The city (and state’s) foremost art museum was founded in 1877, in part by the RI Women’s Centennial Commission. It features 9 collections: Costume & Textiles; Asian; Ancient Egyptian; Decorative Arts and Design; 18th-19th Century American; European; Ancient Greek and Roman; Modern and Contemporary; Prints, Drawings, and Photographs.
The RISD Museum is noted for being the 20th largest art museum in the US. It was ranked the #1 university art museum in the US by Architectural Digest in 2017 and ranked #2 of the 35 top college art museums in the country by Best College Reviews in 2016.
When you visit you will see French Impressionist paintings, Egyptian mummies, Roman marbles, 18th century American furniture, Peruvian burial cloths, and a wooden Heian Buddha.
The museum is open daily except Mondays; admission is free on Sundays and Thursday evenings.
100,000 works of art and design dating from ancient times to present are in the collection
1,546 recent acquisitions
104 Buddhist priests’ robes, or kesa, are in the textile collection
772 objects (paintings, furniture, textiles, sculpture, etc.) are on view
2,000 silver pieces produced by Providence’s Gorham Manufacturing Company from mid-19th to mid-20th century are the foundation of the museum’s American silverware collection
84,637 objects are available online/digital images
700 Japanese prints owned by Providence-born Abby Aldrich Rockefeller (1874-1948) are in the collection
1 Nigerian bronze sculpture held by the museum since 1939 was returned to the Nigerian National Collections in 2022; it was one of 31 looted artifacts repatriated to Nigeria by American institutions
116 inches is the height of the wooden Heian Buddha, Dainichi Nyorai; it is the largest historic Japanese wooden sculpture in the US
1st period rooms in a US museum, furnished with the gift of Charles Pendleton’s (1846-1904) Providence collection
$34 million was the cost of a new addition, the Chace Center, built in 2008, with entrance on North Main St.
360 examples of 18th and early 19th century French wallpaper from the Charles and Frances Wilson Huard collection; 100 samples will be in a special exhibit from 11/16/24 to 5/11/25
Sources
https://artfacts.net/institution/the-risd-museum-university-of-rhode-island/3685
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhode_Island_School_of_Design_Museum
Nini Stoddard is a proud Providence resident. After living abroad as the child of a US diplomat, she returned to the United States to attend college. She lived in Connecticut and enjoyed working as a librarian, as a director of a regional non-profit, and as a prospect researcher. Nini moved to Providence in 2006 to work at Brown University as a senior prospect researcher. Now retired, she loves local history and volunteering.
