Saturday, May 30, 2015, 10:30am
Rhode Island Convention Center
1 Sabin Street
Providence, Rhode Island 02903
On Saturday, May 30 at 10:30am, 500 undergraduate and 190 graduate students from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) will receive their diplomas at RISD’s 2015 commencement. The ceremony will take place at the Rhode Island Convention Center in downtown Providence, where the annual RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition will also be on view.
This year RISD will present five outstanding cultural leaders with honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees. Influential filmmaker and author John Waters is accepting his first honorary degree and will also deliver the commencement keynote address. Author and The New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik and musicians Chris Frantz (RISD ’74, Painting), Martina Weymouth (RISD ’74, Painting) and Jerry Harrison, all former members of the breakthrough band Talking Heads, will accept honorary degrees at the ceremony as well. In addition, painter Miriam Beerman (RISD ’45, Painting) is being honored with the 2015 Alumni Award for Artistic Achievement.
John Waters, recognized as one of the most outrageous filmmakers in America, has written and directed 16 movies, several starring the actor Divine. In 2014 the Film Society of Lincoln Center honored him with a ten-day retrospective titled Fifty Years of John Waters: How Much Can You Take?, screening such all-time favorites as Pink Flamingos (1972), Polyester (1981), Hairspray (1988), Cry-Baby (1990), Serial Mom (1991), and A Dirty Shame (2004), among others. Waters has published a number of books and screenplays, including The New York Times bestsellers Carsick (2014) and Role Models (2010), and has shown his photographs and sculptures in galleries throughout the world. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Waters is a former member of the board of The Andy Warhol Foundation and currently serves on the boards for both the Maryland Film Festival and the Provincetown International Film Festival.
Adam Gopnik, a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1986, has contributed fiction, humor, book reviews and profiles to the magazine, earning the National Magazine Award for Essays and Criticism three times. He served as The New Yorker‘s art critic from 1987 to 1995 before moving to Paris for five years and writing the magazine’s Paris Journal. Among his top honors are the Canadian National Magazine Gold Medal for arts writing, the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting, and France’s medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.
Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth co-wrote the hit song Psycho Killer with David Byrne while they were still at RISD but founded the band Talking Heads two years later, performing for the first time in 1975. Jerry Harrison joined in 1976. A year later, the band released its first album, which was immediately hailed as a breakthrough. Talking Heads went on to tour the world, record ten albums and work with Jonathan Demme in making Stop Making Sense. Harrison has since released three solo albums, produced recordings for such artists as the Violent Femmes, Foo Fighters and No Doubt, and helped to define the online music industry. Frantz and Weymouth formed the band Tom Tom Club in 1981. They continue to record and tour, and have embarked on a new electronic music project. Frantz, Harrison and Weymouth were all inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 for their work with Talking Heads.
The 2015 Alumni Award for Artistic Achievement will also be presented at commencement. Since accomplished painter Miriam Beerman is unable to travel to Providence, her son will accept the award on her behalf. Studying with the legendary RISD professor and painter John Frazier (a graduate of the Class of 1912 and later, president of the college) instilled in Beerman a lifelong love of abstract expressionism.
RISD’s exuberant Commencement ceremony offers a festive culmination to years of creative exploration in the studio. Students are encouraged to express their ideas, passions and individuality by having fun with visually altering their traditional black caps and gowns in any way they would like. For more information on RISD’s 2015 commencement, visit our website.
Contact
Jaime Marland: T +1 401 427 6954 / [email protected]