Julie Mehretu to deliver keynote address

Alum Mehretu will accept an honorary degree along with cartoonist Roz Chast, arts advocate Stephen A. Metcalf, and designer David Wiseman

On Saturday, May 30, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) will award degrees to 485 undergraduate and 230 graduate students at its 143rd Commencement ceremony. Commencement 2026 will take place at 9am ET at the Rhode Island Convention Center in downtown Providence followed by a community reception in Market Square to toast the Class of 2026. For more information about RISD’s 2026 Commencement and to view the ceremony streaming live on May 30, visit here.  

Julie Mehretu MFA 97 PR/PT, whose work articulates the contemporary social experience and explores palimpsests of history, will deliver the keynote address and accept an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree. Cartoonist Roz Chast 77 PT, arts advocate Stephen A. Metcalf, and designer David Wiseman 03 FD will also receive honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees. 

Reunion Weekend will be held May 28–31 in conjunction with Commencement Weekend. Reunion activities celebrate all things RISD while bringing the alumni community together and welcoming its newest members, the Class of 2026. This year’s events include RISD’s inaugural Asian Alumni Reunion. Public events include the RISD Craft art sale and WaterFire lighting on May 30. Details are available at alumni.risd.edu/reunions. 

Julie Mehretu | keynote speaker and honorary degree recipient
Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1970, Julie Mehretu MFA 97 PR/PT creates paintings, drawings, and prints that articulate the contemporary social experience and explore palimpsests of history, from geological time to modern-day phenomenology. After earning her MFA from RISD, she moved to New York City, where she continues to live and work. She has been named one of Time’s most influential people (2020), has received numerous awards, including the MacArthur Award (2005) and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture (2025), and recently completed Uprising of the Sun, a glass mural for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Illinois.

Roz Chast / honorary degree recipient
Roz Chast 77 PT is known for turning everyday anxieties into sharply funny, unmistakably personal cartoons. She has earned many honors, including the Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society in 2015 and a National Humanities Medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2024. Born in Brooklyn, she moved back to New York after earning a BFA in Painting from RISD. In 1978 she sold her first cartoon to The New Yorker, where her work has been featured ever since.

Stephen A. Metcalf / honorary degree recipient
Sculptor and Kansas City Art Institute alum Stephen A. Metcalf, long-serving RISD board member and descendant of RISD’s founding family, was named chair of the Emeriti Trustees in 2018. He earned a RISD President’s Medal of Honor in 2021 and, with his wife A. Ewa Metcalf, established the Frank Robinson Curatorship of Painting and Sculpture at the RISD Museum in 2025.

David Wiseman / honorary degree recipient
David Wiseman 03 FD produces sculpture, furniture, lighting, and site-specific installations that bring his awe of nature to the built environment. A 2003 graduate of RISD’s Furniture Design department, he has made work for the Corning Museum of Glass, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Barack Obama Presidential Center, and the RISD Museum. His monograph, The Four Seasons of Flower Fruit Mountain, was published by August Editions in 2024.

A series of exhibitions leading up to Commencement will highlight new work produced by graduating students. Showcasing the work of grad students across 19 disciplines, Grad Show 2026 will be on view at the Rhode Island Convention Center from May 21–30. 

The work of seniors receiving undergraduate degrees will be featured by department throughout the spring semester in weekly shows at Woods-Gerry Gallery. Installation and work images are viewable online.