Providence is a great place for art and families. The RISD Museum of Art will be open throughout the summer season six days a week and until 9 pm Thursday evenings. This summer also marks the first since 2008 that the Museum is open in August.
The centerpiece of the Museum’s summer programming is Design the Night, a free series of events offered each third Thursday in June, July and August, with activities both in the Museum and outside. Live music, films (offered in partnership with Cable Car Cinema), hands-on art making, demonstrations by local artists and designers, and lively discussions highlight engaging themes such as Tools (June 21), Text (July 19), and Trends (August 16). Local gourmet food trucks – including Chez Pascal’s Hewtin’s Dogs Mobile, Mama Kim’s Korean BBQ, and Sugarush Truck – offer tantalizing walk-up treats in the Chace Center plaza, where live bands provide a little night music.
“Design the Night celebrates the incredible wealth of artists and designers that make Providence a dynamic city,” Smith says. “These events offer enjoyable and inexpensive ways to spend summer evenings downtown, and we hope they will energize visitors – giving them opportunities to socialize with friends, enjoy a night out, and connect with art.”
The RISD Museum presents several exciting new exhibitions this summer, including large-scale works by acclaimed painter Dan Walsh, a show of a recent major gift to the Museum from pioneering art collectors Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, and the critically acclaimed exhibition Painting Air: Spencer Finch. These special exhibitions are in addition to the Museum’s outstanding permanent collection always on view.
DESIGN THE NIGHT SUMMER SCHEDULE
For more information, please visit the Museum’s events calendar.
DESIGN THE NIGHT: TOOLS
Thursday, June 21, 2012 Â 5-9 pm | Museum Galleries + Chace Center Plaza
Discover those implements and utensils, mechanisms, and machines that shape art. Join a stone carver in conversation about marble sculptures. Marvel at 20th-century über innovators in a screening of Eames: The Architect and the Painter.
- Materials Lab  5-7 pm | Museum Galleries
From the everyday and mundane to the rare and exotic, explore the materials of art and design in this drop-in lab that invites participants to experiment and create. All ages welcome. - Artists on Art  5:30-6 pm | European Galleries
Stone carver Laura Travis discusses Hand of God, Auguste Rodin’s marble sculpture, and shares hand tool examples. - Hands-On Art  6-8 pm | Museum Galleries
Create your own art in the galleries with the guidance of art instructor Paul Carpentier. Each session is inspired by works on view. All materials provided, no experience necessary. - ‘Eames: The Architect and the Painter’ Â 6:30 pm | Metcalf Auditorium, Chace Center
American husband-and-wife designers Charles and Ray Eames, creators of the iconic Eames chair, are synonymous with modern design. This documentary film captures the couple’s personal story and celebrates their profound influence on 20th-century design. Narrated by actor and RISD graduate student James Franco. (2011/80 min./not rated) Co-sponsored by Cable Car Cinema.
DESIGN THE NIGHT: TEXT
Thursday, July 19, 2012 Â 5-9 pm | Museum Galleries + Chace Center Plaza
Explore the imaginative life of letters. Find out how communication has evolved from illuminated manuscripts to typewriters to TXT SPK. Talk with a graphic designer about typography. Try your hand at calligraphy. Don’t miss the film Typeface, documenting the twilight of the analog craft of typesetting and its influence in the digital age.
- Materials Lab  5-7 pm | Museum Galleries
From the everyday and mundane to the rare and exotic, explore the materials of art and design in this drop-in lab that invites participants to experiment and create. All ages welcome. - Designers on Design  5:30-6 pm | Ancient Galleries
John Caserta, graphic designer and founder of The Design Office, discusses the timeless considerations of typography and communication in a Greek carved stone tablet. - Hands-On Art  6-8 pm | Museum Galleries
Create your own art in the galleries with the guidance of art instructor Paul Carpentier. Each session is inspired by works on view. All materials provided, no experience necessary. - ‘Typeface’ Â 6:30 pm | Metcalf Auditorium, Chace Center
Retired craftsmen and young graphic artists navigate the convergence of modern design and traditional typesetting techniques in this documentary filmed at a rural Midwestern museum and print shop. (2010/60 min./not rated) Co-sponsored by Cable Car Cinema.
DESIGN THE NIGHT: TRENDS
Thursday, August 16, 2012Â Â 5-10 pm | Museum Galleries + Chace Center Plaza
Celebrate identity and image, from 19th-century “It Girl” Madame Récamier to today’s trendsetters. Watch design demonstrations of historic hair styles and clothing. Meet Herb & Dorothy in a true film about a modest but visionary art – collecting couple – and see part of their vast collection at the Museum. Live music on the plaza keeps the festivities going past closing time!
- Materials Lab  5-7 pm | Museum Galleries
From the everyday and mundane to the rare and exotic, explore the materials of art and design in this drop-in lab that invites participants to experiment and create. All ages welcome. - Designers on Design  5:30-6 pm | Grand Gallery
Robert Babigan, owner of the downtown men’s boutique and private-label brand WHARF Clothing & Wares, critiques a fashionable French family painted in the 19th century. - Hands-On Art  6-8 pm | Museum Galleries
Create your own art in the galleries with the guidance of art instructor Paul Carpentier. Each session is inspired by works on view. All materials provided, no experience necessary. - ‘Herb & Dorothy’ Â 6:30 pm | Metcalf Auditorium, Chace Center
Meet the Vogels, a postal clerk and a librarian of modest means who built – and later donated – one of the world’s finest collections of contemporary art. Screened in conjunction with the Museum’s new exhibition, The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Rhode Island. (2008/85 min./not rated) Co-sponsored by Cable Car Cinema. - Live Music  8-10 pm | Chace Center Plaza
Photo credit: Courtesy of the Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design.
