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“DESIGN BY RHODE ISLAND”
WHAT WE DO
DESIGNxRI (spoken “Design by Rhode Island”) works to support and strengthen Rhode Island’s world-class design community. Through a series of educational and business training programs like Design Catalyst and the Launch Program and social and networking events like DESIGN WEEK RI and our Creative Conversations speaker series, DESIGNxRI creates accessible ways for Rhode Island’s design professionals to connect, learn, and advance in their careers.
OUR MISSION
DESIGNxRI is a nonprofit economic development organization that creates an opportunity-driven environment for RI designers, design businesses, and the design sector to thrive. We believe design is a critical economic sector that drives change globally, socially, and locally in the state of Rhode Island.
OUR HISTORY
DESIGNxRI was founded in 2013 by Lisa Carnevale, Emily Hall, Libby Slader, and Kelly Taylor in recognition of the value and impact that creativity, design and innovation bring to our society and the world at large. As the only statewide organization for design in RI, we build value in the sector by creating events and programs that invest in design businesses, grow design talent, nurture the design community, and connect designers to professional opportunities.
OUR VALUES
Land acknowledgement
DESIGNxRI is located on Indigenous lands. We recognize and honor the Narragansett, Pokanoket, Niantic, Manissean, and Nipmuc Nations who are and have been the stewards of the lands known today as Rhode Island. These nations inhabited these lands prior to and since the arrival of the European colonizers and use these territories to fish, farm, hunt, create, design, heal and build communities. Indigenous expertise in stone masonry, construction techniques, basket weaving, leatherworking, beadwork, and other forms of making continue to contribute to design lineages today. We charge designers to build better worlds while acknowledging the foundational contributions of indigenous design.
As we continue to build a more expansive design community, we welcome others to join us in dialogue around evolving practices.
We honor the stewards of this land.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, & INCLUSION
We believe that increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion is non-negotiable to the growth and transformation of the design sector in Rhode Island. We commit to creating deeper and more diverse access to opportunities within our organization, through our programs, and throughout the design field. We are working to model diversity and inclusion for other organizations in the design sector, and we welcome the participation of our members, design businesses, and community partners to actively dismantle the systems of inequity in the design field.
DESIGNxRI is honored to be recognized by
