Rhode Island School of Design president Rosanne Somerson discusses how the design school has been forced to reinvent itself in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic in the penultimate talk as part of our collaboration with Friedman Benda for VDF. Tune in from 11:00am UK time.
Like many universities and design schools, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) closed its campus in March as lockdown restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19 were implemented across the US, forcing the school to transition to teaching online.
"This is without a doubt the biggest challenge we've faced in our entire history as an institution," Somerson told curator Glenn Adamson in the latest of New York gallery Friedman Benda's Design in Dialogue interviews that Dezeen is publishing as part of Virtual Design Festival. RISD president Rosanne Somerson. Portrait by Cary Wolinsky
"When we were forced to send our students back home, or at least off campus, we had so little warning. We did it, I think, incredibly seamlessly. But it was traumatic for the students. I mean, this is not at all what they had anticipated. And it was done to them, and to all of us, rather than by them. So it was very difficult and it raised all kinds of issues of all kinds of inequities and complexities."
RISD is "rebuilding" its entire campus
Despite the easing of lockdown restrictions, Somerson revealed that the university is having to completely revamp its campus to enable students and...