What band consists of former Rhode Island School of Design art students?

The band consisting of former Rhode Island School of Design art students is Talking Heads.

The group grew out of the New York art-school and downtown music scenes in the 1970s. David Byrne and Chris Frantz met while attending the Rhode Island School of Design and first performed together in a student band called the Artistics. Tina Weymouth, Frantz’s partner and a fellow RISD student, later became the group’s bassist despite having little formal musical experience at the time.

After moving to New York, Byrne, Frantz, and Weymouth became Talking Heads. Jerry Harrison joined soon afterward, completing the classic quartet. Their art-school background shaped the band’s unusual combination of minimalist arrangements, visual presentation, nervous rhythms, and lyrical fascination with modern life.

The wording can be slightly simplified: Byrne attended RISD but did not complete his degree, while Frantz and Weymouth were RISD graduates. Even so, Talking Heads is the single canonical answer. The band became one of the defining groups of the late-1970s and 1980s alternative and new-wave era.