Q2148186

The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, commonly known as the RISD Museum, is the art museum of the Rhode Island School of Design, a private art school in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Co-founded with the school in 1877, it ranks as the 20th-largest art museum in the United States and operates seven curatorial departments. Located on the campus of the highly regarded Rhode Island School of Design, which adjoins Brown University, the museum serves simultaneously as a public institution and a teaching facility for RISD students. Its collections encompass more than 100,000 artworks and design objects spanning indigenous art of the Americas and art from Europe, Asia, and Africa from antiquity to the present.

The museum was established on March 22, 1877, as an integral part of the Rhode Island School of Design from the inception of both institutions. The founding emerged from Rhode Island's post-Civil War industrial context, when local manufacturers sought to improve product design through employees who combined artistic and practical knowledge. The Rhode Island Art Association had been chartered in 1854 to establish a permanent art museumuserid museum and gallery, but insufficient funds delayed realization until 1877, when the Rhode Island Women's Centennial Commission allocated $1,675 to start the school and its associated museum.

The collection began with etchings and plaster casts of sculptures and architectural elements. The first public galleries opened in 1893 in the Waterman Building. In 1897, five additional galleries were constructed as a memorial to Helen Metcalf, one of RISD's founders. The Metcalf family donated plaster casts that grew to nearly 500 before the collection was dismantled in 1937.

A transformative bequest came in 1904 from Charles Pendleton, a collector and dealer in English and American furniture, ceramics, and carpets. Pendleton House, constructed in 1906 as a fireproof expansion modeled on the donor's Federal-era home, made RISD the first American art museum to devote an entire wing to decorative arts.

The 1920s brought significant expansion: the Metcalf Building was added in 1924, and the Radeke Building opened in 1926 with a central garden court named after Eliza Greene Metcalf Radeke. From 1938 to 1941, German refugee Alexander Dorner directed the museum, shifting its orientation from classics toward contemporary art and emphasizing cross-connections among collections. Post-World War II immigration of European émigrés further strengthened curatorial expertise and collections.

Contemporary collecting accelerated in the mid-1960s and early 1970s with National Endowment for the Arts funding. The 1970 Raid the Icebox exhibition, curated by Andy Warhol from the museum's storerooms, became a landmark event. In 1993, the Daphne Farago Wing designed by Tony Atkin and Associates added two contemporary art galleries, the first major expansion since 1926. The most recent major addition, the Chace Center designed by Spanish architect José Rafael Moneo, opened in September 2008. This $34 million center, named for preservationists Malcolm and Beatrice Oenslager Chace, connects to the third floor of the Radeke Building and serves as the museum's main entrance.

The RISD Museum maintains seven curatorial departments: ancient art, Asian art, contemporary art, costumes and textiles, decorative arts, painting and sculpture, and print/drawing/photography. Its holdings represent indigenous art of North and South America alongside European, Asian, and African art from antiquity to the present.

A particular strength lies in regional American art, beginning with 17th-century furniture by Goddard and Townsend of Newport and extending through Paul Revere, Thomas Cole, and portraitist Gilbert Stuart to American Impressionists. The museum's international collections include works by Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Andy Warhol. The collection's growth from early reliance on donations to more active acquisition was enabled by gifts and endowment growth, particularly during the 1920s.

The museum's signature holdings reflect both its decorative arts pioneering and its encyclopedic ambitions. The Pendleton House wing, opened in 1906, houses the decorative arts collection that began with Charles Pendleton's bequest of English and American furniture, ceramics, and carpets. This wing represented the first museum space in the United States devoted entirely to decorative arts.

The plaster cast collection, which grew to nearly 500 pieces through Metcalf family donations before its 1937 dismantlement, formed an important early teaching resource. The 1970 Raid the Icebox exhibition, in which Andy Warhol curated selections from the museum's extensive storerooms and archives, stands as a landmark of institutional self-examination and contemporary artistic engagement.

Among specific named works in the international collection are pieces by major European and American modernists including Manet, Monet, Picasso, Renoir, and Warhol. The regional American collection features significant works by Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Cole, and furniture makers Goddard and Townsend.

The museum occupies a complex of four older buildings threaded on a linear axis, with a more recent addition. The original 1893 public galleries were housed in the Waterman Building, named for the street on which it sits. The 1897 memorial galleries to Helen Metcalf expanded this footprint.

Pendleton House, constructed in 1906, was designed as a fireproof expansion resembling a residential home, modeled on the donor's actual Federal-era house on Waterman Street. The Metcalf Building (1924) and the Radeke Building (1926) followed. The Radeke Building, fronted by a modest street-level entry on Benefit Street, is a six-story structure built onto the steep slope of College Hill, with a central garden court providing natural light to surrounding galleries.

The 1993 Daphne Farago Wing, designed by Tony Atkin and Associates of Philadelphia, added two contemporary art galleries and relocated the entrance near the historic Benefit Street entrance, maintaining traditional upslope access from College Hill. The Chace Center, designed by José Rafael Moneo and opened in 2008, connects via a glassed-in bridge to the third floor of the Radeke Building and the three other older buildings. A long, segmented outdoor stairway cuts perpendicularly from Benefit Street to the lower campus, passing under this bridge. The center was built on a former parking lot in one of the few remaining open spaces near RISD, facing a revitalized riverfront and downtown Providence.

The building initially contained a retail shop, auditorium, and exhibition and classroom spaces; the retail shop was later converted into a programming space called the Common Room. The second floor houses temporary galleries for RISD student artworks. Navigation through the interconnected older buildings remains reportedly confusing to visitors.

The RISD Museum is located in Providence, Rhode Island, on the campus of the Rhode Island School of Design, which directly adjoins Brown University. The museum is open to the public and serves as both a public institution and a teaching facility for RISD students.

The main entrance is through the Chace Center, which faces the revitalized riverfront and downtown Providence. The museum's website is www.risdmuseum.org. The RISD Store, originally located in the Chace Center, has been relocated to the first floor of the Design Center at 30 North Main Street, just north of the museum entrance.