terrace
department celebration with awards

Friday, May 30 — afternoon start

History, Philosophy and the Social Sciences

12–1:30 pm
Washington Place lobby room 102
concentration reception

Literary Arts and Studies

12–1:30 pm
Memorial Hall tap room
concentration reception

Nature-Culture-Sustainability Studies

12–1:30 pm
Washington Place auditorium room 143
concentration reception

Theory and History of Art and Design

12–1:30 pm
Woods-Gerry House rooms 201 and 207
concentration reception

Fine Arts division

3–5 pm
Woods-Gerry Patio (Woods–Gerry House)
division reception with awards

Architecture and Design division

3:30–5:30 pm
Moore Terrace
division reception

Global Arts and Cultures

3:30–4:30 pm
Ewing Multicultural Center
department reception

Teaching + Learning in Art + Design (TLAD)

4–5:30 pm
TLAD + Project Open Door Studio Lab
department celebration

Digital + Media

4:30–6 pm
The Eddy (off campus)
95 Eddy Street
Providence, RI 02903
department reception

Illustration

5–6 pm
ISB Gallery
Illustration Studies Building
department reception

Venue information and accessibility

The Amica Mutual Pavilion is an accessible building. For Graduate Hooding, the accessible entrance for RISD Auditorium is located on Amos Street.

We ask that graduating students let us know about the special seating needs of their families and guests when reserving tickets for Commencement. You may also email us at commencement@risd.edu or call 401 454-6379. Please contact us well in advance for information on entry and seating arrangements.

An American Sign Language (ASL) translator will be on stage during Commencement as well as at the Graduate Hooding Ceremonies. The Commencement program will include translations of ceremony details and the president’s welcome message in more than 20 languages.

All graduating students will need to show a government-issued or student ID and pass through the AMP’s metal detectors in order to enter the building. Guests may also be required to show ID, along with their ticket, and pass through metal detectors in order to enter.

Amica Mutual Pavilion bag policy

To uphold health and safety protocols, minimize contact and ensure a swifter entry process, the AMP strongly discourages guests from bringing large bags to events. If a bag is necessary, the following restrictions apply:

Backpacks, luggage, briefcases of any size are considered prohibited items and are not allowed in the arena.
Bags that measure larger than 14”x14”x6” are considered prohibited items and are not allowed in the arena.
Bags that measure between 6”x4”x1.5” to 14”x 14”x6” are subject to visual inspection.
Diaper bags and bags needed for medical purposes are permitted and will be subject to inspection.

We kindly ask that you contact the AMP via email at amppvd@pvdricenter.com twenty-four hours prior to the event if you require additional accommodations before arrival.

Reminder: Guests with prohibited items will not be permitted entry to the arena. The AMP does NOT provide on-site storage. Guests are asked to plan accordingly.

Amica Mutual Pavilion policy for banners and signs

Signs measuring 8½” x 11” or less that adhere to the AMP’s Guest Code of Conduct are permitted in the arena. However, management may prohibit and confiscate signs that violate the Guest Code of Conduct, are not event-related, excessive in size, contain indecent or derogatory comments or images, political statements, or commercial references. Signs and banners may NOT be hung anywhere in the AMP. Signs or banners with poles or sticks are NOT permitted.