Then one summer in the middle of high school, Gebbia took art classes at Valdosta State University in Georgia and decided that he really wanted to be a painter. “You’ve got something there,” noted an instructor who admired his work, and he suggested Gebbia apply to one of the top art schools in the country, the Rhode Island School of Design. Gebbia spent the following summer taking classes at RISD and was enthralled by the majestic French and Neocolonial buildings clustered on the banks of the Providence River. Gebbia enrolled at RISD in 2000, a year after Chesky.
