For one night each year, the Rhode Island School of Design Museum leaves the lights on late and opens its doors for college night. Last Thursday, students from Brown, RISD and neighboring colleges attended the diverse exhibitions and performances on display at the museum.
While the museum is always free to Brown and RISD students, free admission was extended to all students with a photo identification card on Thursday, an incentive Deborah Clemons, the associate educator of public programming at RISD, said she hoped would allow students to engage with the museum on their own time, and not just as a part of a class.
If a student comes to college night and sees other students and their friends enjoying themselves while engaging with the art, hopefully he or she will want to return, Clemons said.
Last October the RISD museum held its first college night and, based on its success, decided to do it again this fall, Clemons said. They are also considering a spring version of the event.
Visitors enjoyed live music, lectures, spoken word performances, student exhibitions and a few chances to make art themselves.
Two bands from RISD played throughout the evening, drawing large crowds to the Grand Gallery. Ruthy, Moonshine and the Ruckus Boys, a folk-Americana rock band played first, followed by the alternative band Celadour. While watching from their seats, students could sketch on their paper tablecloth with pencils provided by the museum.
Perhaps the most popular event of the night was the spoken word performances by two Brown students from Word! and one RISD junior. Tim Natividad '12 read a poem about his experience working with an international nonprofit organization in Cambodia promoting child rights and opposing land evictions. The poem protested the Cambodian government's backhanded deals with corporations to buy cheap land and kick out current, poorer residents in order to gentrify neighborhoods and make money. Ramsey Jeremie '12 read two poems, "What Ignorance Was Thinking When Its Wings Burnt Off," inspired by the verse novel "Autobiography of Red," and "For Her" a poem about his mother.
Other events included a screening of a film on the "A" Course, a course designed in 1969 by faculty at Saint Martins School of Art that became famous for its lack of student evaluations, deadlines and verbal communication, as well as its focus on art. Gareth Jones, a professor at RISD, and Garth Evans, head of sculpture at the New York Studio School, discussed their own experiences in helping to design and implement the course.
