From bending glass to throwing clay, Rhode Islanders spent last week crafting. Design Week, organized by DESIGNxRI, took place Sept. 12-19. The event was one installation of World Design Weeks, which take place in dozens of countries across the globe.
The nonprofit organized Design Week with a hope of using “the power of design to drive economic growth, foster community and shape the future of our state,” according to the press release. Events ranged from product development to industrial design, and almost every event was free and open to the public.
DESIGNxRI hosted activities in every Rhode Island county and included a weekend of open studio hours in businesses statewide. Participating studios in northern Rhode Island opened their doors on Saturday, and studios in Southern Rhode Island hosted visitors on Sunday.
This year, DESIGNxRI made an “active effort to involve the entire state,” said Devanshi Ved, program and events manager of Design Week, citing the events hosted in Providence and Newport, among other cities.
For the first time, the event had a youth and family component, said Reba Mitchell, program director for DESIGNxRI.
“We’re in a really rapidly changing world, so to be able to give youth tools for the future is a little bit harder,” Mitchell said. “The ability to think creatively is maybe the most useful, most sure-fire, most preferable skill that any of us could develop.”
The week was especially exciting for Liz Welch, founder and creative director of Anyhow Studio, because “it’s really important to celebrate joy in times that are really hard,” she said.
“Especially if you have a solitary studio practice, it’s very easy to get lost in your own practice. But the connectivity throughout the week has been really exciting,” Welch said.
“Lots of people we connect with are solo entrepreneurs, and they often work in a vacuum,” Mitchell said. She hopes that Design Week might help local artisans connect and overcome some of that loneliness.
Design Week aims to encourage Rhode Islanders “to approach creativity not exclusively in terms of the arts … but to broaden our idea of what creativity is,” Mitchell said.
“It’s good to see the span of everything that’s considered design and true to this locale,” said Amy Chen, a RISD student studying furniture design.
Chen attended open studio hours hosted by Pneuhaus, which designs public inflatables. “I didn’t even know something like that was an option … but it’s a really interesting career path,” Chen said.
DESIGNxRI put the scaffolding of the event together, including an opening party, closing party and a few panels with industry experts. The rest of the week’s workshops were organized by local designers. Any designer could submit to Design Week’s open application if they wanted to host an event, Ved said. The nonprofit received over 30 applications from local designers.
When selecting applicants, DESIGNxRI chose “events that are diverse in content, reflect the design industry at large and include multiple different voices,” Ved said. “We want there to be something for everyone.”
The final event, hosted by Anyhow Studio, was a “Pottery Throwdown” with ceramic challenges inspired by the Great British Baking Show. The aim of the closing ceremony was to “do nothing else except have fun,” Welch said. Mitchell hopes designers will carry that sentiment beyond the week.
Maya Kelly is a senior staff writer from Providence who covers business and development. A concentrator in urban studies and data fluency, she is passionate about intersecting storytelling with data analysis. When Maya's not at The Herald, you can find her hanging from an aerial silk, bullet journaling or in the middle of a forest.
