NetWorks Rhode Island and the Chazan Collection Exhibition, WaterFire Arts Center (2024) Bio:
A designer, professor and academic leader, Rosanne Somerson has been advancing art and design for decades. After launching a successful studio design practice, she returned to RISD to teach and then founded the Furniture Design Department before serving as Provost, interim President, RISD’s 17th President, and now President Emerita.
An author and subject of many podcasts, she frequently speaks and writes about the power of art and design as core elements of critical thinking and making. She maintains a studio and consulting creative practice, designing and creating furniture for exhibitions and commissions. Her works have been prominently featured in numerous publications and exhibited in major museums and galleries throughout the globe, including the Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre in Paris, and she is also represented in many private, corporate and museum collections.
Somerson is included in the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art Oral History Project and has been awarded many honors including two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the James Renwick Alliance Distinguished Crafts Educator Award, a 2019 Pell Award for Outstanding Leadership in the Arts., a Lifetime Distinction Award from the Furniture Society, and is a named Fellow of the American Craft Council and a Life Trustee of Haystack Mountain School.
Original NetWorks Catalogue Bio:
Rosanne Somerson is the president at the Rhode Island School of Design, she came to the institution as a freshman photography major but quickly discovered the joys and challenges of woodworking and furniture design. Studying with Tage Frid, she received a BFA in Industrial Design in 1976, eventually teaching in the program and helping to found the world-renowned furniture design department at RISD. Somerson’s studio work covers a broad range, from very personal pieces to commissions for museums, corporations, and individuals. She views furniture in relation to the interactive needs of people, from utilitarian and emotional perspectives. Her furniture is in the collections of the Smithsonian, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Smith College Museum, The Huntsville Museum, and the RISD Museum, among others. Somerson has lectured and exhibited throughout the globe, and has won numerous awards for her work.
Source: NetWorks 2013 – 2014 Catalogue
Makore, sycamore, pigmented medium, and linen, 35.5 x 42.375 x 9.75 in.
Child Trophy, 1998
Mahogany,13.5 x 8.75 x 8.75 in.
Credits:
Video: Richard Goulis
Music: Hannah Devine
Executive Producer: Joseph A. Chazan, M.D.
Additional Resources:
- RISD Biography
- We Need More Boredom in Our Lives – Metropolis Magazine, May 2016
- Many Voices – American Craft Magazine, February 26, 2016
- Rosanne Somerson Named RISD President – The New York Times, 02/18/2015
- The Nantucket Project 2015 presentation, “Educating Students for Jobs that Don’t Exist Yet”
Highlighting the work of selected artists who have played vital roles in shaping the contemporary visual arts community in Rhode Island. This collection of brief video portraits provides a window into the lives, practices, and cultural contributions of professional artists.
