Szymon Bojko, who brought his enormous love of art and life to RISD from 1984–2001, passed away on October 24, 2014 at age 97. He had been living in a nursing home outside of Warsaw, Poland for the past two years.
Larger in spirit than his stature might suggest, the Polish scholar and art historian taught Liberal Arts courses at RISD and was best known as the instigator of and mastermind behind the avant-garde cabarets students produced every Wintersession in the late 20th century.
In 1988 Bojko directed the first of a dozen iterations of the RISD Cabaret, initially as an extracurricular experience and later as an immersive six-credit art history and performance course that proved to be a life-altering experience for students.
RISD recognized Bojko’s remarkable contributions as a creative thinker and iconoclast by presenting him with a 2002 honorary doctorate degree at Commencement.
Many members of the RISD community benefited from his generosity over the years, whether through the significant Polish poster collection he donated to the library, his unbridled support of the creative and scholarly aspirations of younger colleagues and students around the globe or his simple act of kindness in producing “wheat grass juice” for tired students at the end of the semester.
May his playful spirit live on in memory.
