Students make cross-cultural connections and take a deep dive into fundamental concepts of truth and beauty, manga and Indigenous Filipino arts traditions.
RISD Global Summer Studies Courses Inspire Creative Discovery
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From the ecologies of Okinawa to the history of China, the heart of Tokyo, and the wildlife of South Africa, students in this summer’s RISD Global Summer Studies programs discovered new ways of connecting art and design to place.
“These travel courses help deepen students’ creative work and give them new tools and insights that continue to shape their practice long after the course has ended and they’ve returned to Providence,” says Catherine Best, program manager for RISD Global.
Architecture faculty member Junko Yamamoto traveled with a group of students to Okinawa, Japan to explore how the island can serve as a design laboratory for planetary futures and how people can grow more resilient and creative on a warming planet. Through direct observation, conversations, demonstrations, and visits to workshops and cultural sites, the class examined materials, buildings, landscapes, and craft traditions. “Students were encouraged to work through drawing, photography, mapping, writing, material studies, and spatial or design speculation,” Yamamoto explains.
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They visited the Nakamura House, a traditional Okinawan residence, where they learned how material use and spatial planning respond to the hot, humid subtropical climate and geographic factors such as proximity to the ocean and exposure to typhoons. They also experienced the traditional process of using threads from banana plant stems to create basho fabric and explored contemporary textile practices that transform agricultural byproducts like pineapple leaves and sugarcane stalks into new materials. Assignments focused on close observation and interpretation of Okinawa’s material, spatial, climatic, and cultural conditions through drawing, photography, and visual analysis.
“I was particularly impressed by the students’ openness, curiosity, and adaptability,” Yamamoto says. “I hope the experience encouraged them to see architecture not as an isolated discipline, but as something deeply connected to material practices, environmental systems, cultural knowledge, and relationships with people.”
Meanwhile in Tokyo, Illustration faculty member Catherine Huang gave students an opportunity to explore manga, a style and tradition of comics and cartooning developed in Japan during the late 19th century that has grown in global popularity over the past few decades. The group visited the Tokiwaso Manga Museum, a reconstruction of a 1950s apartment complex where legendary manga artists such as Osamu Tezuka lived and worked. They also took a trip to Jimbocho, a Tokyo neighborhood famous for its bookstores, and the five-story art store, Sekaido Shinjuku.
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The course began with such exercises as creating a four-panel manga reflecting the four-act story structure kishotenketsu. For their final project, students created original manga at least four pages in length.
“I taught the fundamentals of comic making, such as clarity of visual communication, quality of drawings, and pacing of the story,” Huang explains. “These skills are universal in sequential storytelling. However, in this particular trip, it was interspersed with lessons on the history of manga, site visits, and using the media traditionally used to create it.”
Traveling more than 4,000 miles throughout China, students in a course led by Ceramics Professor Shoji Satake worked in the studio with clay in order to gain hands-on knowledge of its inherent characteristics and uses in both utilitarian and sculptural ceramics. Exploring Beijing, Xi'an, Jingdezhen, and Shanghai, students developed foundational skills in hand-building, wheel-throwing, porcelain carving, and surface decoration, all within the rich historical and cultural contexts that shaped these traditions.
“My goal was to create an immersive learning environment where place, culture, and direct engagement with artists and makers became integral components of the curriculum,” Satake says. “The study abroad experience reinforced my commitment to experiential learning and place-based pedagogy.”
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Finally, in the Southern Hemisphere, History, Philosophy, and the Social Sciences faculty member Lucy Spelman led students into South Africa’s Lowveld Bushveld ecosystem to study symbiotic relationships in nature as inspiration for creative practice. The program began with simple observation and immersion in the surrounding landscape. By the second week, students had identified their own areas of inquiry, from wildlife conservation to the complex relationships between humans and animals.
Along the way, they learned from local botanists, ecologists, professional wildlife guides, traditional ecological knowledge holders, and wildlife biologists. They made digital diaries and eventually a final project using materials of their choosing. One student painted, another experimented with clay, and a third applied her fascination with termites to a sculpture using natural materials inspired by her observations.
“RISD students have so much talent, and they are really eager to engage with each other and the world around them,” Spelman says. “Traveling with them makes me feel hopeful about how we can work together and make the world better.”
Kaylee Pugliese / Top image: Students extract fiber out of banana plant stems in Japan.
August 6, 2026
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