A central garden court, later named after Eliza Greene Metcalf Radeke, provided natural light and a view from the art galleries enclosing it on three sides.

In 1993, the Daphne Farago Wing, designed by Tony Atkin and Associates (Philadelphia), added two new galleries for contemporary art, the first major expansion of exhibition space since 1926.

[8][9] The $34 million center was built on a former parking lot in one of the few remaining open spaces near RISD, and it was named in honor of the late Malcolm and Beatrice "Happy" Oenslager Chace, a preservationist who worked to save historic buildings on Benefit Street.

It is also responsible for the development of solo artist exhibitions and projects as well as thematic group presentations exploring key issues and trends in recent art, culture, and history.

Represented in the collection are significant paintings by Emma Amos, Peter Doig, Carroll Dunham, Nicole Eisenman, David Hockney, Ellsworth Kelly, Karen Kilimnik, Agnes Martin, Joan Mitchell, Marina Perez Simão, Salman Toor, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol and Karl Wirsum, among others.

The collection also includes important sculptural work by Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Nick Cave, Jeffrey Gibson, David Hammons, Simone Leigh, Rose B. Simpson, Sarah Sze, Robert Wilson, and Chen Zhen.

The museum's video collection features works by such pioneers in the field as Vito Acconci, Lynda Benglis, Xavier Cha, Tony Cokes, Arthur Jafa, Bruce Nauman, Martha Rosler, Richard Serra, and William Wegman.

The Nancy Sayles Day Collection of Latin American Art includes works by such important artists as Luís Cruz Azaceta, Fernando Botero, José Bedia, Jesús Rafael Soto, Joaquín Torres-García, and Roberto Matta Echuarren.

The Richard Brown Baker Collection of Contemporary British Art features paintings, sculptures, and installations by Martin Boyce, Karla Black, Liam Gillick, Lucy McKenzie, Susan Philipsz, Yinka Shonibare, and Cathy Wilkes, among others.

Starting with items such a pair of Native American moccasins and a Hawaiian barkcloth acquired in the museum's early history, the collection has grown to include more than 26,000 objects.

Also on view in Pendleton House's period rooms are fine examples of English pottery, Chinese export porcelain, and a comprehensive survey of Rhode Island silver.

Other highlights of the 19th century are works of art in glass by Lalique, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and Hector Guimard; ceramics by Wedgwood, Sèvres, and Royal Doulton; and silver by Christopher Dresser and Charles Robert Ashbee.

Approximately 2,000 pieces produced by Providence's Gorham Manufacturing Company from the mid-19th through the mid-20th century are the foundation of a collection of American silverware, which also includes work by colonial silversmiths such as John Coney, Paul Revere, and Samuel Casey.

The RISD Museum is a leading collector of American contemporary craft and studio furniture, and many of the artists represented in the collection have ties to the school as alumni, faculty, or both.

Among the contemporary craftspeople whose work is in the collection are: Dale Chihuly, Michael Glancy, Akio Takamori, Kurt Weiser, Judy Kensley McKie, Jere Osgood, Rosanne Somerson, and Alphonse Mattia.

The collection also includes major work by such northern European masters as Tilman Riemenschneider, Hendrick Goltzius, Joachim Wtewael, Salomon van Ruysdael, and Georg Vischer.

The 17th- and 18th-century masterpieces include paintings by Francisco Collantes, Sébastien Bourdon, Gabriel-Jacques de Saint-Aubin, Nicolas Poussin, Angelica Kauffman, and Joshua Reynolds.

The department has excellent examples of French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism paintings by such artists as Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Significant works by George Wesley Bellows, Robert Henri, Charles Sheeler, Maxfield Parrish, Georgia O'Keeffe, John Twachtman, Hans Hofmann, Paul Manship, and Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, among others, represent American artistic achievements of the early 20th-century.

The department also holds one of the largest collections of late 18th- and early 19th-century British watercolors in the United States, featuring work by J. M. W. Turner, George Chinnery, John Sell Cotman, William Blake, and Thomas Rowlandson.

The collection of French prints and drawings includes work by Nicolas Poussin, Hubert Robert, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Honoré Daumier, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Pablo Picasso, and others.

Notable in the collection of American watercolors and drawings are works by Benjamin West, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Eakins, Eastman Johnson, Winslow Homer, Maurice Prendergast, and Maxfield Parrish.

Among the important 20th-century artists represented in the collection are Franz Kline, James Rosenquist, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Motherwell, Jennifer Bartlett, Eric Fischl, Wayne Thiebaud, Kara Walker, and Francesco Clemente.

An overview of the history of photography is provided by 5,000 photographs, among them significant works by Gustave Le Gray, Julia Margaret Cameron, Nadar, Frederick Sommer, Carrie Mae Weems, and the past RISD professors Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan.