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Forbes
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
An Artsy Visit To Providence, RI, ‘The Creative Capital'
Gage Prentiss Edward Mitchell Bannister public sculpture in Providence, RI. Bannister Community Art Project. Providence considers itself 'The Creative Capital.' 'Capital' is straightforward enough as Rhode Island's capital city. 'Creative' requires more explanation. Start by thinking about the Rhode Island School of Design, one of America's leading art schools for more than 100 years. James Franco ('Spiderman'), Seth McFarlane ('Family Guy'), Martin Mull ('Roseanne),' Jemima Kirke ('Girls'), and Gus Van Zandt ('Good Will Hunting') have gone to Hollywood from RISD. David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, and Chris Frantz founded the Talking Heads after meeting as freshman at RISD. Graduate Chris Van Allsburg wrote and illustrated 'Jumanji' and 'The Polar Express.' Fashion designer Nicole Miller. Shepard Fairey, originator of the Barak Obama 'Hope' campaign poster. The world's most famous glass artist, Dale Chihuly. Kara Walker, one of visual art's most provocative creators over the last 40 years. Rose B. Simpson, who's taken Native American ceramics to new heights. Julie Mehretu, one of the most prominent contemporary artists in the world. A partial list of prominent former RISD students. For visitors to Providence, the school's museum of art is a highlight. Not as large as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 50 miles to the north, pound-for-pound, its encyclopedic collection measures up in quality. This is no ordinary college art museum. RISD Museum doubles as the civic art museum for the city and state. Among college art museums, it is fourth largest in the country after Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. From contemporary paintings by RISD graduates to an exquisitely preserved mummy and the largest wooden Buddha in America, the museum's permanent collection has signature items that would be cherished at any institution in the world. RISD Museum displays a delightful, small Van Gogh oil painting produced the year he died. A signature Manet portrait of contemporary Berthé Morisot featured in the 'Manet/Degas' exhibition hosted in 2023 and 2024 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso. Good ones. The Japanese woodblock prints and kimonos gifted by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller are as fine as can be found anywhere. She grew up just down the block from RISD, a daughter of Rhode Island senator Nelson W. Aldrich and the wife of John D. Rockefeller Jr. Manet, Degas (sculpture), and Monet, left to right, at the RISD Museum in Providence. Chadd Scott In true 'Creative Capital' spirit, museum wall text emphasizes how each item was made–tools, techniques, process, intention–over trivial details. This is rare among American art museums and reinforces a commitment to RISD students and other creatives who want to learn from the pieces, not simply admire them. 'We really like to teach creativity,' RISD Museum Director Tsugumi Maki told 'We like to show how creativity is unlocked and discovered and demystified for the students, and we try to apply that same philosophy to our audiences in the community.' The museum is equally enjoyable for anyone whose interest goes no further than appreciation. 'I meet people all the time who are like, 'Oh, you work in a museum. I don't go to museums. I don't understand art.' I'm like, 'What's there to understand about art'' Maki said. 'They're like, 'I never took art history classes. I don't have any experience.' I'm like, 'Art is supposed to make you feel something.' So, if you feel something, ask yourself, what are you feeling? Does it make you angry? Does it make you sad? Does it make you happy? Because that's a reflection of yourself and the artwork, and that's exactly what it's supposed to be doing. Then you can ask the questions of: why am I feeling this way, where did this come from that it speaks to me. Those questions people don't ask enough.' With a nationwide public education system terribly unbalanced to prioritize STEM–science, technology, engineering, and math–at the expense of the arts and humanities–music, painting, drawing, writing, literature, film–American society has suffered. Two generations of children have had their lives directed toward securing good paying jobs crunching numbers. Amoral tech bros are held up as heroes. Cruelty has been confused with toughness and is applauded. Empathy considered a weakness. One hundred and forty characters considered writing and reading. In a STEM world with right answers and wrong answers, knowing takes prominence over thinking. 'There isn't enough critical thinking in the world these days. People aren't curious enough, they don't know how to be curious in all ways,' Maki said. 'We're in this information, fact-based world where we don't have to ask questions. We automatically have something like the Internet telling you exactly how things work, and what we want to do is let people unfold things for themselves.' AS220 Rhode Island School of Design graduate Shepard Fairey mural behind AS 220 main building in Providence, RI. Chadd Scott RISD exists to nurture the most promising budding creatives from around world. AS220 is the spunky, scrappy, punk rock, local's only, come one, come all counterpart. 'Unjuried, uncensored, and all ages.' 'Unjuried' is a word made up by AS200 reflecting its all are welcome regardless of ability or means DNA. Anyone in Rhode Island who has a band and needs a stage, AS220 has one, free of charge. Want to take a dance class? AS220 has them. Woodworking, printmaking, screen printing, sewing, photography–with dark room–AS220. A black box theatre. Improv and stand-up. AS220. Poetry. Open access art exhibitions. All of that plus a bar and restaurant, affordable housing, artist studios, youth programs, festivals–you name it. Art for all. All the people and all the arts. Unpasteurized. Anyone in New England looking for their people who hasn't found them, look at AS200. On any given Wednesday through Sunday night at the organization's 115 Empire Street main building, visitors experience the weirdest and most wonderful grab bag of performances and presentations imaginable. The public is welcome to drop in on classes and use the workshops. Just show up with a good attitude. AS220 celebrates its 40th year of operation in downtown Providence in 2025. It serves as a model for how community focused arts organizations operating on shoestring budgets can revitalize urban areas and act as connective tissue for cities. It has grown to encompass three enormous historic buildings where it also acts as landlord to local businesses. Visit the RISD Museum to see one of Eduard Manet's greatest paintings. Visit AS220 to hear a death metal band playing its fourth gig. Visit the Providence Art Club to meet Edward Mitchell Bannister. Providence Art Club Providence Art Club Fleur de Lys Building with Anthony Tomaselli studio. Chadd Scott The Providence Art Club was founded in 1880. It was both integrated and open to women, long before women could vote and not long after people were held in slavery in America. One of its founding members was Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828–1901), a Black Canadian who moved to Boston in 1848 before finding his way to Providence alongside his mixed-race, Narragansett Indian wife, Christiana Cartreaux (1822–1903). In 1876, Bannister, self-taught, took first place in a painting competition at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. When he came forward to accept the award, organizers were nonplussed. They resisted handing over the certificate until Bannister's fellow artists stood in support, demanding they do so. Sculptor Gage Prentiss moved to Rhode Island in 2011. He'd never heard of Bannister. Over the course of years, however, Bannister's name kept coming up. 'When you meet someone, you just have a chemistry; I know he'd been dead for a very long time, but when I first saw an image of him, a photo, I just had this connection,' Prentiss told 'I felt his charisma and I wanted to know more. He just was always kind of running in the back of my head.' At an exhibition of Bannister's work in 2018 at the Gilbert Stuart Museum south of Providence, the painter moved to the front of the sculptor's head. 'I was overwhelmed. I felt like his ghost was in the room,' Prentiss remembers. 'Right there I decided I need to share this feeling with other people somehow, and the only way I could think to do it was by doing what I do which is very traditional and figurative (sculpture).' Gage Prentiss bust of Edward Mitchell Bannister inside Providence Art Club. Chadd Scott Shortly after the exhibition, a member of the Providence Art Club commissioned Prentiss to produce a bust of Bannister. That work can be seen at the Club. The patron then encouraged Prentiss to scale up his passion and pitch the idea for a public Bannister monument locally. Not wanting to be accused of cultural appropriation, Prentiss visited local Providence African American cultural organizations Stage of Freedom and the Black Heritage Society. Both suggested he try the Club considering the resources required and Bannister's historic connection to it. Despite Prentiss not being a prominent figure in the Providence art scene, the Club was immediately interested. A committee was formed to raise more than $200,000 needed to produce the artwork as well as to provide additional research into Bannister and an educational program about the artist. 'When we came together as a group to start talking about (the sculpture) and coming up with a vision for it, the purpose (was) installing the sculpture, but it became a community building art project,' Jennifer Davis-Allison, co-chair of the Bannister Community Art Project, told As more and more people learned about the Bannister Community Art Project, more and more people wanted to come on board, join the community. The city. The state. 'One of the things that I always love when Gage talks about the impetus for dealing with Banister was how it lit a fire in him, both in terms of his art, but also in terms of him as a man,' Davis-Allison said. 'That same fire was passed, almost from person to person, throughout the process. What made it a community building project was every person that we engaged with became a part of the story and caught that fire.' In September of 2023, Prentiss' Bannister sculpture was unveiled along the channelized Providence River a block from RISD Museum and two blocks from the Art Club. Bannister is seated, sketching. Be sure to look at his sketch pad. That's his wife, Christiana Cartreaux, the hairdresser and entrepreneur who funded her husband's art career. Edward Mitchell Bannister, 'Portrait of Christiana Carteaux Bannister,' 1860. Oil on canvas. RISD Museum. Chadd Scott 'Something about the Bannisters wakes people up and makes them excited,' Prentiss said. 'It doesn't just have to be about art. They're catalysts. They were in their life, and this was the right time for them to come back into focus.' Visit Providence Gaia Street Art, 'Still Here,' 2018, mural in Providence. Chadd Scott From the Bannister monument and RISD Museum, bibliophiles will get a charge out of the Providence Athenaeum kitty-corner from the Museum's back entrance. A hundred yards up the hill is Ivy League Brown University's free Bell Gallery for contemporary art. Dispersed across the school's idyllic, tree-filled, brick and stone campus are sculptures from Henry Moore and Maya Lin. Enjoy the stroll. The Providence Art Club sits two blocks from the RISD Museum. It's wild. Member produced artworks fill every nook and cranny of discombobulated historic rooms. Free admission. Look for Edward Bannister's silhouette #1. A fine landscape painting of his also hangs, along with his certificate from the 1876 Philly show. The Club hosts exhibitions with work for sale. Anthony Tomaselli sells his spectacular Rhode Island landscapes from the bananas Fleur de Lys Building next door to the Club's main entrance. Be sure to step outside and regard the building's fantastical façade. If you're timing is right, you'll catch Tomaselli painting in one of America's oldest art studios. Visit Stages of Freedom African American history museum/bookstore/gift shop across the canal from the Bannister monument. Providence's multi-cultural vibes continue with a new Asian American Pacific Islander history museum, a Cape Verdean festival–celebrating 50 years July 6, 2025–and one of the country's best known Little Italy's: Federal Hill. Good food there. To a person, locals rave about the city's restaurant scene. To sample, try Track 15 food hall opened this spring with locally-owned, family eateries offering everything from lobster rolls to Indian. On Tuesday nights during the summer, head to the Michael S Van Leeston Bridge for a free performance by the Providence Dance Troupe. The public park was once part of Interstate 195. Anything at the Trinity Rep is worth the time. Regard the city's exceptional mural program. It could be assumed Providence lives in the shadow of Boston, or in daydreams of nearby Newport or Cape Cod. Nope. 'The Creative Capital' has its own thing going on, an arts and culture destination in its own right. More From Forbes Forbes Artist Bobby Anspach Tried Saving The World Through Continuous Eye Contact By Chadd Scott Forbes Inaugural Boston Public Art Triennial Strives To Bring City More 'Wow' Moments By Chadd Scott
Fast Company
20-06-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Graphic design job listings are flat, despite worries about AI
BY and María José Gutierrez Chavez From fantastical worlds to personalized Ghibli-esque portraits, social media is flooded with AI-generated images that were created by merely a prompt. But what may be a fun tool for the average user has become an existential threat for graphic design. And yet, surprisingly, graphic design jobs don't seem to be getting eliminated—yet. By analyzing job posting data between fall/winter 2023-2024 and fall/winter 2024-2025, Fast Company found that the number of job listings for graphic designers stayed flat, despite worries about AI platforms eliminating these particular jobs. 'There just haven't been very many graphic-design based AI generators yet,' says Daniel Lefcourt, visual artist and professor of art and computation at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).
Vogue
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue
The 2025 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Finalists Are Taking on the Challenges of Being Independent With Aplomb—Get to Know Them Here
Gabe Gordon, Founded in 2019 Gabe Gordon, 26 and Timothy Gibbons, 28 From Ridgefield, CT (Gordon) and Belfast, Ireland (Gibbons), now based in Brooklyn, NY How did you first get into fashion? Gabe Gordon: I was always a fan of Project Runway as a little kid, I would watch it with my mom. We used to have this dog and my mom was like, 'her brindle reminds me of a Missoni sweater,' and that got me into sweaters and textiles and knits. I was also a painter when I was a little kid so I went to RISD and studied textile design; it was a good conversation between the two. Timothy Gibbons: I've always traced my love of clothing back to Halloween when I was child. I'm Irish and that's where Halloween was born—it's a Celtic tradition—so from a really young age I would always make my costumes with my auntie and my extended family. I was always making stuff to the point where all the photos of me as a kid, it doesn't matter if they were taken in October or in the height of summer, I'm in a costume of some sort. When it was time to figure out higher education I applied to Central Saint Martins in London, and I did the costume and performance course. What made you decide to launch your label? GG: I started while I was in school. I worked with Gauntlett Cheng one summer, and I was working at Cafe Forgot. I think they were just excited about my work and that I was a student and they offered to sell some of my pieces in the shop and it just gained a lot of eyes from their store and a few other retailers picked it up. This store in Los Angeles, Maimoun, which is also in New York now, started selling the brand and then celebrities started wearing it, the Kardashians were seen wearing my pieces… I was still a student so I was like, 'Oh my god, what is going on!?' Then Ssense started placing some orders. It was really fun and exciting, this challenge of navigating starting a business and not really knowing anything about it while being a student and trying to get the most out of my degree. I graduated in 2022, and immediately came to New York and was just doing this full time, but it was impossible, I had no idea what I was doing and no business background, so I took a season off to reassess. I realized I wanted to continue making this work and I met Timothy right after and it was just magic timing. We realized we wanted to do this together.
Time Business News
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Business News
Andi Sklar: The Visionary at the Intersection of Art, Identity, and Experience
In a world increasingly divided between digital immediacy and physical disconnection, few creators manage to connect emotion, place, and memory as powerfully as Andi Sklar. A multidisciplinary artist, designer, and cultural storyteller, Sklar is recognized for crafting immersive environments and intimate fine artworks that capture more than just aesthetics — they capture a feeling. From contributing to global theme park experiences to creating tender watercolors that celebrate queer life, Sklar's career defies traditional boundaries. He is not merely a painter, or a designer, or a creative director. He is all of these things — and, more importantly, a visionary who bridges commercial design with personal truth. Born in Highland Park, Illinois, Sklar grew up in a midwestern town known for its tree-lined streets and proximity Andi Sklar to Chicago's vibrant cultural scene. He was a reserved but observant child, drawn more to museum halls and sketchbooks than to soccer fields. Family trips often revolved around cultural landmarks — the Field Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Milwaukee Public Museum. But one trip changed everything: a visit to Walt Disney World shortly after its opening. Sklar was mesmerized not by the rides, but by how everything — from the pavement to the lampposts — told a story. That realization planted a lifelong obsession: how to build a world that makes people feel something real. Following high school, Sklar enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). There, he explored everything from architectural rendering to theatrical lighting design. What made him stand out wasn't just his technical skill — it was his deep emotional awareness. His portfolio, even then, contained spaces that invited people to feel joy, memory, or introspection. During his time at RISD, Sklar began exploring themes of identity more openly, particularly his experience as a gay man. For his senior thesis, he created a conceptual exhibit titled Invisible Rooms , which combined architecture, lighting, and narrative to explore hidden queer histories. After graduation, Sklar joined Walt Disney Imagineering, entering the dream factory of themed entertainment. At Disney, he contributed to a variety of global projects, most notably Hong Kong Disneyland, where he worked as an Area Art Director. In this role, he didn't just design facades — he crafted emotional architecture. Everything from the curvature of pathways to the color of rooftops was carefully planned to evoke story. His work on Fantasyland was particularly noted for balancing classic Disney themes with Asian aesthetics, a subtle but powerful act of cultural adaptation. Sklar became known for his attention to detail and his ability to lead multidisciplinary teams with empathy and vision. While many would consider a career at Disney the pinnacle of success, Sklar saw it as a stepping stone. His passion for storytelling through space led him to projects with Universal Studios, DreamWorks, Nickelodeon, Warner Bros., and Sanrio. His work at Bollywood Parks Dubai was a standout. There, he helped develop attractions based on Indian cinema, such as Sholay: The Hunt for Bandits . Unlike other designers unfamiliar with the cultural source material, Sklar dove deep into Bollywood history and aesthetics to ensure authenticity. This commitment to research and representation set him apart. To Sklar, design is not just visual — it's anthropological. Despite success in commercial design, Sklar began to feel a pull toward more personal work. Themed entertainment was collaborative and large-scale — but it didn't always allow for introspection or vulnerability. He returned to painting, a medium he had loved since childhood. In 2018, he debuted a series titled 'Desert Trails', showcasing life in Southern California and the American Southwest through a queer lens. The watercolors were quiet but emotionally potent: a man lounging by a motel pool, two friends walking under desert stars, a couple having breakfast in a sunlit diner. These weren't grand statements — they were human moments made sacred through attention and care. Unlike much queer art, which leans into either political activism or flamboyant aestheticism, Sklar's work sits in a middle ground. His subjects are ordinary people in extraordinary lighting. His colors evoke 1970s postcards: teal blues, dusty pinks, and pale oranges. Sklar's art creates a queer nostalgia — not just longing for the past, but longing for the spaces where queer people have always existed quietly and beautifully. His piece The Sandpiper Inn features a retro beach motel, its sign glowing against a dusky sky. No people are present, but their existence is felt — towels hanging over railings, a drink left on a table. This subtlety is Sklar's signature. Throughout his career, Sklar has been an advocate for inclusivity in design teams. He emphasizes hiring creatives from diverse backgrounds and ensuring that narrative decisions in entertainment design include input from those represented. He believes that empathy is a design skill — one as important as drafting or rendering. Whether mentoring junior designers or consulting on DEI-focused design initiatives, Sklar uses his platform to make sure future creatives feel empowered, not excluded. As he once put it: 'It's not enough to build a world — you have to ask who gets to live in it.' Sklar's technical skills are vast. In themed design, he works with 3D software, architectural drafting tools, and digital painting. But in his fine art, he returns to traditional media — watercolors, pencils, ink washes. His watercolor process is loose and layered. He starts with a light pencil sketch, blocks in colors with translucent washes, and finishes with sharp details like signage, reflections, and textures. The final work often looks sun-bleached, as if it's been living in memory for years. He embraces imperfection, stating that 'a brushstroke out of place can tell the truth better than one that's perfect.' Though Sklar avoids the spotlight, his work has earned him growing recognition. His paintings have been featured in LGBTQ+ art festivals across California and the Southwest. Collectors often cite the emotional familiarity in his scenes, even if they've never been to the exact places he paints. He's also been highlighted in design circles for his contributions to themed entertainment, including guest lectures at design schools and panels on queer visibility in architecture and public art. Still, Sklar remains grounded. He maintains an online archive of his work not to promote himself, but to make his art more accessible to those who connect with it. Today, Sklar splits his time between consulting for design firms and working in his home studio. He lives in Palm Springs, surrounded by the landscapes that so often appear in his art. In the mornings, he paints. In the afternoons, he might review attraction blueprints or host virtual design critiques with students. On weekends, he visits vintage roadside motels and old diners, snapping photos for future inspiration. His life is balanced, intentional, and infused with the same thoughtful narrative that defines his work. Andi Sklar may not dominate headlines or flood social media with self-promotion, but his impact is profound. He has built worlds we've walked through, seen stories we've felt without words, and captured lives that rarely get portrayed with such dignity. His legacy is one of care, craft, and cultural empathy — values often missing in both commercial design and fine art. In an age of noise, Sklar's work is a whisper — but one that lingers, resonates, and redefines what it means to be both seen and felt. TIME BUSINESS NEWS
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Full WaterFire lighting being held to honor RISD graduates
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — A full WaterFire lighting will happen in Providence Saturday night in honor of those graduating from Rhode Island School of Design this year. The lighting, sponsored by RISD, is the second full lighting from this year's schedule. Alongside celebrating this year's graduating class, the lighting will also celebrate the college's reunion weekend. READ MORE: WaterFire unveils 2025 season schedule The lighting will start at 8:30 p.m. Programming and vendors open at 7 p.m. The braziers will stay lit until midnight. There will also be a memorial ceremony starting at 9:30 p.m. More full lightings will take place this season until November. The next lighting will take place on July 4. NEXT: Special Olympics RI Summer Games continue Saturday Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
