FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design is the recipient of a $50,000 National Forum Grant from the Institute of Museum & Library Services (IMLS) to hold a symposium titled Materials Education and Research in Art and Design: A New Role for Libraries. From June 6-8, 2013, this unprecedented summit will convene international stakeholders, including artists, architects and designers, educators, researchers and librarians, to focus on the resources and documentation that are required to prepare art and design students for knowledgeable, responsible, and innovative use of materials in their professional work. Participants, including designers in the field, will speak to the current practical and expansive needs for information about materials; in addition faculty now teaching in art and design institutions will articulate the support they need to develop and collect material knowledge and share it to their students. Librarians in the process of building collections and databases of material samples will also be on hand to speak to the issues they have encountered. Respondents and other participants from Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) schools with materials collections, as well as faculty and librarians from these and other AICAD schools and university art and architecture programs at non-AICAD institutions will attend the forum. The symposium includes an evening keynote and reception, a day of sessions, and a half-day workshop. A white paper will serve as a record of the symposium and a guiding resource for the creation and development of materials collections. 

Confirmed keynote speakers include:

• Billie Faircloth, Research Director at KieranTimberlake, Philadelphia
• Liat Margolis, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at University of Toronto
• Chris Lefteri, Design Materials Specialist at Chris Lefteri Design Ltd., London
• Rosanne Somerson, Furniture Maker and Provost at Rhode Island School of Design

Confirmed designers/firms include:

• Stephen Lane, Ximedica
• Nader Tehrani, NADAA
• Mike Taylor, Steelcase
• Michael Lagreca, Material ConneXion

Participating schools include:

• Art Center (Pasadena)
• California College of Arts (San Francisco)
• College for Creative Studies (Detroit)
• Emily Carr University of Art + Design (Vancouver)
• Harvard University (Cambridge)
• Holon Design Museum (Israel)
• Kent State University (Kent, OH)
  
• Maryland Institute College of Art (Baltimore)
• Ontario College of Art & Design University (Toronto)
• Otis College of Art & Design (Los Angeles)
• Pratt Institute (Brooklyn)
• Rhode Island School of Design (Providence)
• School of Visual Arts (New York City)
• School of the Art Institute of Chicago
• University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)
• University of Virginia (Charlottesville)
• University of the Arts (Philadelphia)

Registration $30.
 Look for more information to appear on the Fleet Library website, http://library.risd.edu.

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MARK POMPELIA
Visual + Material Resource Librarian
Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design
library.risd.edu
401-709-5935

Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)