risd | PROJECT OPEN DOOR

WINTER 2023

Above: A print by POD teen Anissa from our fall Printmaking Practices class

Happy February from Project Open Door!

We are looking forward to some exciting new classes, programs, and partnerships in 2023! Take a sneak peek at our winter classes here, and read more about fall programs, recent and upcoming events, and some exciting teen and alumni news below!

SATURDAY PORTFOLIO PROGRAM

PRINTMAKING PRACTICES

Teaching Artist: Natasha Brennan

Teaching Assistants: Naylea Hernandez, Graciela Baptista

During Printmaking Practices, led by teaching artist Natasha Brennan (RISD TX '21), teens learned about multiple printmaking processes while exploring narrative illustration, bookmaking, and mixed media art making. With a focus on relief printing, screenprinting, and collagraph experimentation, teens had weekly demos and assignments and worked towards a final, long-form independent project.

Top left: Natasha works with POD teen Leo on a print. Bottom left: a Zine by Jaz. Right: Print by POD senior Bellie

INTRO TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Teaching Artist: Isaiah Aladejobi

Teaching Assistants: Tres Nadal, Temilola Matanmi

This fall, teens in the Intro to Industrial Design class learned that the field of industrial design is about more than making something look nice but also about engaging with people through design. Teaching artist and current RISD graduate student Isaiah Aladejobi (RISD MFA GD '23) encouraged teens to consider ideas of functionality, manufacturability, and prototyping in their designs and how to effectively bridge the gap between 2D and 3D. Teens worked towards using visual art techniques and communication skills to create a physical representation of their ideas to present at the end of the semester. Throughout the semester, POD teens explored various industrial design spaces and gallery shows across the RISD campus.

Left: Maison prototypes a utensil, Top middle: final project by Kenny, Top right: TA tres works with students, Bottom right: Isaiah gives teens a tour of the graduate ID studios

JEWELRY JOURNEY

Teaching Artist: Seth Papac

Teaching Assistants: Brenda Li, Louise Jaeger

This fall in Jewelry Journey, our first semester-long collaboration with a RISD department, POD teens explored the fundamental tools and techniques of jewelry making. Jewelry + Metalsmithing (J+M) Faculty Seth Papac introduced teens to techniques such as sawing, piercing, riveting, texturing, soldering, and stone setting in the J + M studios. By the end of the fall semester, teens had all worked towards creating a finished bracelet, a pin, a ring, and earrings!

You can read more about this exciting departmental partnership in a recent RISD news story, shared below:

Project Open Door Students Explore Jewelry + Metalsmithing

This semester, 12 high school students participating in the Project Open Door (POD) Saturday Portfolio Program facilitated by RISD's Teaching + Learning in Art + Design department are spending their weekends sawing, sanding, hammering and torching metal in the college's Jewelry + Metalsmithing (J+M) studio spaces.

FIELD TRIPS

RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE

In November, POD teens visited the impressive art department facilities at Rhode Island College. Teens heard from POD alums currently studying various creative majors at RIC about their journey through high school and into college. Many thanks to these alums for their time and inspiring energy and to Dr. Cheryl Williams, Associate Professor, of Art and Educational Studies at Rhode Island College, for arranging this wonderful trip and welcoming POD teens to RIC. See more pictures in a recent Instagram post!

Above: POD teens gather outside of the RIC art building

Below: Some POD alumni currently studying art and design at RIC! From left to right: Vanessa, Alia, Sandra, Zizi, and Foster!

NATIONAL PORTFOLIO DAY

This past October, a group of POD teens headed to National Portfolio Day in Boston, MA. They shared their portfolios with admission officers from various art and design schools in the country and received valuable feedback and advice on applying to art schools!

UPCOMING EVENTS

Join artist Lilly Manycolors and a group of POD teens on Saturday, March 25th, at 6:00pm

at Central Contemporary Arts in Providence, RI, for the opening of SEEING OURSELVES, a youth art exhibition highlighting 12 teens' voices about issues of the future.

Lilly and a group of youth, the majority of whom are POD students, have been working on this exhibition for a few months by having conversations about the current state of our society, issues of the Planet, as well as their personal experiences and their hopes & fears for the future. We hope to see you for the opening to celebrate these teens and their work!

IN THE NEWS

POD was recently featured in The Brown Daily Herald. Read more below!

RISD Project Open Door provides high-quality art education to local high schoolers

~The Brown Daily Herald

Lyza Baum, Rhode Island School of Design textiles faculty, fondly remembers spending her Saturdays as a Cranston High School East student attending art workshops in the morning and sneaking into nude figure-drawing sessions at RISD in the afternoon.

TEEN SPOTLIGHT

Congrats to POD teen Avari E. (pictured left) for receiving an honorable mention from the Scholastic Art + Writing awards for comic art for their work Project Moon (pictured above). Avari is a junior at Classical High School, has been a POD teen for two years, and studied the graphic novel at RISD Pre-College last summer!

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

POD and RISD alum Abenda Sohn (RISD IL '22) recently participated in WHO WE ARE NOW, a curated public photography installation that reflects the community through the eyes of five Rhode Island-based emerging artists. Fifteen photographers were invited to submit their work for consideration, and five images were selected for the exhibition. Large-scale banner reproductions of the photographs are currently on view in downtown Providence.

Abenda participated in POD programs for all four years of his high school career and graduated from RISD in the spring of 2022. He also recently received a grant from the Rhode Island Foundation to travel to his home country of Liberia. During this trip, Abenda explored his Librarian-American identity and Liberian history through creative research and his multimedia artistic practice.

Bendy in front of his installation in Downcity

(photo credit: Abenda Sohn)

Above, POD alumni Josa Sabater, a RISD sophomore double majoring in FAV and sculpture, works with natural indigo dyes! Josa received a scholarship through the RISD student opportunity fund to participate in Art & Science of Conservation, a Wintersession global studies course located on the island of Hawai’i. Josa had an incredible experience and enjoyed exploring the historical and contemporary connections between art, conservation, and local and Indigenous environmental practices.

Read more about this program in a recent RISD news story:

RISD Students Explore Unique Ecology of Hawai’i Island

(photo credit: RISD media/Lucy Spelman)