PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island School of Design has received a $20 million gift – the largest outright donation in the school’s history – from the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation to expand student scholarships and support new faculty positions focused on global artistic traditions.
The gift will establish the Maxwell Scholarship Fund and the Maxwell Global Perspectives Faculty Fund, school officials announced April 7.
The scholarship fund will provide eight full-tuition scholarships for undergraduate students. The faculty fund will endow two new faculty positions and support a rotating visiting residency for scholars, artists, designers and architects whose work reflects global art-making traditions.
RISD President Crystal Williams said the donation strengthens the school’s commitment to accessibility and to broadening perspectives within art and design education.
“Art and design impact every facet of society,” Williams said in a statement. “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.”
The new faculty positions and residencies are intended to bring a wider range of histories and creative practices into RISD’s curriculum, reinforcing the role of art and design as ways of understanding the world, not solely as modes of production.
The Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation was cofounded by RISD alumna Delle Maxwell, a member of the class of 1974, and her husband, computer scientist Pat Hanrahan. The foundation supports individuals working across disciplines including science, education, conservation and creative practice, with an emphasis on fieldwork, craft and public engagement.
Maxwell said her experience at RISD helped shape her worldview and career.
“My experience made it possible for me to meet creative people from different backgrounds and encouraged us to learn from each other,” she said. “I’ve carried these varied perspectives, as well as design principles, with me throughout my career.”
In addition to the new gift, the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation has supported several RISD initiatives, including Loop Lab, a project connected to the Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab that explores material circularity by repurposing on-campus waste for creative use, and the Movement Lab, a cross-disciplinary center focused on the creative study of movement.
Founded in 1877, RISD enrolls more than 2,500 students from 60 countries and offers more than 40 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.
Veer Mudambi is the special projects editor at the Providence Business News. He can be reached at mudambi@pbn.com.
