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n abundance of color. New voices. A feeling that anything’s possible. Fall migration is again transforming Providence. Just as songbirds head south for the winter, an influx of another species transpires each fall: Students return to school at the capital city’s five colleges and universities, reviving this urban habitat with their youthful energy. About 30,000+ college students help define the city’s lively atmosphere and vibrant arts and culture scene. The institutions they attend drive development of a new Knowledge District where jewelry factories once thrived. Providence brands itself the Creative Capital, acknowledging the strong bond between the arts, science and entrepreneurship. This city of rare historic architecture has become an exciting destination for contemporary art seekers. A city focused on its future is fertile ground for innovation, which can happen only with the removal of barriers to collaboration. Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA), partial funding for which comes from the NEA, acts imaginatively in collaboration with many others to strengthen art districts generally and art communities in detail. It provides grants and tax incentives to artists and entrepreneurs, initiating public arts projects statewide, always stimulating innovative educational opportunities for diverse participants. A philosophy of innovation is literally built into the design of Brown University’s Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts. From the outside, architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s fractured design resembles a sideways accordion. A sheer glass wall slices the structure down the middle, offsetting the floors by a half level and visually connecting rooms to one another. Look up and
Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts at Brown University. Photo: Warren Jagger Photography/www.jaggerfoto.com.
you may see dancers in a movement studio. Look down as students build sound circuits in a media lab. The Granoff’s transparent design encourages interdisciplinary collaboration between and among the arts, sciences, and humanities with four production studios, a professional recording studio, multimedia lab and a physical media lab. Open areas include informal “living rooms” on each floor to facilitate social exchanges leading to valuable learning opportunities. Special events are scheduled weekly at the Granoff, most open to the public. The building houses the 218-seat Martinos Auditorium and 35mm screening facility. The Cohen Gallery presents multi-departmental exhibitions and shows by visiting artists. Across town, the Galleries of Providence College open the academic year with exhibitions
Explore Open Studios of Rhode Island’s East Bay...
On the last Thursday night of every month from March thru November. September 27th October 25th November 29th www.artnightbristolwarren.org 28
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A NEW SERIES OF CONVERSATIONS about contemporary art and artists in Rhode Island
Watch on WSBE Rhode Island PBS September 5, 12, 19, 26 at 7:00 p.m.
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invoking nature in transformation that feature invited teaching artists. The Reilly Gallery at the Smith Center for the Arts will open Ben Anderson’s show of wood and ceramic installations, Walking Softly, on view through October 26. Anderson, of the University of Rhode Island, reincarnates fallen trees found throughout the state into sculptural elements. Through October 19 the Hunt-Cavanagh Gallery mounts Arborglyphs, drawings by Deborah Coolidge of RISD, incorporating her tree bark rubbings. The Bannister Gallery in Rhode Island College’s Roberts Hall/Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts complex kicks off each academic year with its faculty exhibition, opening September 6. Named for late nineteenth-century AfricanAmerican landscape painter Edward Bannister, the gallery presents roughly ten exhibitions annually featuring traditional media and contemporary site-specific, electronic, and video projects. Autumn not only means back to school but also a landscape in transition. Rhode Island’s
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official tree, the red maple, is named after the color of power, passion, and energy—all qualities to be found in FirstWorks, a high-powered, international series of performing arts programs meant to advance the cultural, educational and economic vitality of the city. The festival collaborates closely with the Mayor’s office and numerous partnerships across the university, arts and business worlds. This fall a mega-festival takes place on September 29 from 4–11 p.m. out of doors in Kennedy Plaza downtown. It ranges from performances by the Oakland, California based Bandaloop dance group, through the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, through Red Baraat, an Indian/Brooklyn brass band, to an Indonesian puppet theatre that will mingle with festival-goers. Pixilerations, the new media fringe festival, is an annual multi-venued performance and film/video program happening October 11–21. This is a mere sampling of FirstWorks’s wide programmatic reach. The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra
PROVIDENCE, RI and Music School, led by Larry Rachleff, Music Director, and Francisco Noya, Resident Conductor, is entering its impressive 68th season in 2012/13. Like other states, a classical series, rush hour series and open rehearsals all are offered, yet the Philharmonic takes pride in being the “only professional orchestra in the country to officially designate music education and performance as equal priorities.” Committed to inclusivity, the organization offers music education programs and performance opportunities to people of all ages, incomes and ability levels. Quality, relevance and accessibility are its tenets. The nearby city of Pawtucket is home to the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theater. Known for its commitment to mounting provocative contemporary works as well as plays by Shakespeare, the Gamm’s intimate 137-seat theater opens its 28th season with two Rhode Island premieres. After the Revolution, Amy Herzog’s family drama,
Sat. S at. & Sun., Sun., S SEPT. EPT. 8tthh & 9tthh 10am to 4pm
Fine F i ne A Artrt & American-made American-made C Crafts rafts
SHOW&SALE S HO OW&SALE Armory A rmory A Arts rts C Center, enter, 1172 72 Exchange Exchange Street Street Armory A rmory A Arts rts C Center enter iinn downtown d o w n to w n P Pawtucket, awtucket, iiss a bbeautiful eautiful sspacious pacious llocation, ocation, aand nd pperfect erfect venue venue ttoo highlight highlight tthe he eextraordinary xtraordinary qquality uality of of art art aand nd craft craft from from aartists rtists in in oour ur rregion. egion. N Nearby ear by P Pawtucket awtucket Arts A rts Festival Festival events events will will iinclude nclude music, music, demonstrations demonstrations and and m many any oother ther family family events. events. F FREE REE & OPEN OPEN TO TO T THE HE P PUBLIC UBLIC
September 6-26: Annual Faculty Exhibition Reception September 6 from 5 to 8 pm. October 4–24: d’Ann de Simone Focus Gallery—Monique Johnson. Reception October 4 from 5 to 8 pm. For information about exhibition-related programs, visit www.ric.edu/bannister
Building leadership, participation, and education in the arts for all Rhode Islanders.
artsmarketplacepawtucket.com
John Canal
Lydia Martin
Canal’s drawings are inspired by, and consist mostly of interpretations of his great, great, great, great uncle Canaletto’s oil paintings.
Martin’s paintings are inspired by the traditional images associated with “Loteria”, a Mexican version of bingo, that uses pictorial cards vs. letters & numbers.
“Drawings of Old Venice”
“Loteria”
Sept. 18 thru Oct.13
Oct. 16 thru Nov. 10
Opening Reception Sept. 20th - 5-9
Visit www.arts.ri.gov to learn about opportunities for Rhode Island artists and arts events statewide.
Opening Reception Oct. 18th - 5-9
CHABOT FINE ART GALLERY (401) 432-7783
chris@chabotgallery.com
379 Atwells Avenue, Providence, RI
www.chabotgallery.com
September/October
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PROVIDENCE, RI
westbayopenstudios.com
begins September 13. It should inspire political discussions with its story of descendants of a famously blacklisted victim of McCarthyism’s Red Scare struggling with a shocking revelation. Opening November 8 is Red, the 2010 Tony Award Best Play winner about abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko, an absolute must-see. The city of Pawtucket on the Blackstone River is among the region’s most artist-friendly communities, its empty textile mills often repurposed into artist studios and lofts. Studios in five of these renovated mill buildings in the Exchange Street neighborhood open to visitors September 8 and 9 during the first weekend of the 14th Annual Pawtucket Arts Festival. New this year is an arts marketplace, a Fine Art and Contemporary Craft Show and Sale in the renovated Pawtucket Armory Arts Center. The juried show has approximately fifty partic-
Art studio at the Providence Art Club. Photo: Warren Jagger Photography/www.jaggerfoto.com.
h 4tth ANNUAL A NNUAL
Sat. S a t. & S Sun., u n ., O October ctober 20 20 & 2211 111AM 1AM TO TO 5PM 5PM
Jamestown Arts Center
Artists in southern Rhode Island are opening their home studios. Meet them in their environment while enoying the beauty of autumn.
A dynamic community arts center inspiring people of all ages with Performing & Visual Arts, Events, Classes and Exhibitions!
Saturday, Oct. 13 and Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012 10 am to 4 pm Southern Rhode Island
18 Valley St. Jamestown, RI | 401.560.0979 WWW.JAMESTOWNARTCENTER.ORG
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hoparts.org
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“DISCOVER YOUR PASSION� CREATIVE WORKSHOP SERIES
800.861.8990 / 401.861.8000 139 MATHEWSON STREET
HOTEL PROVIDENCE
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ipating artists and artisans representing a wide variety of media, from painting through furniture and metalwork. The festival runs September 7–23, showcasing the visual and performing arts at various venues. Highlights include a September 15 outdoor concert by the Rhode Island Philharmonic Pops Orchestra at Slater Memorial Park and the Pawtucket Film Festival during the festival’s concluding days. One of Pawtucket’s largest mill restoration projects is the Hope Artiste Village, a thriving creative community with studios, lofts, retail shops, light industrial workshops, professional office suites, a music venue, theatre and fitness studios. Nestled in this light-filled historic space you’ll find the Candita Clayton Gallery, featuring works by regional artists and eco-friendly craftspeople. A solo exhibition by mixed-media artist Allison Paschke, whose work in porcelain, cast-resin and layered pigments navigates between two and three dimensions, runs September 14–October 12. Then Philip J. Jamison has a show of stunning large-format black-andwhite photographs, many depicting natural landscapes, from October 26–November 23. Pawtucket is a ten-minute drive from downtown Providence, where the Hotel Providence, whose mission is “individual, intimate and attentive service,” offers elegant décor and accommodations. On Mathewson Street near historic Grace Church in the city’s thriving arts and entertainment district, each luxury suite in this boutique hotel suggests a specific literary imprint, from authors Tolstoy to Alcott. Ask for a tour of the lobby art. The hotel is close to several of the city’s finest restaurants and a short walk to Waterplace Park, where the WaterFire bonfires on the Woonasquatucket River illuminate the downtown on select weekend evenings through early October. Indeed, the WaterFire performance is largely responsible for the Providence renaissance. The new darling of Providence’s contemporary art scene is Yellow Peril Gallery, which attracts collectors internationally with edgy, provocative exhibitions by emerging and mid-career artists. “Explosive formed sculptures” anyone? Remotecontrolled fighting furniture? Find socially aware Yellow Peril igniting conversations at The Plant in a mill complex in the city’s Olneyville section. Opening September 13 is a show of new work by the New York-based, Canadian born Naomi Campbell whose background in biology influences her mixed-media art. Those fascinated by the Old World should seek out DWRI Letterpress, founded by artist Dan Wood, leader of Rhode Island’s letterpress
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EVERYTHING YOU COULD EVER WANT & BE, YOU ALREADY HAVE & ARE Ŷ /ŶƐƚĂůůĂƟŽŶ ďLJ ĂǁŶ <ĂƐƉĞƌ ^ Wd D Z ϱ ͳ K dK Z ϱ͕ ϮϬϭϮ ĂǁŶ <ĂƐƉĞƌ ĐƌĞĂƚĞƐ Ă ŶŽŵĂĚŝĐ ƐƚƵĚŝŽ ŝŶƐƚĂůůĂƟŽŶ ĞŶǀŝƌŽŶŵĞŶƚ ĂŶĚ ǁŝůů ƉĞƌĨŽƌŵ ǁŝƚŚŝŶ ŝƚ ĂƐ Ă ůŝǀŝŶŐ ƐĐƵůƉƚƵƌĞ ŽǀĞƌ ƚŚĞ ĐŽƵƌƐĞ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ĞdžŚŝďŝƟŽŶ͘
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PROVIDENCE, RI printing resurrection. Tours are available by appointment to see the running Linotype and Ludlow machines for casting lead type in Wood’s custom letterpress print shop just off Broadway. The shop develops its own designs as well as those of other graphic designers, expertly creating printed matter with older technologies. A mile away on Federal Hill, Chabot Fine Art Gallery is eclectic in style yet singularly focused on contemporary art. From September 18–October 13 it presents highly detailed drawings of historic Venice by Toronto-based John M. Canal, who took his inspiration from the oil paintings of the Venetian Republic by his famous distant relative Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal). The show celebrates the Italian neighborhood’s heritage in time for Columbus Day weekend’s colorful street festival. Said to be the second oldest art club in the country is the Providence Art Club, in two his-
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toric buildings on hilly Thomas Street, across from the First Baptist Church of America on Providence’s east side. Founded in 1880, the club’s Maxwell Mays and Dodge House galleries now present several member and open juried exhibitions throughout the year, for which all artist members are eligible. Among other events, Fidelity Investments’s annual juried exhibition is eagerly anticipated. Climb College Hill to reach the Chazan Gallery at the Wheeler School where a kinetic sound installation by Ed Osborn opens the new season September 20 and runs through October 10. Osborn’s Standing Wave calls to mind a forest of swaying trees, consisting of seven motorized poles, each holding aloft a speaker emitting sustained, complex tones. From October 18–November 7 is the group show, Improbable Places. Providence sits at the head of Narragansett Bay, New England’s largest estuary. Just as an estuary is a transition zone between river and
Music is for EVERYONE!
ocean, art seekers who head south from the capital city’s urban environment will find a more relaxed pace with fall open studios tours on either side of the bay. The East Bay has ART Night Bristol and Warren the last Thursday of the month from March through November. Free trolley service links nearly twenty galleries and featured artist studios in both coastal towns. Opening their studios on September 27 are Bristol photographer Stephan Brigidi and Warren mixed-media artist Tom Culora, and on October 25, glass artist and sculptor Ed McAloon and ceramic tile artist Pat Warwick. They welcome visitors to their studios in the Warren Cutler Mill complex. Twenty-two artists will participate in this year’s 4th annual West Bay Open Studios Artists’ Tour, including newest member, painter Luke Randall. Demonstrations include Alice Benvie Gebhart’s not-to-be-missed glass fusing. A self-guided tour through East Greenwich, Warwick, and North Kingstown
Open Daily 9:30 am – 5 pm
Set in the historic Newport Casino, the museum and grounds are a haven for tennis enthusiasts, history buffs, and lovers of art and architecture.
Save $2.00 on admission with this ad. Valid through 5/31/13
194 Bellevue Avenue, Newport • tennisfame.com • 849-3990
The Galle Galleries ries o of f the Providence Pr rovidence Art Ar rt Club Club EXXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS September 4–S September 4–September epte 28 IIstvan stvan B Brinza, rinza, JJoan oan DeRugeris and Walter W alter F Feldman: eldman: R Recent eecent Work Gayle G ayle M Mandle: andle: H HyperMarket yp September 30–O September 30–October ct 19 Patricia Pa atricia Allen, R Rev. evv. Bill B Comeau and Gloria G loria M Merchant: erchant: P People and Places William W illiam B Barnum arnum an and Alma Fontana: Beauty B eauty bbyy G God od and Man
Call 401.248.7070 for more information Check out our website: riphil.org
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Founded in 1880, 0, the P Providence rovidence Art Club is a picturesque urresque pro procesprocession of historic houses; uses; home to studios, galleries and a clubhouse. progrrams, its Through its publicc programs, art instruction classes asses for members and its active exhibition ibition schedule, the Art Club continues inues a tr tradition radition of supporting the visual ar arts ts in eyond. Providence and beyond.
11 T Thomas homas Str Street, reet, Pr Providence, ovidence, RI 02903 401.331.1114 • www www.providenceartclub.org .providenceartcllub.org
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covering a variety of genres is offered October 20 and 21 from 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Printed maps and brochures are available at all the studios and through local business sponsors. Conanicut Island, between Narragansett Bay’s East and West passages, is home to Jamestown, where a former boat repair shop on Valley Street has been converted into a vibrant art showcase. The Jamestown Arts Center began in 2010 through the extraordinary dedication of this small town’s residents, who embrace the arts and arts education for all. Despite its island location, the JAC draws artists from around the state and region. The Art League of Rhode Island selected the center to host its 12th annual exhibition August 31–September 23. The show features the work of fifty or so elected member artists, from new members like Providence illustrator Holly Gaboriault to veteran Pawtucket watercolorist Joan Boghossian. This is one of the league’s two major shows a year; the other by associate
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members occurs each spring. Newport, home to the lavish Gilded Age mansions that served as summer resorts for the rich and famous, also spawned an outstanding McKim, Mead & White architected casino that is now part of the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum. American tournament tennis began in Newport and its distinctive grass courts continue actively to serve for play on the grounds just outside the sports museum. The museum documents the whole history of the sport in eighteen galleries, interactively, and through vast collections of memorabilia. The Hall of Fame hosted the first Newport Jazz Festival in 1954 and still hosts its opening night plus many other special events. The state’s inland southwestern corner offers more opportunities to see foliage at its mid-October peak amid the quaint villages in rural Hopkinton and Richmond. The 7th annual HopArts Studio Trail takes place October 13 and 14 from 10 a.m.–4 p.m.; each day is the
PROVIDENCE, RI “anti-big” arts festival, drawing visitors off the beaten path along the river roads and rolling hills of Rhode Island’s old mill towns. This year thirty participating artists and artisans open their studios to allow visitors to observe their art making in this tranquil region. For such a small state, the art-loving visitor with limited time has some big decisions to make about what to see and do in Rhode Island this fall. Fortunately, the brand new PBS/RI television series called Art Rhode Island can assist. Patron and series producer Dr. Joseph A. Chazan sets out to illuminate Providence’s creative capital and the contemporary art scene statewide (see FlashPoints, p. 6). This series and Art New England hope to guide visiting art audiences in experiencing further the smallest state’s considerable charms and curiosities. —Janine Weisman
waterfire.org | 401-273-1155
ival 2012
FirstWorks Fest
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