After 15 years on College Hill, Rhode Island School of Design President Roger Mandle is headed for the sands of Qatar, where he'll become executive director of the Qatar Museums Authority, a group developing museums in the small Persian Gulf country.
Mandle's role will focus on the business aspects of the newly established QMA. He will develop a strategic plan, concepts for the intended museums and the staffing and training for them, Mandle wrote in an e-mail from Qatar. "To have a chance to develop a group of museums, almost like the Smithsonian Institution 'from the sand up' is a unique opportunity," he added.
From a cultural viewpoint, Qatar will be different, and Mandle said he is "highly interested in learning about Islamic culture and the Arab world." Mandle will oversee the construction of the Museum of Islamic Arts in Doha, currently the QMA's main project, which has been designed by famed architect I.M. Pei. The museum will open on November 22 and "is setting a new standard of excellence for museum architecture everywhere," he said.
"Qatar is in extremely good hands with a man of vision and an encyclopedic knowledge of how art and design cultural institutions are built and sustained," John Maeda, who will replace Mandle as RISD's president on June 2, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Maeda is currently associate director of research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab.
The recently created QMA is "the vehicle for the aspirations of the Qatar people to create a unique complex of institutions for the 21st century," Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, chair of the QMA board of trustees, said in a March 21 statement. "In all these areas, Roger Mandle has unsurpassed talent and experience," he added.
During his 15-year presidency, the RISD campus grew significantly, adding a new library and residential halls. Before his tenure on College Hill, Mandle was deputy director and chief curator of the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
Mandle's last months at RISD will be spent "helping in the transition of my successor, Professor John Maeda, raising funds for an important scholarship initiative," Mandle wrote, and "leading the college in completing the groundwork for a new strategic plan."
Mandle expressed enthusiasm about Maeda. "I really like my successor and am excited by the energy, ideas and connections that he will bring to RISD at a time when his expertise is dearly needed in the art and design world," Mandle said. He added that Maeda "will keep us on our toes!"
RISD students mostly seemed unaware of Mandle's upcoming transition from Providence to the Persian Gulf. "You could certainly say that our student body is not informed about that as it should be," said Bjorn Muten, a RISD senior.
"I think it's great for him. It's a really interesting job," said Alice Costas, a RISD junior. She added that she saw his presidency "as a lot of mismanagement."
Others felt Mandle's absence before his announced departure. "I'm a senior, and I've never seen him," Monica Gonzalo said.
"I'm not really familiar with what he's done," said Amy Diaz-Infante, a graduate student at RISD, of Mandle's presidency. "I've heard really good things about Maeda."
Future president Maeda has already started communicating with the RISD community through an internal blog. "I see my goal as defining 'the RISD Community.' It's as simple as that," he wrote in an e-mail. "I believe that our RISD is your RISD ... is the world's RISD."
