RISD 2025 Grad Show opens, showcasing student creativity through May 29

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The 2025 Graduate Thesis Exhibition at Rhode Island School of Design officially opened on May 21.

The exhibition fills the Rhode Island Convention Center with work from more than 200 graduate students.

During the show, students shared what it had been like to have the public experience their creativity up close.

“Amazing because so much of the creativity process, in the making process, you don’t really think about how people are gonna view it until they do,” Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics Katharine Frank said. “It’s really satisfying to have people have a good response to something that I love doing.”

Frank’s piece, Interlocked, features stoneware, porcelain, and glaze.

“The ceramic forms in Interlocked capture a version of iterative drawings that are constantly in motion in my mind,” she said in her artist statement. “Dynamic, fluid shapes move across the wall, shifting as they rotate, warp, and divide, referencing past renderings and suggesting future variations of itself.”

Masters in Industrial Design Kip Geddes, meanwhile, presented Gradiance, an illumination-based “mindfulness intervention” made with LEDs, plexiglass, and wood.

“I know what my intention is, I know what I want to accomplish, but to hear how people are experiencing it, that gives me information for how to continue,” Geddes said. “It’s good to get confirmation of what I’m trying to do but also to get new information about what I should do next.”

Both students agreed the scale of the show came together thanks to collaboration among their peers.

“We all worked hard to make the show happen and we all help each other,” Geddes said. “No one was able to put together their exhibition space solely by themselves. We all pitched in. We all care about each other. We all care about each other’s work. We all understand each other’s work and we know what each other is trying to do, so we’re able to help and really push that narrative. Make that goal happen.”

The exhibition spans over 43,000 square feet and is free to the public through May 29.