Winter break is nearly upon us, and with that comes the duty of shopping for your loved ones and drafting your own holiday wish list. Enter: Art School(ed), here to offer unconventional gift ideas (for the second year running) that simultaneously support RISD alums, both newly minted and old.
For your family’s resident knit wit:
What do a woven pizza slice, a fashion world It-bag, and a quirky stuffed donkey have in common? They were all designed or handcrafted by someone who received a BFA in Textiles from RISD.
Degen socks are both merry and bright.
The winner of The Most Irreverent Gift Money Can Buy Award is a tie between Kayla Mattes’ woven pizza slices and New Friends’ beach towel patterned with sheep and dogs.
In a perfect, budget-free world, everyone would kick off the new year with a bag of the Mansur Gavriel variety.
In Writing in Threads, you can read fifteen writers’ responses to the weavings artist Francesca Capone made during a residency at the Anni and Josef Albers Foundation.
Coral and Tusk presents a baby donkey made with natural linen, for your Inner Child or an actual child. If you prefer wearable art, look no further than Coral and Tusk’s masks which will transport you a scene from Fantastic Mr. Fox:
For the bookworm:
The impeccably designed Manual, the RISD Museum’s publication that editorializes pieces in the collection.
The latest issue of Cherry Bombe, a biannual magazine that celebrates women and food, designed by Claudia Wu (a graduate of RISD’s Graphic Design department).
How Music Works by David Byrne will convert your Deadhead relative to a Talking Head-head.
(And after your relative learns how music works, they might want tickets to the upcoming Wet tour… which is relevant because the frontwoman Kelly Zutrau attended RISD as a graduate student in the Teaching + Learning in Art + Design department.)
For the family photographer:
Consider Jesse Burke’s book Wild & Precious, which chronicles five years of road trips the photographer has taken with his daughter, Clover. (The work will be exhibited at the RISD Museum in January!)
…Or the family archivist might fancy a copy of Matte Magazine, a print publication which features one artist per issue (on deceptively glossy paper).
For your friend redecorating his/her dorm room or apartment:
Prepare for the Nutcracker sans Uncle Drosselmeyer with illustrator Julia Rothman’s Ballet print, available in an array of sizes.
Likeminded Objects (established by a Furniture Design graduate) presents statement pieces that are somehow simultaneously minimalist, like these exquisite Squiggle lamps. Perhaps the most RISD-ish gift on this list? The marble lighter pack.
For your friend looking to bling in the new year:
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