PROVIDENCE – After close to a decade, DESIGNxRI’s co-founder and executive director will be stepping aside.
The nonprofit that supports Rhode Island’s design industry announced March 18 that Lisa Carnevale will be transitioning to an advisory role for the organization, and a search for a new executive director has been launched.
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Carnevale, who started the organization in 2013, told Providence Business News on Monday that it’s now the “right time” to transition out of her current leadership role. She said her strength is starting up an organization and get it to where DESIGNxRI is fully established to help the state’s design community.
“We’ve come through the pandemic and we’re stronger for it,” Carnevale said. “There’s a lot of great energy within the sector. There’s a lot of growth happening. It’s just a great time for a new leader to come in and … help us get to the next level.”
Carnevale said she will still be involved with DESIGNxRI in an advisory role, but not on an everyday operational basis. She said how she will be specifically serving in the advisory role “remains to be seen” and is part of the organization’s upcoming evolution.
“I’ll still be supporting,” Carnevale said. “There are a lot of different roles that we have. How can I still contribute, but have someone come in and take the helm?”
Carnevale in her letter said DESIGNxRI was founded through seed funding and the energy of starting something focused on the state’s design community was “generative.” Over the course of nine years, DESIGNxRI, under Carnevale’s leadership, invested more than $1 million into 60 design businesses and mentored many design business leaders through its Providence Design Catalyst program, she said. She also helped create the organization’s signature event, DESIGNxRI Design Week, to bring together many designers and design enthusiasts each year – including during the COVID-19 pandemic – Carnevale said.
Regarding DESIGNxRI’s evolution moving forward, Carnevale said the organization’s established programming will continue to grow. She also said there’s opportunities in how the design industry is shaped and shifted, and there’s “good momentum” with the industry currently in various aspects.
“There are new emerging talents. There’s a lot of diversity and inclusion that’s evolving. We’re really digging into that ourselves,” Carnevale said, “and looking at how we can contribute to the design industry becoming more inclusive.”
Carnevale said she’s most proud of the organization is when it’s graduating a cohort of designers who are showcasing their final work after months of extensive creation to “bring it all home.” Those moments, she said, are what Carnevale cherishes.
DESIGNxRI board president Nick Scappaticci said in his respective letter that Carnevale’s leadership enabled the organization to grow and flourish since 2013. He also said a search committee has been established to seek out a successor for Carnevale, although Carnevale said she will not be part of that committee.
DESIGNXRI hopes to have a new director in place by the summer, Scappaticci said. Carnevale said there will be a transition period where the new executive director will arrive with Carnevale still on. There will be a “phase-out” approach from there, depending on how things are progressing with the new director, she said.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
