Expanded Education
![ExEd participants at work](/sites/g/files/upbtqy111/files/styles/landscape_10_4_250x100/public/2024-01/20231205%20RISD%20ExED%20293%206K_.png?h=790be497&itok=Muiu7OeF)
We connect corporations to the mindsets and practices of artists and designers. Our unique programs taught by talented faculty draw from the principles of studio education to build upon leadership development skills and solve pressing challenges facing the world of business. Engaging learners from a variety of professional backgrounds, ExED offers a creative foundation for your workplace.
RISD ExED enables people from any industry to transform their work with the power of art and design. Our executive education programs develop your people’s capacity to unleash creativity, tackle big business challenges, and build a culture of collaboration.
Our programs
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Our experienced team works with a select group of companies to build bespoke retreats around interesting problems and opportunities. We draw on the broad and deep expertise of our community to develop learning experiences that create strategic impact. Work with us to create a corporate offsite that connects art and design approaches to the unique needs of your business.
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This tailored program is an opportunity for your organization to convene collaborators around a major business challenge and approach it in a new way. Drawing upon critical lenses and techniques from the world of design, participants work in teams to make progress on a strategic challenge. On-the-job making and doing is supported by peer collaboration and critique. We help gauge the real business impact of their work, as well as the program’s impact on team dynamics.
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This signature program helps leaders reinvigorate their own work as a form of creative practice and engage colleagues more effectively in the creative work that drives innovation and change. In addition to shared learning experiences, participants apply new insights and skills through work on individual, on-the-job assignments. This applied making and doing is supported by peer collaboration and critique. Our team of instructors work with each cohort to celebrate their personal progress and growth.
A RISD approach
We unleash curiosity
All RISD's programs are linked by their focus on connecting curiosity about the world to creative approaches and frameworks for problem-solving. ExED programs challenge your team to deeply question and explore business challenges and existing processes.
We spark experimentation
Across our curricula, we value an open-ended, iterative approach to problem-solving. You’ll translate these methodologies of experimentation practiced by artists and designers and apply them to your work. Using tactics like brainstorming and idea generation, you and your team will see that good ideas can come from anywhere and lead to promising outcomes.
We foster collaboration
Our studios are inherently collaborative places, where ideas develop through engagement with peers and faculty and work is refined through productive critique and feedback. Similarly, our ExED programs engage your team in a shared learning experience to build a culture of collaboration while driving progress on real work.
![RISD Faculty Hillel O'Leary with ExED participants](/sites/g/files/upbtqy111/files/styles/original_max_width_250/public/2024-01/Hillel_rev.png?itok=cJX5HBwY)
![Popcorn conte sketch](/sites/g/files/upbtqy111/files/styles/original_max_width_250/public/2024-01/20231206%20RISD%20ExED%20087%206K_.png?itok=-DnzwC5u)
![Person looking at post it notes](/sites/g/files/upbtqy111/files/styles/original_max_width_250/public/2024-01/20231206%20RISD%20ExED%20402%206K_.png?itok=wWzs9YSY)
RISD in the world
RISD has a strong track record of corporate collaboration. Our hands-on, future-focused approach to learning and making has led to engagements with innovative multinational organizations. ExED builds upon this experience to bring fresh leadership development opportunities to a wide range of new partners.
![Hillel O'Leary peaks through a hole in a cardboard project](/sites/g/files/upbtqy111/files/styles/landscape_3_2_250x166/public/2024-01/CE-Art-2024-peekaboo.jpg?h=826a1289&itok=Eb2wAsAi)
Launched in early December, The Art of Creativity taps into the expertise of RISD faculty members and alums trained in a wide variety of disciplines.
![model of a shelter designed using nature-inspired design principles](/sites/g/files/upbtqy111/files/styles/landscape_3_2_250x166/public/2023-06/Hyundai-2023-Crits-Arch-Little-House.jpg?h=a796d147&itok=w6lGQdfW)
Students in two spring 2023 studios used scientific methodologies combined with design thinking to explore collaborative future living.
![a doctor uses the new tool in his mobile phone](/sites/g/files/upbtqy111/files/styles/landscape_3_2_250x166/public/2023-03/SayYourPain3.jpg?h=f8b7bb4a&itok=_rur7E4V)
New Say Your Pain app developed in conjunction with creative agency WongDoody aims to improve outcomes for non-English speakers.
![a speculative future playground](/sites/g/files/upbtqy111/files/styles/landscape_3_2_250x166/public/2021-12/WeisTeam4CommunitySpaces.jpg?h=38c0ccef&itok=1mx40pfp)
A multidisciplinary fall studio allows students to imagine positive solutions to looming global problems and speculate about possible paths to getting there.
Contact us
Connect with a member of our team to explore how we can work with you.
Get to know RISD
Find out about our learning community, its history and traditions and how it plans to meet the future.
Learn more about President Crystal Williams and the RISD leaders who steward our mission and strategic plan.
Read the latest stories from our community of artists, designers and scholars.