RezaRitesRi.com

By Reza Corinne Clifton

This article appeared in the Late November edition of the web-based Rhode Island Roads Magazine

(Andrew “Moon” Bain and Angel Quinonez each stand in front of their respective works at an art opening for a new exhibit in the downstairs gallery at AS220. The exhibit features new works by them, and runs till November 26. AS220 is located at 115 Empire Street in Providence. www.as220.org or 401-831-9327 for more information.)

PROVIDENCE, RI - Last Thursday, November 2, Providence art and culture was put under a microscope during a conversation that took place at RISD museum with three distinguished RI cultural leaders. Moderated by Joe O’Connor, General Manager of WRNI 1290 and 1230, RI’s National Public Radio station(s), “New to the Scene: A Conversation on Providence Art and Culture” featured Hope Alswang, Director of the RISD Museum and Curt Columbus, Artistic Director of Trinity Repertory Company.

Alswang was named Director of the RISD museum in September 2005, following the role of Chief Executive Officer at Shelburne Museum in Vermont, a role she had had since 1997. According to information distributed at last Thursday’s event, visitation at RISD Museum increased by 19 percent in her first year running the museum. Hearing from Alswang, this accomplishment was not by chance.

“There is a lot of risk,” explained Alswang to O’Connor and the mixed crowd audience. “There is lots of visual diversity and newness here…and a chance to do new things.” Though Alswang herself is enamored of historic architecture, she has embraced the vibrant artistic community she’s found in Providence and the possibilities such vibrancy presents. : “I have a working mandate for newness and diversity.”

(Bain and Quinonez stand in front of a piece by Bain that comments on “war that keeps raging on with no end in sight.”)

Columbus also sees distinctness in the Providence “artist and audience” communities, where he’s found many instances of art “intersecting” with other areas of life, as well as a healthy “ownership of the cultural institutions by the audience.” Like Alswang, Columbus sees this dynamic as one of the reasons to drive a more creative lineup, like one that might feature the famous Russian Dramatist, Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard as was Trinity’s most recent run.

Columbus too is fairly preoccupied with the idea of freshness in art and in theatre. “Make my work obsolete” he likes to tell his artist residents. For him, “colleagues who continue to take risks are my heroes” he explained to the audience. “Therefore I continually place myself in challenging places.”

Columbus’s philosophy or technique is working, according to his numbers and observations. At a microcosmic level, Columbus’s daily barista, who, he says, is also a local rapper, one day talked to him excitedly about the fact that he had attended a performance of Cherry Orchard.

Columbus was presently surprised, but maybe should not have been considering other figures he knew. “They played to 94% capacity during the entire run,” he explains, proud of this unusually high and consistent attendance rate. But Columbus still relates it back to a Providence—and really RI—public, which is with whom he wants to interact.

Pointing to the pre- or post-performance discussions he has introduced to Trinity works, Columbus feels he is acting in accordance with his desire to make Trinity “the public square” of Providence. “We are just not at a point where artists are so arrogant that they’ll be apart from the community,” he tells the Thursday audience.

That concept is important to Alswang too—of accessibility or “decoding” works of art and finding “multiple entries.” Often joking and referring back to her own excitement over non-contemporary works, Alswang articulated that both with respect to RISD and to cultural institutions in general, “it’s not okay to bore people.” She continued: “It is important to realize that these are real people in real times living in this city together.”

Contrasting the marginalization from surroundings—or really inertia effect—that similarly-located museums have experienced, she sees at RISD a legacy and necessity to continue interacting with the public. One way, Alswang mentions, is working with public schools and underprivileged youth. “We are concerned with making students visually literate,” she succinctly explains to the audience.

Even O’Connor from WRNI talked about the desire and necessity of working more with the public. He is new to the station, and has entered with a primary responsibility of trying to secure additional funding for the financially struggling NPR station. On the other hand, one of the station’s newest programs is Trinity Rep Radio Theater, a program proposed by none other than Columbus himself, which aims to introduce the public to playwrights and artists being featured in Trinity’s lineup.

(Work created by Quinonez. I’ll take a comment on the global marketplace for a 100, Alex)

And it’s this public engagement to which Alswang, Columbus and O’Connor are committed. But in a community like Providence where history, housing, jobs, schools, and international conflicts to name just a few contribute to a wide array of socioeconomic and racial and ethnic groups and the emergence of new cultures and new expression, these three face a formidable challenge. They have affirmatively begun or continued their outreach, but does the responsibility to be authentic cultural or public institutions come only from them? This writer showed her face last Thursday because her position is no; we’re all responsible and we’ll all have to work.

For more information about Trinity Repertory Company or RISD Museum, visit www.trinityrep.com or www.risd.edu/museum.cfm. For more information about WRNI, visit www.wrni.org.

Reza Corinne Clifton is a community organizer for high school reform at RI Children’s Crusade for Higher Education. She is also a freelance writer who is regularly published in several RI-area publications. Her articles can be seen at www.RezaRitesRi.com and she can be reached by emailing rezaclif@aol.com.

Trackback this Post | Feed on comments to this Post