Rhode Island School of Design Announces Second Phase of Collaboration with Moss Bureau

Murray Moss and Franklin Getchell will lead RISDxMOSS: Game Changers interactive event on September 28

PROVIDENCE, RI – Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Moss Bureau are pleased to announce the second year of a unique partnership that continues to explore innovative frameworks for teaching and thinking about the expansive and integrative nature of design today. The 2019-20 programming kicks off with RISDxMOSS: Game Changers, an interactive exhibition and open dialogue hosted by RISD Senior Presidential Advisors Murray Moss and Franklin Getchell. The event will take place at RISD in the 20 Washington Place Auditorium on September 28, 2019 from 2–4 pm, followed by a reception from 4–5:30 pm. A limited number of public tickets are available. Register here.

For the event, Moss and Getchell, creators of the world-renowned MOSS design gallery and shop, will devise an interactive runway exhibition of 30+ objects—including work by Marcel Wanders, Maarten Baas, Hella Jongerius and Ingo Maurer—chosen from their personal archive of celebrated artifacts, rare prototypes and relatively unknown experimental works. Assembled exclusively for RISD and on view for this one-time-only event, these diverse objects highlight exceptional critical thinking, bold speculation and groundbreaking experimentation. Each challenges the familiar and reconceptualizes the ordinary. Collectively, the exhibition and open discussion led by Moss and Getchell are intended to stimulate the imagination and nurture future game changers.

At another fall event—on October 17—RISD President Rosanne Somerson will join Moss at The Glass House in New Canaan, CT for a conversation about the legacy of the Bauhaus as it relates to design and art education today. Tickets for the site tour, lecture and reception are available on The Glass House website.

A spring 2020 event at RISD, to be announced, will also be part of the collaboration’s second year.

This unique programming builds on a fruitful partnership during the 2018-19 academic year, which first brought together Moss’ expertise with the “made world” (throughout its 18 years of operation, MOSS was a place to learn and share information and discoveries across a vast spectrum of design and art disciplines) and RISD’s global leadership in art and design education. During year one, Moss presented two public lectures—In Search of Narrative and Interdisciplinary Design Becomes the Norm—at RISD in fall 2018, with corresponding graduate-level workshops at the RISD Museum, and hosted a spring 2019 interdisciplinary RISD course examining juxtapositions of objects at Torpedo House, Moss and Getchell’s residence and in-house conference center in Hamden, CT.

“Game Changers is an anthology of ‘what ifs,’ 30+ objects that, taken together on the runway, will provide a powerful compendium of what it means ‘to look at something in a new way.’ With examples taken from several disciplines, including furniture, architecture, sculpture, photography, industrial design and fashion, these manifestations of exceptional critical thinking continue to inspire new generations of designers to discover new ways of looking,” notes Moss. “This is what we hope to achieve with this year’s programming, and we look forward to another year of working with RISD students to explore objects in ways beyond the boundaries of what they might first imagine.”

“I’m so pleased that Murray Moss and Franklin Getchell will be collaborating with RISD again. Both have tremendous experience and knowledge about introducing design to a range of publics. Their keen and articulate perceptions—and their generosity mentoring students—serve to bring great rigor to the issues that will shape design's future. It was an honor to work with them as they tailored such unique and illuminating experiences for our students and the community last year. We look forward to building on that thought-provoking, experimental programming in our second year of partnership,” said RISD President Rosanne Somerson. “Murray and Franklin have a way of situating objects in unexpected contexts that challenge students to see in new ways, thereby influencing the questions that they ask through their own creative practices, helping them to formulate their individual points of view. We’re calling this year’s first event Game Changers because we know our students will become the next generation of creative leaders, and at RISD we are dedicated to nurturing this potential both in and out of the studio."

About Rhode Island School of Design
The mission of RISD (pronounced “RIZ-dee”), through its college and museum, is to educate students and the public in the creation and appreciation of works of art and design, to discover and transmit knowledge and to make lasting contributions to a global society through critical thinking, scholarship and innovation. Our immersive model of art and design education emphasizes robust liberal arts studies and conceptually driven studio-based learning in full-time bachelor's and master's degree programs across 19 majors. RISD's exceptional faculty foster student growth and development in extensive specialized facilities, enabling students to become confident, cross-disciplinary thinkers and nimble problem-solvers ready to confront the complexities of global practice in the 21st century. More than 30,000 alumni worldwide testify to the impact of a RISD education, exemplifying the vital role artists and designers play in defining global innovation. Founded in 1877, RISD and the RISD Museum help make Providence, RI among the most culturally active and creative cities in the region. For more information, visit risd.edu..

About Moss Bureau
Moss Bureau, a division of Torpedo House LLC, is a design consultancy providing strategic multi-platform advice and direction for a wide range of clients in the design industries. Founded in 2012 by Murray Moss and Franklin Getchell, owners of the legendary MOSS Gallery in New York City, Moss Bureau offers a highly analytic and curatorial form of intervention in museum retail, legacy European manufacturers and clients in the hospitality sector. Clients include Starbucks, Lobmeyr, Georg Jensen, Royal Academy of Arts, Nymphenburg, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Baccarat, the Jewish Museum, Philip Johnson Glass House, Interior Design magazine and the Beijing Center for the Arts.

Murray Moss is the founder of MOSS design store and gallery, and co-founder, with Franklin Getchell, of the design consultancy Moss Bureau. Inducted into Interior Design’s Hall of Fame, Moss has received numerous awards including the Chrysler Design Award and House Beautiful’s Giants of Design Award. He has curated many influential exhibitions at venues including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, the Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, Collective Design Fair, New York and the Warhol Foundation, Pittsburgh. Moss has authored three books: Georg Jensen Reflections, (Rizzoli, 2014), Baccarat: Two Hundred and Fifty Years (Rizzoli, 2013) and Tertium Quid, August Editions (2013), and co-authored with Getchell Please Do Not Touch (Rizzoli, 2018). He has lectured widely at institutions including the Cooper–Hewitt National Design Museum, Cincinnati Art Museum, Wexner Center for the Arts, Harvard University, Yale University, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Sackler Gallery, Hammer Museum and Beijing Center for the Arts. He has served on the boards of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and the Design Industries Foundation Fighting Aids (DIFFA).

Franklin Getchell is co-founder of Moss Bureau, longtime business partner at Moss, and former producer, director and television programmer. His work includes six years as producer for the series Sesame Street. Getchell has received many distinguished international honors for his work in television and broadcast, including a Peabody Award, the Japan Prize, a Christopher Award and an Emmy. He is a graduate of Harvard University and has studied at Columbia University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. His published work includes Please Do Not Touch (Rizzoli, 2018), co-authored with Murray Moss.