The art history and performance wintersession course, taught alternately by Szymon Bojko (Art History Faculty,1917-2014) and Agnieszka Taborska (Senior Lecturer, History of Art and Visual Culture), directly involved students by immersing them in the art and culture of a particular time and place. The idea originated from Bojko’s classes in which students staged historical events and performed excerpts from poems, plays and art manifestos. Lectures, re-creations of historical events, rehearsals of the performance (devoted each time to a different topic), set-building, prop-making and costume sewing would culminate in the show, presented to the public over three evenings the first week of Spring semester, most frequently on the third floor of the Waterman Building. The Cabaret had a faithful audience that came back every year. For many students, RISD Cabaret was a life changing experience.

In fond celebration of twelve years of RISD Cabaret, this collection contains documentary photographs, press releases, announcements, reviews, posters, programs and tickets from each event as well as an archival film edited from full length VHS recordings of each show entitled “The Best of the 12 Shows”, screened at the 2016 RISD Cabaret 1987-2000 Retrospective.