1. Rosanne Somerson assisted for photography with her former professor and mentor Tage Frid's three-part book series "Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking" published by Taunton Press.
12 Facts About Rosanne Somerson
1. 2.
Rosanne Somerson taught woodworking with the Harvard Extension School from 1977 to 1978, and at the Boston Architectural Center in 1981.
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Rosanne Somerson joined the Rhode Island School of Design faculty in 1985.
4.
Rosanne Somerson served as RISD's interim associate provost for Academic Affairs from 2005 to 2007, as interim provost from 2011 to 2012, as provost from 2012 to 2013 and as interim president from 2014 to 2015.
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Rosanne Somerson's first speaking engagements as president came in the spring at the National Art Education Association Annual Convention and at South By Southwest EDU in 2015, where she discussed the impact of critical making.
6.
Rosanne Somerson's remarks went viral and have been turned into a book.
7.
Rosanne Somerson was inaugurated as the seventeenth president of RISD in October 2015.
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In July 2020, after the outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent closure of the RISD campus, Rosanne Somerson began negotiations with the RISD faculty union over the avoidance of possible layoffs by suggesting cost-cutting measures.
9.
Rosanne Somerson is known primarily for one-of-a-kind and custom work, but is a partner in DEZCO, LLC, a small-scale production furniture company which focuses on environmentally-responsible and design-conscious production furniture.
10.
Rosanne Somerson's focus became functional and timeless pieces using long-standing furniture making traditions to ensure decades of use.
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Rosanne Somerson started to create smaller works that valued function as well as emotional content; pieces that demanded an intimate relationship with the viewer.
12.
Rosanne Somerson's work has been included in the following museum collections: Smithsonian American Art Museum; Renwick Collection, National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC; Brockton Art Museum, Fuller Memorial ; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Yale University Art Gallery; RISD Museum, at Rhode Island School of Design; Huntsville Museum of Art, in Huntsville, Alabama; and Smith College Museum of Art.