The story
The museum in Providence was founded in 1877 in the same breath as the Rhode Island School of Design, and that pairing still shapes it: this is a collection assembled to be studied by artists and designers a few doors away. It runs from Egyptian and classical antiquities through Impressionism to contemporary craft and textiles.
Its most surprising resident is a nearly nine-foot gilded wooden Buddha, a 12th-century Japanese figure of Dainichi Nyorai, among the largest such sculptures outside Japan. Nearby hang a well-known Manet and paintings by Cézanne, kept as working models for the students next door.
