August 23, 2025 - February 15, 2026

Museums of art and design are, at their core, a great variety of things collected in different ways over time. Including more than 40 objects made between 1774 and 2022, This Is a Thing explores a selection of works on paper recently acquired by the RISD Museum’s Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Department. These works present playful to critical examples of thing-ness: object studies, built creations, still-lifes, figures posed with or as objects, and things from the natural world. This Is a Thing draws attention to how works make their way to the RISD Museum. It also celebrates the support of those who help us do the things we do by highlighting some of the great things recently entrusted to us.

Conor Moynihan
Interim Department Head & Associate Curator Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Department

RISD Museum