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Friday, November 9, 2012

Get Smart, High Art

A photo of The Nature Lab @ RISD.

Per Wikipedia: Rhode Island School of Design (RISD, play /ˈrɪzd/) is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and offer joint courses. Applicants to RISD are required to complete RISD's infamous two-drawing "hometest", one of which involves the trademark RISD bicycle drawing. The school consistently ranks as the number one fine arts college in the United States.

Well, the elite art school has an elite price tag to match. Tuition, $41,000; room and board, $12,000; and supplies/materials, about $2,000. So that is $55,000. Per year. Yes, there are scholarships, based on your finances....I was also most interested to learn of the bicycle drawing required of applicants [see above].

Did I mention that Douglass College @ Rutgers University, where I went, was $3,600 per year? And that my parents paid half and I paid half, saving money from my jobs @ the dry cleaner/laundromat and town newspaper?

Figgy and I enjoyed RISD and Providence. It was a great, sunny day to walk around. The presentation and walking tour took almost three hours. Most of the prospective students were high school juniors [with families who think ahead]; Fig and another young woman, who flew in from Michigan, were the seniors I noted.

It's a hilly city, an artsy city, a nice place. Coffee shops, bookstore, clothing stores [with hip shoes and bright tights], local fare, vegans, eco-conscious. We saw the dorms, the art classes in session, the library and this cool space called THE NATURE LAB. Fig likes science [like Sis, H. and my parents] and art, and this really appealed to her--and me. There are human skeletons, preserved animals [a diminutive mouse deer, sweeping swan and more] and even live ones [snake]. The idea is that you can go there to draw from life. What a place.

Fig liked RISD......"But if you had to choose right now, RISD or one of the New York City schools, which would you choose?" I asked later over coffee. "Probably New York," she said. We shall see. She liked Pratt, FIT and Parsons. For fashion design, they may rule....

I hope this is good night. We have managed to get lost a lot on foot and in car in Providence and I still have to pick her up from her Montclair friend Dom's dorm @ Brown, where she went a couple hours ago. I prefer NYC, with its grid of numbered streets :)

TCOY
  1. We walked a lot.
  2. Made healthy choices, though I see when tracking every last calorie on myfitnesspal.com at night that I need to be way more aware....the calories really stack up fast. Have to be mindful. Can't throw so many away. Changes I could have made: Have a smaller piece of dark chocolate; have medium latte vs. large; don't eat half the little bag of chips that came "free" with lunch sandwich; don't sample a slice of Figgy's thin-crust pizza @ dinner; and use less butter on bread in restaurant.




2 comments:

  1. I love the science room for art! I am totally entranced by the intersection of science and art.

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  2. Hi Nan....yes, the intersection of science and art is cool...and this nature lab was really cool. our figgy has always loved nature.....hope all is well....alice

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