Steven Siegel. Like a Buoy, Like a Barrel. Photo Courtesy of The Avenue Concept.
In the early hours of August 10, the public art piece “Like a buoy, like a barrel,” created by sculptor Steven Siegel and on display in front of the Wexler Building in PVD, was destroyed in a fire.
Siegel’s vision was brought to life with the help of The Avenue Concept, whose staff aided in the sculpture’s construction, and Bonnie Combs and Motif contributor Jen Long, who rallied hundreds of Rhode Islanders in collecting and cleaning the single-use plastics that filled the sculpture instead of a landfill or Rhode Island waters.
Yarrow Thorne, founder and executive director of The Avenue Concept, said in a statement, in part, “This was truly public art.”
An investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.
Despite budget shortfalls and an ever-evolving state-mandated gathering limit, the Pawtucket Arts Festival will go on for 10 days this September as planned. And even though organizers are struggling with pandemic-related limitations, there are plenty of fun events on the Fest schedule.
The Fest kicks off on Friday, September 4, with the unveiling of a mural by artist Jennifer Boyle-Hebda at SHRI Urban Outreach Yoga Studio. The mural was one of 10 local arts projects selected to receive funding from the annual competitive arts panel grants program offered by the City of Pawtucket. Pawtucket Arts Fest director Anthony Ambrosino said of the evening, “It will be a small celebration of the arts panel program. We’re going to celebrate with the mayor, the panel and past winners of the panel, and highlight that the city has this program in the hopes of getting even more applicants involved next year.”
Jennifer Boyle-Hebda
The Fest and Pawtucket Restaurant Week begin in tandem, giving festival-goers an opportunity for a delicious local meal. Ambrosino hopes their tandem events will lead to a joint event in 2021. “We want to have a Taste of Pawtucket in the park where people will be able to taste items from different Pawtucket restaurants,” he said.
Also planned for this year is a virtual exhibition from Gallery 175 that highlights Pawtucket artists; view it through the end of October at gallery175.com. And don’t miss the virtual Outsider Art Show, which takes place on September 12 and featured the work of artists who are neurodiverse. For those who prefer their art more hands-on, Art in the Park, which is geared toward elementary-aged kids and includes a story, a craft and a dance party (socially distanced, of course), will take place several times throughout the festival’s 10 days. “There’s not a lot going on for kids this summer, so we’re looking forward to offering them this program,” said Ambrosino.
Outsider Art Show
Live entertainment will be a major part of this year’s festivities. The living statues of TEN31 Productions will take over Slater Park, and fans can view a documentary about the organization at the Veterans Memorial Amphitheater. The amphitheater will serve as a central hub of live entertainment throughout the 10 days, with a different performer — from comedy to folk to ensemble — on stage each night. “It’s a perfect outdoor venue,” said Ambrosino.
TEN31’s Enchanted Garden at Slater Park
Ambrosino is particularly excited for Mixed Magic Theatre’s Exult choir to put on two performances at the amphitheater on September 5. The choir was supposed to perform last year with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, but their performance was rescheduled and then cancelled due to fears of EEE. “It’s really exciting to be able to partner with them and put this on,” Ambrosino said.
One of the biggest draws of the Pawtucket Arts Festival, the dragon boat races, had to be cancelled this year, but the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, who helps organize the annual event, wants to keep the Taiwan Day celebration alive by planning a mini Taiwan Day celebration on the grounds of Slater Mill on September 12. After celebrating, Fest attendees can head back to their cars and check out the drive-in that will take place at Jenks Junior High.
Mixed Magic Theatre – Greatness of Gospel
Ambrosino recognizes the important role of the Pawtucket Arts Fest at this particular moment in time. “Art has a tremendous ability to distract people from their lives, but also allows them to highlight and interpret their experiences. Whether you want to immerse yourself in what’s happening around you or get away from it all, a festival like this allows you to choose your level of disconnection or connection.”
The Pawtucket Arts Festival takes place September 4 – 13 at various locations in Pawtucket. For more information, go to pawtucketartsfest.org. The Pawtucket Arts Festival will observe all social distancing protocol and state guidelines for gathering restrictions. Masks are required at all events.
We’ve long heard from readers that our “In Their Own Words” column, which we run every election season in November, is extraordinarily useful when they’re choosing how to cast their vote. In it, we ask candidates questions about topics important to our readers — questions about social justice, the arts, the environment — and phrase them to be as unspinnable as possible.
This election season, we changed things up a little and decided to run our popular “In Their Own Words” column in this special election coverage section in time for the statewide primary in order to help our readers make informed choices and encourage them to take part in an election that often sees woefully low voter turnout.
Rhode Island is a blue state with Democrats often winning state and local elections — whether they are true Democrats or Republicans in Democrats’ clothing. If Democrats are often the default winners, the statewide primary, where we select which Democrat will likely hold office, is an extremely important local election.
Although the Motif newsroom lacks the person power to contact every Rhode Islander running for election, we contacted those running in what we view as key elections, and printed the verbatim answers of those who responded, interspersed with news topics we’ll hope you find enlightening.
Have you ever wondered about the artists behind the elections signs that pop up on lawns this time of year? As a publication that views nearly everything through art’s lens, we sure did. And guess what? We found one!
Ryan Noonan is the graphic designer behind the lawn signs of three Rhode Island primary campaigns — David Matheson, who’s running for Warren school committee; Bethany Foster (D), who’s running for Bristol town council; and Nicky Piper, who’s also running for Warren school committee — and we sat down to talk with him about what goes into this special type of yard art.
Emily Olson (Motif): Would you ever make a campaign sign for someone whose politics differed from yours?
Ryan Noonan: I wouldn’t do a sign for someone who I had vast differences with. I’m left leaning and Dave and Nicky and Bethany are as well; however, if I had a friend who was right leaning, I would do a sign for them. Friendship — and I hate to use this word — does trump everything. If someone is a good person and operating on a local level, many of these divisive issues won’t come up. Like, abortion rights won’t come up on a school committee or town council. But if a stranger approached me and their views were far from mine, then no, I would not.
EO: What was the design process like?
RN: Bethany in Bristol had some specific colors she liked and she wanted a compass on her sign. Bristol’s on the harbor, a compass shows direction and guidance. I created the design from that. For Dave, I had an idea that it would be a cool to have a checkmark with a D. I love modernism and modern logos. I love initial logos. I think it’s a great way to spot the brand or the individuals.
EO: What’s your day job?
RN: I work for a board game manufacturer and mostly do graphics for board games, card games, the packaging — all the components when you buy a game off the shelf. On the side, if it doesn’t interfere with work, I do logos for other businesses.
Logo design is my passion. If I can do one simple logo, that’s the most challenging thing to do, and I’m proudest of those. And if I’m being completely honest, I would love to be known as the campaign guy. That would be really fun.
Follow Ryan Noon and his work on Instagram @niceguyry
Although three of our four local observatories are currently closed to the public, you can still get a glimpse of the stars on Friday nights at Frosty Drew Observatory. The telescopes are available for use about 30 minutes after dusk until around 11pm. Due to COVID restrictions, advance tickets are required.
Frosty Drew Observatory, 61-62 Park Lane, Charlestown; for tickets and event information, go to frostydrew.org; read about one writer’s pre-COVID stargazing adventure at motifri.com/stellaradventures
Like superheroes momentarily defeated by a seemingly unbeatable enemy, comic book fans screamed a dramatic, “Nooooooo!” when RI Comic Con announced it was cancelling its November 2020 event. But every superhero fan knows that even if the bad guy wins, his victory is temporary — RI Comic Con will triumphantly return in 2021, and Susan Soares of Altered Reality Entertainment, the organization behind Comic Con, was excited to talk about it.
Because summer’s Terror Con and fall’s Comic Con both were cancelled, Altered Reality created an entirely new event called RI Comic Con, Summer Edition, which will take place June 18 – 20, 2021. “Everyone’s sitting at home this year. There’s nothing. Conventions across the country have been cancelled, and we didn’t want to make our RI Comic Con fans wait a whole year for an event,” said Soares.
RI Comic Con, Summer Edition, although smaller, is going to be like the traditional fall Comic Con, in that there will be celebrities, vendors and an artists alley, but there also will be horror and paranormal content. “We’re taking what’s great about both events and making it one event,” Soares said. “It’ll be interesting to have both groups of fans together, sharing the same space.”
Soares described the Summer Edition as a preview of what fans can expect at the fall 2021 RI Comic Con when the event celebrates its 10th anniversary. “We’re very excited about it,” Soares said. “We’ll start to make announcements about it in November when this year’s Comic Con should have taken place.”
The people behind RI Comic Con are working hard to keep fans engaged. “Everyone’s going through a lot right now. We have been doing this for six months, and everyone’s motivation is down. We’re announcing these events to give people something to look forward to.”
Keep an eye on RI Comic Con’s socials. Announcements about the June event will be made in September, and announcements about the November 2021 event will be made in November 2020. You also can stay on top of celebrity birthdays and watch snippets of guest panels from previous years: @riccomiccon and fb.com/rhodeislandcomiccon
Providence Public Library recently completed a huge renovation, nearly two years in the making, and at the end of August, with strict COVID-related restrictions, they welcomed the public back to their updated space. The welcome will be particularly warm for bikers, thanks to a collaboration between the PPL and The Steel Yard. Jenny Sparks, client relations manager, and Tim Ferland, public projects director, worked with the PPL to pinpoint the organization’s desires and the community’s needs, then find the right artists for the job. Those selected artists, Devin Maher and Jesi Nicoloro, created a 3D version of the library’s newly redesigned logo to serve as a bike rack, and paired it with three tree guards, each in the shape of an open book, to protect a trio of nascent trees as they grow.
According to the RI Department of Health, Central Falls reported XX COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people for the week that ended August 22 — the most recent data available as we went to press. Central Falls has been a COVID-19 hot spot in Rhode Island, so we spoke with Emily Rizzo, coordinator of communications & business outreach for Central Falls, to ask how the city is planning to protect in-person voters during the primaries.
“We have followed all of the guidance provided by our chief health strategist Dr. Michael Fine and the State of Rhode Island to ensure that residents are kept safe while at the polls. We have required facial coverings in all of our public buildings and polling places, have temperature screenings of all visitors and employees in City Hall, have placed 6ft distance stickers to remind people to maintain 6 feet of distance between them and anyone else, socially distance physical polling locations within the building, and have reminders up on the TV screen in English and Spanish to wear your mask and socially distance.”
With a nod to the official beer of Rhode Island, this tee celebrates an alternate way of getting into a new headspace. Check out tenacioustee.shop for this and other designs.
Motif’s jazz writer, Ben Shaw — interviewer of musicians, reviewer of albums and guy in the know — also is a jazz performer, and he dropped an album of his own last month that definitely deserves a listen.
The 5-track album was entirely written by Shaw and was influenced a range of jazz styles, from traditional to contemporary. When we asked Shaw about the album and its development, he had this to say:
“I feel constantly compelled to do all of these different types of music — classical, singer/songwriter, hip-hop — and the most difficult time I have with that is trying to find my voice within those styles. In jazz, I’ve always had a voice in my head along with an approach I’ve been going for and I really wanted to put out something that captured the sound I wanted; I want it all to come under a unified voice. I’ve always lacked confidence in my abilities as a jazz musician and for a long time felt that I was hopelessly inadequate as both a player and composer so anything I was doing wasn’t worthy of putting down on record. But as I was turning 30, I started slowly unburdening myself of some of that self-doubt and began to focus more on the joy of the craft and the making of music, rather than the assumptions I had put up as roadblocks. So I hope when people listen to the album that they’ll understand that though I’m still searching and trying to find things, in this moment in time, what you hear is the best representation of what I’m trying to do.”
The self-titled album features local musicians Nick Sanfilippo (piano), Tom Casale (bass), and Max Goldman (drums). It was recorded at Big Nice Studio in Lincoln and engineered by Bradford Krieger. Ben Shaw is available on all digital platforms.
