Designing Traditions Biennial: Student Explorations in the Asian Textile Collection November 2, 2012

This popular biennial exhibition reveals the working design process of contemporary student textile designers inspired by objects in the RISD Museum of Art's collection. The vast Asian textiles collection was among the earliest donations to the Museum and has long served as an integral design resource for Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) students. Now, in a collaboration between the Museum and the School, intricately crafted objects ranging from Hawaiian bark cloth to a Chinese feather fan and Persian rug fragment have been selected by curators and faculty to excite the newest generation of designers. In this third biennial show, innovative textiles, as well as hand-drawn and computer-generated designs, show the breadth of contemporary creativity sparked by even the smallest details of traditional craftsmanship.