In the fall of 1981, Rhode Island School of Design received a $150,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to be spread over a five-year period from 1982-1987. The goal of the grant was to support faculty and curriculum development through a series of seminars and lectures delivered by visiting artists and critics, and to distribute faculty awards for independent research.
President Hall’s 1981 grant application proposed "senior level seminars for fine art students taught by outstanding contemporary artists and critics, public lectures by visiting artists and critics, and the establishment of a creative leave program for fine arts faculty members and for liberal arts teachers engaged in the history, philosophy, or criticism of art."
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Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grant lectures, Rhode Island School of Design Archives.
The ten VHS cassettes record lectures presented to the RISD community, 1985-1987. Lecturers include Nobel Peace Prize recipient Betty Williams, author and poet Maya Angelou, author John Updike, and writer and humorist Fran Lebowitz.
Transferred to the Archives from the Fleet Library at RISD.
Adminstrative records are found in the Academic Affairs Subject files, box 11, folder 10.
Programs, schedules, and clippings are found in the General Vertical files.
The Arts and Humanities Lectures, 1987-1990, continued the series with different funding sources.
The VHS tapes are available as mp4 files on the Fleet Library at RISD's Digital Commons website.