Int'l partnership offers new opportunities

Rosanne Somerson, fifth from left in the first row, president of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), poses with the school professors and alumni at an alumni event celebrating her inauguration at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul, Monday. Sitting with Somerson are Hongik University Prof. Cathy Lee, left; Kookmin University Prof. Kim In-sook, second from left; Lee Se-ung, fourth from left, RISD lifetime honorary board member and board chair of Seoul Cyber University; Cho Hae-hyung, fifth from right, chairman of Nara Holdings; Hongik University Prof. Chung Kyung-yeon, third from right; and RISD Prof. Peter Tagiuri, second from right. / Courtesy of Seoul Cyber University

Rhode Island School of Design runs joint program with Ewha Womans University

By Chung Hyun-chae

Rosanne Somerson, president of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)

Rosanne Somerson, president of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), said Seoul is a global hub for the school where it is looking at new ways to connect with its broad network of alumni through new programs and partnerships.

“Seoul is a fantastic design city and there are strong contemporary designs coming from here,” Somerson told The Korea Times at the Shilla Hotel in Jung-gu, downtown Seoul, Monday.

“It goes back to the notion about having a deep understanding of culture, because design is an expression of culture. So I think that young designers who start their practices in Seoul have a great sense of contemporary innovation in their work.”

Somerson visited Korea from Oct. 25 to 29 to attend an inaugural celebration as she took office as the RISD’s 17th president this year.

During her visit, she also attended an exhibition by Seo Se-ock, an artist who received an honorary degree from RISD. Seo has two children and a daughter-in-law who attended RISD.

“Seoul is one of the most important cities to our school and among our central partners is Ewha Womans University,” Somerson said.

The two schools formed a partnership in 1999 to facilitate exchanges among the universities and they decided to deepen the partnership in 2014 to create an innovative model for global education and exchange by developing a program titled Slice of Life (SeOuL) which was launched last spring.

In the program, eight students from RISD and eight students from Ewha spend a whole semester at Ewha taking studio courses led by RISD professors and humanities courses, such as Asian and Korean history, taught by Ewha professors.

Somerson said the number of students will likely to increase to 24 next year.

“Korea has culture that has strong, beautiful traditions in the arts and design areas,” Somerson said. “America is much younger country so we can benefit from learning about the deep traditions of art, craft and design here in Korea.”

The school also has good relations with Hongik University. The two schools exchange two students per year.

RISD has formed ties with 45 schools, including the two Korean universities, around the world.

“We want to have new international partnerships without having to build new campuses and we decided to build what we call hubs where we can do partnerships with other schools,” Somerson said. “The idea of building hubs is that we can customize different opportunities in different regions.”

The school has set up a hub in Abu Dhabi by running a not-for-credit program in which the school’s faculty helps young artists by mentoring them to become stronger international artists so that they can apply to the RISD graduate school if they want to.

“We believe that our students need to be global citizens and it’s very important for them to understand different cultures,” Somerson said.

The design school has almost 2,500 undergraduate and graduate students in its campus and 200 students are coming from Korea every year.

The school provides global environment by having students coming from 57 countries. Korean students account for 48 percent of the total international population in the school.

“I’ve taught a lot of students from Korea and I think they have such a strong sense of culture and understand, respect the tradition of cultures, craft and art,” Somerson said.

Founded in 1877, RISD is one of the oldest and best-known colleges of art and design in the United States. The school has the biggest number of departments among art and design schools as it runs 21 programs.

“We also have strong foundation year which is very intense where students learn two- and three-dimensional design, art history and other humanities courses,” Somerson said.

The school has close relationships with some Ivy League schools including Harvard, MIT and Brown University. The school and Brown University have run a joint degree program for their students.

“At the graduate level, we have strong visiting artists and guest critics to review our students’ work because we think it’s important that students are able to present their work publicly and speak about their intentions in their work and then get reviewed not only by faculty and peers but also outside professionals,” Somerson said.

The school’s career center offers opportunities for students to do internships and find jobs after graduation.

“Compared to a typical college in the U.S., our students’ employment rate is much higher, even outside of art and design, in general,” she said.