List of Rhode Island School of Design people

Notable alumni

Architecture

• Raëd Abillama — Lebanon-based architect
• Deborah Berke — dean of Yale School of Architecture; principal of Deborah Berke Partners
• Preston Scott Cohen — Gerald M. McCue Professor in Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design; principal of Preston Scott Cohen, Inc.
• Jonathan L. Foote — architect
• Frances Henley — first woman to independently practice architecture in Rhode Island
• Allan Merrick Jeffers — architect, designer of the Alberta Legislature Building
• Bernard Khoury — Lebanese architect
• Richard Levine — professor, green architect, and sustainability pioneer
• Alice Malhiot — believed to be the first Canadian woman to graduate from an architectural school
• Michael Maltzan — principal and founder of Michael Maltzan Architecture
• Sam Posey — New England car racer, painter and architect
• Ira Rakatansky — Providence-based architect
• Hashim Sarkis — architect
• Richard M. Sommer — director, Global Cities Institute, dean, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, University of Toronto, Director of Urban Design and associate professor, Harvard Graduate School of Design
• Nader Tehrani — dean, the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of the Cooper Union, professor and head of the Department of Architecture, MIT ; principal and founder of NADAAA
• Veronika Valk — Estonian architect
• Clifford Wiens — Canadian architect

Fine Art

Art collectives

• Forcefield
• *Matt Brinkman — artist
• *Jim Drain — artist
• *Ara Peterson — artist

Art collectors and art dealers

• Mary Boone — owner of Mary Boone Gallery
• David Whitney — art collector and curator; longtime companion of architect Philip Johnson

Digital arts

• Rebecca Allen — pioneer of early computer art, installation art, interface design, and professor

Industrial design

• David Hanson — robotics designer of Sophia
• Charles Tsunashima — industrial designer, Tama Art University faculty
• Archduke Dominic of Austria, Prince of Hungary and Bohemia, Prince of Tuscany

Music

Musical bands

Black Dice – Formed in 1997

• Hisham Bharoocha — artist and musician, former member of Black Dice and Lightning Bolt
• Sebastian Blanck — artist and musician, former member of Black Dice

  Fang Island – Formed in 2005

• Fang Island

  Les Savy Fav – Formed in 1995

• Syd Butler
• Tim Harrington

  Lightning Bolt – Formed in 1994

• Hisham Bharoocha — artist and musician, former member of Black Dice and Lightning Bolt
• Brian Chippendale — artist, founded Fort Thunder
• Brian Gibson — artist

  Rubber Rodeo – Formed in 1980

• Rubber Rodeo

  Talking Heads – Formed in 1974

• David Byrne
• Chris Frantz
• Tina Weymouth

Textiles

• Pia Camil — contemporary artist
• Cynthia Schira — textile artist known for adding relief and irregularity to weavings made on a Jacquard loom
• Ruth Adler Schnee — a founding figure of contemporary textile design in America, best known for her modern prints and abstract-patterns of organic and geometric forms

Notable current and past faculty

Fine Arts Division

Ceramics

• Otto and Vivika Heino — ceramics

Film, animation, video

• Yvonne Andersen — professor in animation, department head
• Janet Perlman — animator, Oscar nominee for The Tender Tale of Cinderella Penguin
• Steven Subotnick — professor in animation

Illustration

• Jean Blackburn — archaeological illustrator, sculptor, and painter
• Lars Grant-West — illustrator for Wizards of the Coast
• Fred Lynch — journalistic illustrator
• David Macaulay — illustrator and author
• Barry Moser — illustrator
• Kelly Murphy — illustrator and author, E.B. White Award winner for Masterpiece
• Mahler B. Ryder – mixed media collage, sculptor, jazz pianist, taught illustration from 1969–1992
• Chris Van Allsburg — children's book author/illustrator, Caldecott winner for Jumanji and ''The Polar Express''

Jewelry and metalsmithing

• John Prip — silver design

Painting

• Richard Merkin — professor emeritus, painter
• Duane Slick — painting faculty since 1995
• George William Whitaker — first instructor of oil painting
• Mabel May Woodward — painting faculty for over 20 years; during the early 20th century introduced the "action class," in which students studied the human figure as a machine rather than as a stationary object

Photography

• Diane Arbus — photographer
• Harry Callahan — photographer, former chair of the Department of Photography
• Joe Deal — photographer, professor emeritus, former provost
• Ann Fessler — author, filmmaker, installation artist, former Department Head and Graduate Program Director
• Henry Horenstein — photographer
• Aaron Siskind — abstract expressionist photographer who, with Callahan, founded the photography department at RISD

Printmaking

• Andrew Raftery — engraver; has taught in the printmaking and painting department since 1991
• Brian Shure — master printmaker, realist painter, teaching 1996–2016
• Carol Wax — printmaker, visiting artist and faculty in the printmaking department

Sculpture

• Gilbert Franklin — sculptor, teacher 1942–1985, and former dean of fine arts

Architecture and Design Division

Apparel design

• Katie Gallagher — fashion designer
• Daniela Lalita — musician, model, and artist
• Nicole Miller — fashion designer and businesswoman

Architecture

• Thomas Bosworth — former chair of Department of Architecture; Seattle architect; professor emeritus, University of Washington
• James Ingo Freed — architect
• Norman Isham — Rhode Island historical architect
• Manfredi Nicoletti — Italian architect
• Monica Ponce de Leon — architect, designer of the Fleet Library
• Jane Silverstein Ries — first woman licensed in Colorado as a professional landscape architect
• Galia Solomonoff — Argentinian-born architect
• Friedrich St. Florian — architect, designer of National World War II Memorial
• Michael Webb — architect

Furniture design

• Tage Frid — RISD professor of Woodworking and Furniture design 1962–1985 also connected to the industrial design program
• Jens Risom — furniture design

Graphic design

• John Howard Benson — calligraphy, design theory, sculpture
• Malcolm Grear — professor emeritus, graphic designer
• Mihai Nadin — theorist, semiotics, computational design, HCI
• Ootje Oxenaar — Dutch graphic designer, designer of acclaimed but now vanished Dutch currency
• Michael Rock — graphic designer; writer; design professor at Yale University MFA graphic design program
• Nancy Skolos — graphic designer, co-founder of Skolos-Wedell studios, teaching at RISD since 1989
• Paul Soulellis — graphic designer, artist, publisher and teacher; founder of Library of the Printed Web

Industrial design

• Marc Harrison — industrial designer and pioneer of universal design and RISD professor of industrial design until his death in 1998
• Victor Papanek — designer and early pioneer of universal design
• Peter Yeadon — industrial designer

Landscape architecture

• Mikyoung Kim — landscape architect
• Elizabeth Greenleaf Pattee — landscape architect

Experimental and Foundation Studies Division

• Dawn Clements — foundations faculty
• Mark Milloff — painter, foundations faculty

Liberal Arts Division

• Mairéad Byrne — poet
• Jhumpa Lahiri — creative writing, author of the novel ''The Namesake''