RISD Day Brings Together Research, Partnerships, and Public Exchange During DESIGN WEEK RI

The September 16 event invites students, faculty, alumni, industry partners, 

community organizations, and the public to explore how creative practice becomes civic practice

PROVIDENCE, RI — August 26, 2026 — Rhode Island School of Design’s Academic & Creative Partnerships and Center for Community Partnerships will present RISD Day on Wednesday, September 16, as part of DESIGN WEEK RI. Taking place throughout the day at 20 Washington Place, RISD Day brings together exhibitions, conversations, and participatory experiences that highlight the partnerships, research, and creative practices shaping the future of art and design at RISD.

Designed as a day of exchange rather than a traditional symposium, RISD Day invites students, faculty, staff, alumni, industry collaborators, community organizations, government representatives, and members of the public to gather around a shared question: How can art and design help us better understand—and better shape—the communities we inhabit?

The event features two interconnected experiences:

The Partnerships and Research Exhibition presents a gallery of objects, prototypes, materials, artifacts, and works in progress representing collaborative projects from across the college. Rather than comprehensive exhibitions, each display offers an entry point into larger stories of interdisciplinary research, industry collaboration, community engagement, and creative inquiry taking place across RISD.

At the center of the day is The Long Table: A Public Studio for Community Exchange, a participatory gathering developed in collaboration with the Elemental Media Lab, whose shared inquiry helped generate the conceptual framework for the day. The event was inspired by artist Lois Weaver’s Long Table methodology and informed by Stephen Turk’s concept of “tabling ecologies.” Throughout the day, invited facilitators, faculty, students, alumni, and community partners will steward conversations exploring topics including creative research, civic practice, material innovation, education, sustainability, industry collaboration, and Rhode Island’s creative future. Together, these discussions demonstrate how RISD’s distinctive approach to art and design generates new knowledge while addressing complex cultural, social, and environmental questions.

Participants are invited to contribute not only through conversation, but also by drawing, mapping, annotating, sketching, and leaving questions directly on the tabletop. Together these contributions become a living archive of shared inquiry, documenting ideas and relationships that emerge throughout the day.

“The partnership between DESIGNxRI Design Week and RISD is evident—together we create, together we learn, together we design a hopeful future for our communities,” said RISD Provost Touba Ghadessi. “The plurality of ideas brought through thoughtful and open exchanges expand RISD’s core ethos through disciplines and across institutions in inspiring ways. I am delighted at the prospect of what will emerge from these design-driven cross-pollinations.”

As part of DESIGNxRI’s DESIGN WEEK RI, RISD Day extends the college’s commitment to building meaningful partnerships beyond campus and creating opportunities for artists, designers, researchers, and communities to learn from one another. Rather than culminating in a single outcome, the day serves as a starting point—making visible the relationships, questions, and collaborations that will continue long after the event concludes.

RISD Day
Tuesday, September 16
20 Washington Place
Providence, RI

The event is free and open to the public.

About Rhode Island School of Design
RISD (pronounced “RIZ-dee”) is a creative community founded in 1877 in Providence, Rhode Island. Today, we enroll 2,577 students hailing from 60 countries. Led by a committed faculty, they are engaged in more than 40 full-time bachelor’s and master’s degree programs and supported by a worldwide network of over 33,000 alumni who demonstrate the vital role artists and designers play in today’s society.

Beyond facts and figures, what is the spirit of this community? Through a cross-disciplinary curriculum of studio-based learning and rigorous study in the liberal arts, RISD students are encouraged to develop their own personal creative processes, but they are united by one guiding principle: in order to create, one must question. In cultivating expansive and elastic thinking, RISD seeks to activate a critical exchange that empowers artists, designers and scholars to generate and challenge the ideas that shape our world. RISD’s mission, at both the college and museum, is not only to educate students and the public in the creation and appreciation of works of art and design, but to transmit that knowledge and make global contributions. Visit risd.edu to learn more.

RISD contact:
Danielle Mancuso 
Associate Director, Public Relations / RISD
dmancuso@risd.edu
401 454-6334