RISD | Project Open Door is an out-of-school-time learning program for teens from under-resourced high schools, particularly those in Rhode Island’s urban core cites of Central Falls, Pawtucket, Providence, and Woonsocket. Project Open Door provides multiple doorways to high quality art-making experiences and intensive college readiness preparation. Project Open Door is also an academic lab and demonstration project for Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) students exploring urban education and community arts education.



This book documents the work of teens attending the Jacqueline M. Walsh School for the Performing & Visual Arts in Pawtucket, Rhode Island participating in a semester-long POD in Schools after-school program that had a focus on design and design thinking. It is the goal of Project Open Door's out-of-school-time studio-based learning opportunities to introduce students to ways of making perhaps not typically experienced in a high school’s visual arts program. The content of the classes is determined to a great extent by the Project Open Door teaching artist’s background and experience while taking into account teens’ interests. It is hoped that the teaching artist will develop a learning environment at her/his school, which will contribute to the building of a community of young artists who will wish to continue more advanced work in Project Open Door's Portfolio sequence of classes, which are held at RISD.



This Project Open Door program was was made possible through the generous support of the Surdna Foundation.