RISD Museum of Art

The development of the Rhode Island School of Design and its museum is tied to Rhode Island's emergence after the Civil War as the most heavily industrialized state in the Union and to the growing desire for better design in manufacturing. With the region's prosperity based on the production of silverware, jewelry, machine tools, steam engines, files, screws, and textiles, leading manufacturers as well as civic leaders felt the need for industrial-arts education and exposure to examples of fine art. Even before the war, the Rhode Island Art Association, chartered in 1854, determined "to establish in Providence a permanent Art Museum and Gallery of the Arts and Design." In the absence of either state funding or private donations, however, the creation of a design school and art museum in Rhode Island did not occur until 1877. Faced with a choice between erecting a drinking fountain in Roger Williams Park or founding a school of design-the latter proposed by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf (1830-1895)-the Rhode Island Women's Centennial Commission in that year voted to establish the Rhode Island School of Design by allocating to it the modest $1,675 remaining from its fund-raising for the Women's Pavilion at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.

The Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design, also known as the RISD Museum of Art, is Rhode Island's leading museum of fine and decorative art, housing a collection of 86,000 objects of international significance. It is southeastern New England's only comprehensive art museum and is accredited by the American Association of Museums. The RISD Museum strives to be a vital cultural resource by educating and inspiring a wide variety of audiences: families and individuals, scholars and researchers, artists and designers, and students of all ages. The Museum maintains an active program of exhibitions, lectures, tours, workshops and publications dedicated to the interpretation of art and design from diverse cultures ranging from ancient times to the present.

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