Cathren is a community collaborative artist who has been working with the Community Libraries of Providence and other non-profits since 2012, developing arts and literacy programs and creating public art installations. She has been an artist in residence at Hattie Ide Chaffee Home since 2023, implementing visual arts and health programs with seniors and dementia patients. Website: ArtHouseRI.com
Stink Tank – It’s a name that evokes images of a feculent vat and provokes the question: What the hell is this? and Who came up with that name? Stink Tank published its first manifesto June 25, 2004 on the website ArtInRuins.com in an essay titled Compost and the Arts: How to Keep the Arts […]
“Sounds like it’s highlighting the chaos in the world we are living in today.” This was the reaction I got from my friend Nancy Teo when I sent her some of the photos I’d taken at Screech Sprays RI!, a live graffiti event held at Nick Paciorek’s Pitcher-Goff House in Pawtucket on August 28. The […]
The unionized workers of the Community Libraries of Providence have been without a contract for two years now. Their patience, which had been wearing thin, was stretched to the breaking point by a recent move on the part of management that, by union rules, crossed a line. On August 4 & 5 they went into […]
Artificial intelligence became a mainstream sensation in late 2022, its flames fanned by the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. What was previously a high-tech field became a highly visible mass-market product, carrying with it a minefield of ethical considerations. There are pros and cons at every turn, but one thing is clear: AI is a double-edged […]
It’s grilling season and the air is rich with the scent of sizzling steak and sausages. If you don’t eat meat it’s easy to feel left out, but the days of sitting on the sidelines and watching everyone else enjoy the delectable smoky flavor of fire roasted food are over. The culinary world has wised […]
Sunscreen is a product designed to protect us from the damaging effects of the sun, so it stands to reason that the rate of skin cancer would have dropped since sunscreen was introduced to the general market. It may shock you to know that cases of skin cancer have actually increased since the introduction of […]
Medical marijuana was legalized in Rhode Island in January 2006, and by May 2022 even recreational sales became legal through state-licensed dispensaries and authorized retailers. Yet it still isn’t safe for medical users to come out of the closet. When it comes to both work regulations and social perception, patients who use cannabis as carefully as prescription medication are […]
When the US Congress allowed the Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire on Dec. 31, 2025, they created a health insurance crisis that could have inspired a plot line for “American Horror Story.” Overnight, millions of Americans saw their premiums expand and rise like mushroom clouds from a nuclear explosion. In an article posted January […]
New Year’s resolutions tend to be short-lived. We usually make them after weeks of holiday binging, comforting ourselves with the thought that the damage can be undone through will power alone. So what if we’ve made the same resolutions two years in a row? Third time’s the charm! Whose bright idea was this? Surprisingly, we […]
I recently came across an article published in Forbes magazine in 2018, in which author Panos Mourdoukoutas declared that if Amazon replaced the public library it would save the taxpayers a huge amount of money. He went on to suggest that technology and Starbucks had surpassed what libraries were able to offer at this point. […]