Rhode Island School of Art and Design, Providence: Critical Making

How do art academies educate today across the world? This themed issue of the German art publication “Kunstforum” (Volume 245, March/April 2017) profiles 8 art schools and art academies where students explore creativity. It investigates how in places such as Singapore, Ghana, Israel, Columbia, Italy, Germany, the UK and in the US art is being taught and how and if this is possible. Based on interviews and conversations with students, teachers, artists and curators, the focus lies on the central question of the relationship between workshop and studio practice and the idea of making in relation to concepts, ideas and reflection. The individual articles, read together, open up a debate – convergences and differences in different places - about material skills and notions of creativity today.

RISD in Providence, USA, is one of the oldest and most respected art schools of the country. Still following its 19the Century mission statement the school focuses on the idea of “critical making” and supports skills based education from day one, while at the same time acknowledging and fostering the idea that it is creativity which shapes problem solving in our society today and tomorrow. [Dieckvoss, Stephanie. Rhode Island School of Art and Design, Providence: Critical Making, in: Kunst lernen?, Kunstforum International vol. 245, March – April 2017, pp. 160-173]