PROVIDENCE, RI.- This March, the RISD Museum opened Ways of Looking, a pair of introductory galleries designed to transform how visitors enter and experience the museum.

Rather than functioning as a traditional orientation space, Ways of Looking presents the RISD Museum Way, the museum’s distinctive framework for engaging with art through four lenses: process, meanings, origins, and connections. The galleries serve as both welcome and provocation, offering visitors practical tools while inviting them to question, interpret, and participate.

“We believe museums should make their thinking visible,” said Tsugumi Maki, Museum Director. “Ways of Looking shares the framework we use as an institution and invites visitors into that process. It positions them not as passive viewers, but as active participants in making meaning.”

The installation is designed to serve multiple purposes. It welcomes and situates visitors within the museum, introduces the relationship between the museum and the Rhode Island School of Design, and provides tools that visitors can carry with them throughout the building. It encourages close looking and extended engagement while pulling back the curtain on museum practices that are often hidden from public view, introducing a range of voices and perspectives to support visitors in bringing their own interpretations to the work.

Visitors are first greeted by a sculptor’s model used to teach artists in Egypt more than 2,000 years ago. Mounted on each side of its pedestal are labels written through the four lenses of the RISD Museum Way, demonstrating how a single object can generate multiple lines of inquiry.

A large-scale projection created by RISD alum Carson Evans (GD MFA, 2018) reveals the model in striking detail, highlighting the markings used to guide ancient sculptors in working with clay. Using animation, the projection introduces drawing prompts connected to the four lenses and invites visitors of all skill levels to respond. Cards are provided, and visitors may hang completed drawings before leaving the museum, reinforcing the idea that interpretation is ongoing and shared.

A second gallery expands the conversation by pairing artworks with audio experiences that illuminate museum practice and lived perspectives.

One installation introduces an audio tour titled “Why is this even here?” which addresses questions about museum practices including acquisition, storage, research, and ethics. Produced by independent audio producers Echo Coop and Alex Hanesworth, the tour is paired with Template (2002), a sculpture by RISD professor and alum Jean Blackburn (Painting, 1979), prompting reflection on how works enter and function within collections.

A second audio feature by Alex Hanesworth and Echo Coop presents an interview with museum guard and artist Jen Corace, a RISD alum (Illustration,1996). It is paired with The Wanderer (2015), a painting by RISD professor and alum Jordan Seaberry (Painting, 2014). Personal reflections from both artists appear on the gallery labels, emphasizing that multiple perspectives shape how art is understood.

“Orientation spaces often tell visitors where to go,” said Kris Wilton, Deputy Director of Audience Experience and Learning. “This one invites you to come in, slow down, see artworks differently, and explore your own creativity. It gives visitors a set of tools and makes clear that their ideas matter.”

Developed through a cross-departmental collaboration led by Jeremy Radtke, Interim Director, Creative Production; Amy Pickworth, Assistant Director, Museum Publications; and Kris Wilton, Deputy Director of Audience Experience and Learning, Ways of Looking reflects the museum’s close relationship with the college and its commitment to experimentation in teaching and learning.

By positioning its entry galleries as a space for inquiry rather than instruction, the RISD Museum signals a broader commitment to transparency, shared authority, and the belief that museums are strongest when visitors are empowered to think alongside them. This initiative advances the Museum’s strategic priorities to broaden access, strengthen audience engagement, and create more welcoming pathways into the collection.