RISD Announces Historic Gift, 150th Anniversary Celebration, and Commencement 2026 Honors

The three announcements highlight expanded student support, a forward-looking anniversary celebration, and recognition of leading artists, designers, and advocates

Photo: Jo Sittenfield. 

PROVIDENCE, RI – April 7, 2026 – Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) is pleased to announce a series of major institutional milestones: a historic gift from the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation to support student scholarships and faculty positions; a yearlong celebration of the institution’s 150th anniversary; and Commencement 2026, when acclaimed visual artist Julie Mehretu will deliver the keynote address and accept an honorary degree alongside cartoonist Roz Chast, arts advocate Stephen Metcalf, and designer David Wiseman.

Historic $20 Million Gift Will Support Student Scholarships, Faculty Positions
A gift of $20 million — the largest outright gift in RISD’s history — from the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation will establish the Maxwell Scholarship Fund and the Maxwell Global Perspectives Faculty Fund.

RISD has long been a place where art and design are understood as ways of knowing — not just ways of making. New endowed faculty positions and a rotating residency program dedicated to global art traditions will deepen that commitment, bringing a wider range of perspectives, histories and creative practices into the heart of the curriculum. The Maxwell Scholarship Fund will add eight new, fully funded tuition scholarships for undergraduate students, and the Maxwell Global Perspectives Faculty Fund will endow two new faculty positions and one rotating visiting residency for scholars, artists, designers, and architects representing global art-making traditions.

RISD President Crystal Williams said, “Art and design impact every facet of society. Because of this, artists and designers can drive consequential change. This gift advances these change-making opportunities, the power of communities that reflect a broad diversity of global perspectives, and RISD’s vision to remain among the best, most dynamic art and design schools in the world. It will help us ensure that the educational path is open and accessible to the next generation of creatives and that once here, they are able to learn the broadest array of traditions and expertise possible.”

Delle Maxwell 74 TX and her husband Pat Hanrahan cofounded the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation to support individual scientists, teachers, conservationists, and creators whose diverse perspectives enable us to discover new things about ourselves and our world.

“My husband Pat and I recognize that investments in talented, innovative people can transform not only their individual explorations, one field, or one institution, but the ways we connect people, places, and ideas,” Maxwell said. “As I look back, I realize how much RISD influenced my worldview. My experience made it possible for me to meet creative people from different backgrounds and encouraged us to learn from each other. I’ve carried these varied perspectives, as well as design principles, with me throughout my career.”

Read the full release: RISD Celebrates $20 Million Gift to Fund Student Scholarships, Support Faculty Positions

RISD Announces 150th Anniversary Celebration
RISD is launching a yearlong celebration of the institution’s 150th anniversary. RISD was founded on the belief that art and design matter to everyone. Limitless Vision, the 150th anniversary commemoration, will celebrate the forward-looking spirit of RISD’s founders and the way it continues to inspire new generations of creative leaders.

Festivities will kick off in fall 2026 and take place throughout 2027, both on campus and across the globe, beginning with the RISD & Sotheby’s: Auction & Celebration in New York City. In November 2026, RISD will host a landmark auction with the nonprofit arm of Sotheby’s celebrating the creative impact of alumni. Featuring works by renowned artists and designers, this event will bring the community together to honor the talent, innovation, and influence that define RISD. All auction proceeds will support student scholarships, helping ensure the next generation of artists and designers can access a RISD education and shape the future through their practice.

The celebration will continue throughout March 2027 around RISD’s annual Founders Day. In 1877, a small group of Rhode Island women, inspired by the creative talent and industry at work in the state, invested in the creation of a school and museum of art and design. This decision, made decades before any woman had the right to vote in the US, was all the more remarkable because of the progressive nature of their vision. Rather than imagining a salon or institute for the elite, as was common at the time, RISD was intended to be broadly accessible and focus on the “general advancement of public Art Education.” 

In addition, to celebrate 150 years of making, teaching, questioning, and contributing to culture and society, President Crystal Williams is launching the Presidential Project Fund, inviting every department, program, and member of the RISD community to propose activations, projects, or events that reflect what RISD means to them. Additional celebratory events and programming, including initiatives supported by the Presidential Project Fund and special commemorative publications, will be shared on risd.edu/150, which will be updated on an ongoing basis.

Read the full release: RISD Announces 150th Anniversary Celebration

Commencement 2026 to Honor Acclaimed Artists, Designers and Advocates
On Saturday, May 30, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) will award degrees to 485 undergraduate and 230 graduate students at its 143rd Commencement ceremony. 

Julie Mehretu MFA 97 PR/PT, whose work articulates the contemporary social experience and explores palimpsests of history, will deliver the keynote address and accept an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree. Cartoonist Roz Chast 77 PT, arts advocate Stephen Metcalf, and designer David Wiseman 03 FD will also receive honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees.

Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1970, Julie Mehretu MFA 97 PR/PT creates paintings, drawings, and prints that articulate the contemporary social experience and explore palimpsests of history, from geological time to modern-day phenomenology. After earning her MFA in Painting/Printmaking from RISD, she moved to New York City, where she continues to live and work.

Roz Chast 77 PT is known for turning everyday anxieties into sharply funny, unmistakably personal cartoons; Stephen A. Metcalf, long-serving RISD board member and descendant of RISD’s founding family, was named chair of the Emeriti Trustees in 2018; David Wiseman 03 FD produces sculpture, furniture, lighting, and site-specific installations that bring his awe of nature to the built environment.

More information about Commencement Weekend activities, graduating student exhibitions, and related events is available on RISD’s website.

Read the full release: Julie Mehretu to Deliver Keynote Address at RISD’s 2026 Commencement

About Rhode Island School of Design
RISD (pronounced “RIZ-dee”) is a creative community founded in 1877 in Providence, Rhode Island. Today, we enroll 2,577 students hailing from 60 countries. Led by a committed faculty, they are engaged in more than 40 full-time bachelor’s and master’s degree programs and supported by a worldwide network of over 33,000 alumni who demonstrate the vital role artists and designers play in today’s society.

Beyond facts and figures, what is the spirit of this community? Through a cross-disciplinary curriculum of studio-based learning and rigorous study in the liberal arts, RISD students are encouraged to develop their own personal creative processes, but they are united by one guiding principle: in order to create, one must question. In cultivating expansive and elastic thinking, RISD seeks to activate a critical exchange that empowers artists, designers and scholars to generate and challenge the ideas that shape our world. RISD’s mission, at both the college and museum, is not only to educate students and the public in the creation and appreciation of works of art and design, but to transmit that knowledge and make global contributions. Visit risd.edu to learn more.