In the fall, the Rhode Island School of Design will open the Chace Center. On its face, the multi-purpose building will add gallery space, an auditorium, offices and create a new home for one of the school’s most prized collections. But it is more than that.
“We’re planning on the Chace Center to be the new entrance into RISD for both the public and for students,” said Matt Montgomery, director of marketing and communications for the RISD Museum. “The building – because of where it’s located – will be a bridge, connecting the outside with the inside.”
The location is on North Main Street, across the Providence River from downtown, and at the foot of College Hill. The modern structure helps the school bridge the physical and time divide from the historic, Georgian-style brick buildings and the glass-clad future.
The construction of the Chace Center has been going on for two years, but, said Montgomery, “the conception of the idea of the center began a decade ago, with many, many people helping out.”
The structure will contain 43,000 square feet of space, and will include studios, classrooms and student galleries. Even the entrance lobby will have student works on display.
In addition the center will have a 200-seat auditorium, as well as a café and a terrace where people will gather and talk.
But one of the main functions of the building will be to connect to the RISD Museum and thus add a significant amount of new gallery space.
“The new museum gallery in the Chace Center will be 6,000 square feet,” said Montgomery. “This is much bigger than what was in the old museum and we will be able to exhibit much larger shows.”
The museum will also shift its large collection of photographs, prints and drawings into a purpose-built space in the Chace Center, where students and the public will be able to access them.
The connection between the center and the RISD Museum will be a glass bridge that can also function as a meeting space.
“This [bridge] will act as a transformation between the older 1926 museum and the 21st-century Chace Center – and this transformation will give visitors to RISD a unique opportunity to view RISD work,” said Montgomery.
“It really will be a premier gallery space,” he said. “We will be able to show artists’ work that up to this point we never would have been able to show. Our inaugural exhibitor will be Dale Chihuly, and we are proud to call it Chihuly at RISD.”
The Chace Center is scheduled to open with the Chihuly exhibit on Sept. 27. The show will have 22,000 pieces of blown glass. Dale Chihuly received his MFA from RISD in 1968, and has gone on to be one of the most famous glass blowers in the world.
“We never would have been able to get Chihuly [to exhibit] without the Chace Center,” Montgomery said. “We are very excited about this, and we think the students are excited about all of this.”
Other exhibs scheduled for the Chace Center include the works of Hungarian furniture maker and architect Marcel Breuer and French Impressionist Edouard Manet, as well as an exhibit on the ancient city of Jerusalem.
“We’re both excited and curious about how all this will turn out,” said Mayen Alcantara, a member of the Class of 2009. “I’m helping curate the first RISD student show this fall at the Chace Center. I think it’s going to be a great space for students to show their work.” •
